Trailer - Reverse Lock out

[wakecrashin]

ZClemson dave, that is for the surge brake system im talking about. trust me it works.

[DavidF]

Most drum surge brake systems do NOT have a back-up electric lock-out solenoid and therefore connecting electrical pins in any combination will do nothing. Disk brakes do have a lock-out solenoid typically. This thread has become very confusing for me. So, if I am way off base here, sorry about that.

[ClemsonDave]

I have had 5 trailers with surge brakes including the one pictured. None of them had the electrical lock out. Doesn't mean they all dont have it, but mine did not. Must be an option. Certainly try it with the connectors. If you have a 7 pin connector on your truck, you shouldn't even have to do to anything but put it in reverse. I have pulled several Malibu's with electric lock outs. Once I put it in reverse, the system is deactivated. If you have the 4/5 pin connector, you will have to do the switching wires/parking lights thing.

[WakeSlayer]

My Zeiman trailer has disc brakes and the electric lockout feature. The plug off the trailer is the 5 prong flat connector. As both my tow vehicles have the 7 prong plug, my SAN has an adapter on the trailer. I would suspect that if your trailer has the 5 prong, you could simply wire a 5 plug to your vehicle, the 5th wire going to a reverse light. Then you would eliminate any wire switching to launch or park in your garage.

[DanielC]

Drum brakes do use forward rotation to help apply the brakes. Because of that, reverse rotation tends to make the brakes not apply as hard, so in most cases, a reverse lockout is not needed. It is an extra expense, that most trailer builders choose not to do.
Disk brakes work just as good in reverse, as they do going forward. Disk brakes require a reverse lockout of some type.
Typically, the reverse solenoid is an add on part that is plumbed behind the trailer brake master cylinder, with the extra wire.
I had my trailer converted from drum brakes, to disk brakes. The mechanical coupler stayed the same. Just the solenoid was added, along with the disk brakes, and the new five pin plug.

[DavidF]

Daniel:

Disk brakes use a different master cylinder than drum brakes along with the reverse lock-out. A drum brake master cylinder MIGHT cause the calipers to drag on the disks. I know Atwood couplers have either "disk" or "drum" master cylinders for the same coulpler (i.e. 6000 series).

[jmo]

Couple points I thought I'd throw having gone through the process of converting my trailers hydraulic drum brakes to disk brakes.

1. Trailer manufacturer's will typically install a flat 5 pin connector on all trailers as disk brakes are usually an optional upgrade, that way they simplify their inventory management and assembly process by only having one component that works for both configurations, if the trailer has drum brakes, the 5th prong/blue wire is a road to nowhere.

2. Some hydraulic brake actuators can be used for either drum or disk applications (assuming it doesn't have positive pressure with no load and generates enough force), but for disk you need the reverse solenoid to prevent the disk brakes from locking up in reverse. I elected to buy a new actuator from Tie down engineering that had the solenoid already installed when I swapped mine out.

This thread has the details on how to swap out drum for disk, which might shed some light on this for you: http://www.planetnautique.com/index....amp;highlight=

HTH's,

JMO

[mcbridek]

WOW - thanks for all the input. First the Trailer has disk/surge brakes and the trailer has a round electrical socket vs the flat 5 pin. BUT it has a converter on it so it can accept the flat 5 pin. I need to look closer at the setup to see if it has an electrical lockout. If there is an electrical lockout, it is not working - could be caused by the converter.

[DanielC]

I have a brake actuator made by UFP, model A-60. It can be used with either drum or disk brakes. I know what I have, your actuator may be different. Drum brakes differ from disk brakes in the fact that drum brakes have return springs, and disk brakes do not. It is important that the coupler on a disk brake relieves all the brake fluid pressure, so the disk brake goes completely off. Drum brakes can be ok with a very small amount of pressure in the hydraulic lines

[ClemsonDave]

WOW - thanks for all the input. First the Trailer has disk/surge brakes and the trailer has a round electrical socket vs the flat 5 pin. BUT it has a converter on it so it can accept the flat 5 pin. I need to look closer at the setup to see if it has an electrical lockout. If there is an electrical lockout, it is not working - could be caused by the converter.

In that case, see post #2 Yellow_Flash_Colorz:

[aikenis]

I have the Titan Brake system on my Ram-lin trailer. It uses an electric lockout which is located under the left frame rail if you are looking at the front of the trailer towards the rear. That has a pink wire that gets voltage when I put the truck in reverse and cuts pressure to the disc brakes. I would not attach that wire to another wire because if you are driving with your lights on, braking or turning you will not have brakes on your trailer. Do you have the electric lock out on your trailer?