Electric Brakes on a Motorcycle Cargo/Camper Trailer?

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guitarzan

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Schererville, Indiana
Hi,
I'm thinking about a teardrop camper and I was thinking about maybe having brakes on the trailer. Does anyone have any Ideas at all. The place that makes the campers said they talked to their axle guy and he said that the trailer is light enough and doesn't recommend brakes. I know there is electric brakes and some guy wrote of a braking system that they don't make anymore, as he said that has to do with forward pressure on the tongue of the trailer and depending on the amount of pressure on the tongue more braking is applied to the trailer.

I'm new at this Idea of towing a teardrop camper or any trailer. It just seems to me that having brakes is a good way to stop jack knifing the bike and maybe rolling the bike sideways. Does anyone have any Ideas?

Thank you
Frank
 
The braking system you’re referring to is known as “surge” brakes. At the ball is a master cylinder, at each wheel hydraulic brakes. The system works well. I had it on a 12 foot popup trailer.
 
Hello,
Did you tow this trailer with a motorcycle? Am I wrong in thinking that a trailer should have brake's? Does anyone know if surge braking systems are still manufactured?

Thank you
Frank
 
I tow roughly 500 pounds behind my bike and do not have a problem getting it stopped. I'm not sure surge brakes would be the right application for this small of a trailer though because of the size of the system, but they are made. There are several people that have converted their trailer hubs over to an electric brake system and highly recommend it.
 
Re: Electric brakes on a motorcycle trailer: Not sure that is a good idea.

If you are anything but upright when you apply the brakes, the increase in drag from the trailer could affect your balance and increase your lean angle unexpectedly. I'm thinking being in a curve and having to apply the brakes to slow down for obstacles.

Of course, when pulling a trailer without brakes and hitting the brakes in a curve, the inertia of the trailer will try to decrease the the lean angle and push you upright. Not a good thing in a tight turn.

Yes, sometimes I argue with myself and lose. :headscratch:

Tom
 
The question about electric brakes is a bit off topic from this thread and should be stand alone. I split the topic so more visibility will make the question available.
 
Electric brakes are far superior to surge/mechanical brakes especially with a motorcycle. The mechanical brakes require the towing vehicle to force pressure into the trailer braking system. When the trailer brakes start working then the pressure is removed from the towing vehicle and the trailer brakes stop working. With electric trailer brakes the brake light switch activates the trailer brakes and gives you more control of your braking bias. I would recommend a good quality in car style electric brake controller that has an automotive brake load sensing feature as well as a manual override circuit. This is my currently preferred electric brake controller that I am fitting in most new cars.
https://www.redarc.com.au/electric-trai ... controller
 
I tow a Harbor Freight Tag a Long trailer. I have loaded it up as much as 300lbs of cargo. I have never once felt the bike would not stop. Most of the time, I don't even know the trailer is back there.

image.php
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=200870#p200870:2jga8qaq said:
mcgovern61 » Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:02 am[/url]":2jga8qaq]
I tow a Harbor Freight Tag a Long trailer. I have loaded it up as much as 300lbs of cargo. I have never once felt the bike would not stop. Most of the time, I don't even know the trailer is back there.

image.php
:good:
 
:popcorn:

initial caveat is that I personally have NEVER towed a trailer with a motorcycle YET. I've towed one with a bicycle, and it didn't have brakes (it didn't even have electricity... it was kick-start only, with cro-magnon-eseium turn signals, but 18 forward speeds and only fractional-equivalent horsepower, but the fuel tank could be refilled at any diner for under ten bucks..).

But I've pulled many trailers behind cars, trucks, SUVs, vehicles that THOUGHT they were trucks or SUVs (but were seriously mistaken)... and I've pulled trailers... with loads... that should NOT have been pulled down a road... :swoon: and some had brakes, some didn't and some THOUGHT they had brakes, but didn't. :beg:

All that aside...

I'm gonna make a trailer hitch for my GL1200... a very shameless hitch, probably... and I'm gonna build a little camping trailer to go with that hitch.

I'm gonna put electric brakes on it... not certain HOW, as electric brakes for trailers typically START at 10" drums, which certainly WON"T fit well to 8" trailer tires... and the leverage ratios for electric brakes generally aren't intended for such small wheel loads... but my GENERAL plan is something like this:

Electric brakes are controlled by some other control on the bike... perhaps a thumb-actuated lever under my left hand... powered by a battery IN the trailer, which also provides power for the running and brake lights... Five wire flat connector to control running and turn-stop lamps. I'll probably use the running-lamp circuit to provide charging power for that battery (it'll also power the lights and mebbie even a small inverter in my camping trailer.

But the concept is, that I'll be able to modulate the brakes independantly, as driving dynamics requires. Sometimes the trailer pulling on the bike will be a good thing, sometimes it will cause instability, so by having independant control, I'll be able to manage it as necessary.

And that's all I know right now. When I get closer to having the chassis mocked up, I'll know more!
 
Good luck Dave, I am sure that you will come up with a system if needed. If you keep the trailer and load lite enough then you probably won’t need any brakes for it
 
yeah, light weight is necessary to keep it from getting dangerous... Don't want tail wagging dog. I do want to know that when I wind up in the invariably marginal real life situation, I can make use of the tractive effort available to lose speed or pull it back into a straighter line.

considering using scooter wheels and tires, same brakes, but an electric actuator of some type...I'll probably Jane to make it... wrong a half dozen times at least, but eventually get it right.
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=201380#p201380:23hnc04f said:
DaveKamp » Mon Mar 19, 2018 8:34 am[/url]":23hnc04f]
yeah, light weight is necessary to keep it from getting dangerous... Don't want tail wagging dog. I do want to know that when I wind up in the invariably marginal real life situation, I can make use of the tractive effort available to lose speed or pull it back into a straighter line.

considering using scooter wheels and tires, same brakes, but an electric actuator of some type...I'll probably Jane to make it... wrong a half dozen times at least, but eventually get it right.
:good:
 
Dunno why it does that, but my phone always puts "Jane" in, when I swipe "have".
For a year or more, it would keep choosing some other word (not even an English word...) over, and over, and over again... after I totally wiped it, and started over, it stopped doing that. Now, it always vibrates when it rings, even though I've always turned vibration off. Oh, and it thinks I always have an unread text message.

Computers and robots will NEVER take over the world... as long as we consider them in the same technological grade as our so-called "SMART-PHONES". ...Sharp as a bowling ball.

Anyway, what I'm planning on doing, is making my own trailer, from the ground up. Trailing arm suspension, with an air-assist coil-over spring unit underneath. Between leverage ratio, and choice of spring, I should be able to get good ride control and tracking form an extremely lightweight trailer, both empty, and loaded. Using scooter sized tires, wheels, brake disks, I should have very low unsprung weight and plenty of capacity for road service, and the spare tire/wheel will be compact.

The challenging part, is that scooter wheels frequently use 12mm axle shafts, which are fine for double-ended support, but I'd like to have it single-ended, which requires larger bearing bore... so some digging will be necessary to find the right stuff.

Stay tuned!
 
Great project, I'll be watching this one. Maybe All-balls bearings has a conversion bearing to put scooter wheels on some other spindle.
If I remember right aren't some scooters single side swingarms. So the rear wheel would offer a built-in brake system with spindle mount set-up. You would need to create an axle to mount the spindle on.
 
I have just fitted one of the best brake controllers on the market. These are drawbar mounted and blue tooth controllable and exceeded all my expectations. Not cheap but really well made and designed.
https://www.elecbrakes.com/
 
Yes, Kerry- there are single-sided scooter wheels, and I think it'd work well. At the same time I'm considering brakes, I'm also considering a suspension that allows the trailer to 'lean' and at the same time, use caster and camber changes in that articulation to 'steer' to follow the bike a little bit. It's a crazy idea, but mebbie it'd work...
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=209428#p209428:2rdvfldr said:
Ansimp » 47 minutes ago[/url]":2rdvfldr]
I have just fitted one of the best brake controllers on the market. These are drawbar mounted and blue tooth controllable and exceeded all my expectations. Not cheap but really well made and designed.
https://www.elecbrakes.com/
That controller is way slick. I would get one if we still had our trailer.
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=209433#p209433:1y17q7ru said:
dan filipi » Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:01 am[/url]":1y17q7ru]
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=209428#p209428:1y17q7ru said:
Ansimp » 47 minutes ago[/url]":1y17q7ru]
I have just fitted one of the best brake controllers on the market. These are drawbar mounted and blue tooth controllable and exceeded all my expectations. Not cheap but really well made and designed.
https://www.elecbrakes.com/
That controller is way slick. I would get one if we still had our trailer.
I really wasn’t expecting to be as impressed by it as I was Dan. Drawbar controllers have been one of my pet hates in the past as they don’t have access to enough power(current) to work to maximum efficiency and you can’t adjust them without stopping and getting back to the controller. The Elecbrake draws power from 3 circuits (auxiliary, tail and brake) and uses them in order of superiority. Being able to view the circuits in operation plus see their respective voltages in real time is another bonus.
 

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