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Does Your Trailer Need Brakes?
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Aug 16, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
Most of us don't realize that it's actually a law for anything being towed over 3,000 pounds to be equipped with trailer brakes
0:09
And generally, once you get to a 21 foot boat or even some 18 foot boats, most of them weigh over 3,000 pounds
0:17
Upgrading a trailer to have brakes isn't an extremely hard task and it can really be done in just one day
0:23
As long as you know the key points that we will cover today
0:29
This week's contest prize is this snap-on portable socket battery pack
0:42
so listen for the technicians tag if you could use this portable charge pack
0:47
To install trailer brakes onto a trailer, there is one thing that you have to have on the trailer
0:53
and that is the axles that support having trailer brakes. If your trailer has less than a 3,000 pound axle, it will generally not have a standard brake flange
1:03
Any 3,000 pound axle on above will have this flange here where we can install the brake caliber mounting bracket
1:11
Whereas, say, a 2,000 pound axle will not have this flange, and you can look at it from the back to see whether your trailer's axle will support brakes or not
1:20
With the right axles on the trailer and the boat off the trailer, we'll start by elevating the trailer
1:26
and getting the existing wheels off. It's important to get the trailer securely blocked up
1:31
before doing any kind of work on the wheels, hubs, axles, brakes, or anything
1:35
where the trailer is jacked up. You want to block it, don't leave the trailer on just a jack
1:44
Once the trailer's up and blocked where we have plenty of clearance under the wheels
1:48
we can pull the wheels off by spraying some kind of a penetrating lubricant
1:52
on the lug nuts if they are really rusty, and taking a 13
1:56
16th inch socket on an impact and taking the nuts off. Pull off the wheels and then we
2:01
can knock around on the caps that are on the hubs until they pop off. Then you'll
2:08
find a nut on the axle that is holding the hub on. You will find one of either
2:13
two types of nut systems here. One will have a cotter pin like this and you can
2:18
take a rag to get some of the grease off of it to see it. Then the other one
2:23
will have basically a pin in a slot that is cut. into the axle that is keeping the nut from spinning
2:32
This nut is a one and a half inch socket and you have to pull out the cotter pin or pull out
2:36
as much of that tab as you can and put the socket onto an impact to zip the nut off
2:42
Once the nut is off you can pull off the old hubs but sometimes you will have to take
2:46
a hammer to knock off the hubs depending on how long they have been on there
2:51
Then take some emery cloth and clean up the spindles that are on the axles
2:55
With the spindles clean, if you have existing mounting brackets on the axles, take those off and we are ready to start installing the new brake system
3:08
We will be installing some Kodiak brake systems with new hubs and load star wheels
3:14
We ordered all this stuff from a local company that is in Sarasota, Florida, called Boat trailerparts.com
3:20
And they were nice enough to give us a discount so if you need trailer parts you can use coupon code born Again 10 for 10 off anything on their site There are two basic type of disc brake systems either integral or slip
3:35
Integral basically means that the hub and the rotor are built into one unit, and the slip-on means the hubs are separate from the rotors
3:43
We're using the slip-on system, and that's what we recommend, because as time goes on and parts fail
3:49
you can save some money by just replacing the broken part, whether it be the rotor or the hub
3:55
instead of paying for an entire assembly. We can start by installing the caliper brackets onto the axles
4:01
The biggest thing you want to remember when installing these is that the caliper needs to be
4:06
mounted facing the back of the trailer. So the right or starboard side bracket needs to be facing the taillight, and the left or the port side
4:15
bracket also needs to face towards the tail lights. This goes for both the forward and the aft axles, or however many axles you have for that matter
4:24
once you get all the bolts, washers, lockwashers, and nuts on, torque them down and will move onto the hub assemblies
4:36
Now on the backs of the hubs, there is a seal that needs to be put in
4:40
You might notice that there are two different types of seals, and these seals will depend on your axles
4:46
There is a smaller seal that will either not fit onto the axle or it will
4:56
We need to pack the hub bearings before putting them into the hubs and packing bearings is pretty simple
5:02
You just put some gloves on and put a glob of grease in your hand, then force the grease through the bearing until it comes out on the other side
5:09
Once the bearings have been packed, we'll put the bearing in the back of the hub and then pack grease over the bearing before in store
5:16
installing the seal into the hub with the lips of the seal that have the spring on them facing
5:22
inward towards the hub. These can be pushed in with a socket, a seal press, or you can even use a dead blow and tap
5:29
around on the outside of the seal and push it in until it sits flush in the hub
5:35
After putting the hubs onto the axles, we'll pack the outside bearing and put it in the hub
5:46
Now there are generally two types of spindles that you will find on an axle
5:52
There are spindles that have grease cert fittings where you can apply grease to the hub with a grease gun
5:58
or there are spindles that do not have this fitting. If your spindles do not have this fitting, then you will want to fill up the hub with grease
6:06
in between and around the bearings before putting the hubs on. Then once the hubs are on, we can install the washer first and then the nut that fits that axle
6:16
On the axle nut torque, you basically tighten the nut to about 15 to 20 foot pounds of torque
6:22
and then spin the hub a couple of times. Then loosen the nut back up and hand tighten it to where you can fit the cotter pin in
6:30
and don't forget to bend over the ends of it. The same applies for the other style of axle
6:35
but this time we just push on this spanner gland type nut
6:39
so that it fits onto the axle groove properly. For the axles with the grease fitting, pump grease into the fitting
6:46
until the grease pushes out of the front of the hub like this But don overfill the hub and push the seal out the back Now with the hubs on we can install the rotors Just slip them on over the hubs and then with them on what we do is install three lug nuts around the rotor to hold it in place
7:06
They don't have to be super tight just to hold the rotors on
7:10
So that we can slip on the calipers over the rotors like this, putting the rotor in between the two pads of the caliper, and then install the bolts in the back of the caliper
7:19
and torque them down to the mounting bracket. Now that we have the hubs on, the rotors on, and the calipers on
7:26
we'll go ahead and install the caps on the hubs. To do this, just fill the cap up with grease, but not too much grease
7:34
or you'll have trouble getting the cap to go into the hub. Then just take a hammer and tap around on the cap until it pops into the hub
7:41
and we can install the rubber plug into the cap. Leaving us with needing to run all of the brake lines from the cylinder in the front of the trailer
7:49
to all of the calipers. We'll start here on the farthest caliper from the front of the trailer
7:55
and we'll just pull out the plug from the caliper and screw in the fitting on the hose
8:00
Now what I like to use on all of these fittings is just this permatex high-temperature
8:05
thread sealant. It's good stuff and we'll put it on all the fitting threads as we put them in
8:13
We'll run the line from this back right-side caliper over to the back-left-side caliper
8:19
On this back caliper, we'll use a short hose and a regular three-way T-fitting to attach the right-hand side caliper hose to this left-hand side caliper
8:29
and then be able to run another hose forward to the front left-hand side caliber
8:35
It's important to note that it's good to use a flare or line wrench on these fittings to keep them from stripping out
8:42
And you also want to make sure you run the hoses to secure them to the trailer and leave nice sweeping bins in the lines
8:49
You don't want them to be kinked anywhere, but to have nice loops left in the hoses
8:55
You might have to drill holes in the trailer too, where you need to add straps to attach the hoses to the trailer and keep them in place
9:03
We'll move over to the forward right-hand side caliper and hook up the brake line that goes to that caliper
9:09
and then run it across the axle over to the forward left-hand side caliper, basically the same way we did on the back set
9:16
The only difference on this front left side caliper is that we will be using a four-way
9:23
connector opposed to the three-way T-fitting. That is because we will be pulling in the line from the back set of calipers and hooking
9:31
them up to the forward set. The theory applies here with the one theory applies here with the
9:46
with the nice clean circles from the hoses and being able to strap them tightly to the trailer
9:52
This four way is used because once we have all the calipers hooked up
9:56
we'll run a long line coming from the front of the trailer from the master cylinder back to the four way
10:02
With all of the brake lines ran and hooked up, we need to remove the old tongue and brake surge actuator
10:09
from the trailer, which usually just have standard bolt hole patterns and are held on by three bolts
10:15
Just remove those three bolts and we can pull the old tongue off And while we have this tongue off we go ahead and install the new chain Then we spray some lubricant on the trailer and install the new tongue and actuator with three new bolts
10:33
with the new tongue on we still need to hook up the selenoid
10:38
But these silenoids are pretty easy the two wire silenoid just hooks one wire to the blue wire on the wire harness of the trailer and the other hooks to the
10:47
trailer is a ground. Now we can just attach the brake line and we'll move on to
10:54
bleeding the system. There are three ways to bleed these brake systems. You can
10:59
either gravity feed the system which takes an extremely long amount of time and to
11:04
do it though if you have to you need to elevate the tongue of the trailer and then
11:09
you open up the top bleeder on the back right hand side caliper and then fill
11:14
up the cylinder in the front with regular dot or dot four brake fluid
11:19
And it's now basically a waiting game to wait for gravity to pull a fluid through the system
11:24
as you continue to pour fluid into the cylinder making sure it doesn't go empty
11:29
You will also have to take off the bolts on the emergency lever and with those bolts out
11:34
we can work the actuator back and forth and watch for air bubbles in the reservoir as you pump fluid into the system
11:42
Once fluid comes out the caliper without air, you can tighten it and move over
11:47
to the next caliper in line and continue with this method. The next method is to use a hand vacuum pump or cheaper brake bleeding kit
11:56
This will quicken up the time and a good thing about this is that some auto parts stores like advanced auto
12:03
will allow you to rent this tool and return it at no cost, which is really a great deal
12:09
This method is done the same exact way with the exception of hooking up this pump on the end of the
12:15
caliper with this reservoir in line. You can then pump the pump which will create a vacuum
12:20
and will pull the fluid from the reservoir. You will still need to pump the emergency actuator
12:25
no matter which method you use though. Then there is the last method which is by far the quickest
12:31
but most expensive way of bleeding a brake system. If you'd like to win that snap-on portable
12:37
battery pack though let us know if you have trailer brakes on your trailer and include a hashtag snap-on
12:44
in the comments section below because we will be using a pneumatic
12:48
brake bleeding pump which comes with this nice container that you can fill up with fluid and it will
12:54
fit into the fill port of the actuator and will automatically feed the fluid
12:58
into the system. Then you can take this pump and hook it up
13:02
to the last caliper and give it light pumps to just build a little bit of vacuum
13:07
to suck the fluid to the caliper. Once the caliper has straight fluid coming out of it
13:12
you can tighten the fitting and move over to the next caliper. Generally, you will move over to the other side, then to the forward
13:20
caliper, and end on the last caliper on the right-hand side of the trailer. Go around the trailer
13:26
and check all the fittings to make sure there isn't any leaks, and all that's left now
13:31
is to put the wheels onto the trailer and test everything out. We'll use the same lug nut pattern
13:36
chart that we shared in our last video about how to avoid boat trailer failure to put the wheels on
13:42
We want to thank you for hanging out with us today and we look forward to seeing you next week
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