Electric Brakes! Which end is up?

Ask questions about Harbor Freight trailers, or questions about building your own...

Postby Cary Winch » Thu Dec 07, 2006 9:33 am

Pretty much all pac rim countries require it by law including those down under. North America is almost kind of a oddity not requiring it. We were messing about with Japanese export units and ran into it. Fortunetely not too many of the european countries require that I have talked to. How about the UK there Andrew?

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Postby angib » Thu Dec 07, 2006 9:52 am

sdtripper2 wrote:Also is your tongue in cheek "Merkans" sorta like AmericansImage
Cause this Merkan, trying to spell it phonetically and looked it uP in the Image
dictionary not finding it ... finally got da joke on me.

On the West side of the Atlantic live the Merkan people, whose land is called Merka: on the East side of the Atlantic live the Yurpeen people, whose land is called Yurp.

These terms/abbreviations were coined by (Merkan) computer guys decades ago - presumably they didn't realize the similarity of 'Merkan' to 'Merkin' (Google that, but expect surprises)......

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Postby angib » Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:16 am

Cary Winch wrote:Fortunetely not too many of the european countries require that I have talked to. How about the UK there Andrew?

There is no legal requirement for brakes on trailers below 750kg (1650lb), though a trailer over 500kg (1100lb) doesn't have a very wide range of tow vehicles that can tow it without brakes - our vehicles are that much smaller.

Over here, all trailer brakes are the overrun (=surge) type operated by mechanical cables - yup, just like on Model Ts! It is so easy to add a parking brake lever on the side of the overrun coupler that it isn't possible to buy a overrun coupler without the lever.

Image

I've said it before, but it's a shame you can't buy them in the US as they would be ideal for a teardrop. Their simplicity means they actually get fitted and used (you have to use 'em, if they're fitted!) - electric brakes may be better, but they seem to have a lot of practical reasons for not being used and even then don't provide a parking brake.

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Postby mrblanche » Tue Dec 26, 2006 7:10 am

In reading down through this thread, I saw one thing that definitely is NOT true:

That is, it DOES make a different which side you put your brakes on. If you look at the pics of brakes up above, you'll see that the two brake shoes are different. One has more lining than the other one. The one with the shorter lining is the "primary" shoe, and it should face the front of the vehcle.

As to the parking brake, well, carrying chocks might be a big of a bother, but nothing compared to the condition of your brakes if you happen to come home from a trip in the rain, pull on that parking brake, and leave it for 3 months or so.

And while parking brakes may be a good idea, they are the part of the brake that will almost certainly fail first, just due to the lack of activity on them.
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Using parking brakes

Postby brian_bp » Tue Dec 26, 2006 7:28 pm

mrblanche makes a couple of interesting points about parking brakes. In my cars, I use the parking brake every time I park (rather than just leaving the standard transmission in gear or the automatic in "park") to keep it free, and I do not use the parking brake when parked for months at a time (okay, I did once - the drums rusted around the pads and I learned not to do that again). I've never had a parking brake component failure of any kind in a car in hundereds of thousands of kilometers of operation.

I would happily use chocks when storing at home, and parking brakes when moving daily on a trip. As someone who sets up the trailer solo, I would appreciate the reduced running around of being able to apply the brake when I unhook without going to place chocks, even if I added chocks and released the brake later.
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