Offroad trailers.... brake it or break it?

[Burlbook48]

Just a feeler for design. Those of you with smaller homebuilt trailers (M416 size) that take them off road, do you have brakes on your trailer? I've looked through a bunch of build threads, and was surprised to see what looked like a lot of rigs towing trailers without brakes.

Sure, the size of the tow rig has a LOT to do with what can be towed safely without brakes. And local laws differ on how heavy a trailer can be without brakes (1500 lbs. here in California, IIRC).

I'm in the beginning stages of designing my own trailer for rock crawling. It will be towed behind my Jeep YJ, which is set up SOA for more ground clearance, and has lockers both front and rear. As a short wheelbase, lifted tow rig, I realize that will limit how much I can tow safely. I already have a half-back trailer made from a Datsun pickup, and it doesn't have brakes. It tows nice on the road, and on somewhat rough terrain (12" rocks and/or ruts). However, it's a lot more than my jeep can handle in a panic stop, so I use it with my full-size truck. I want something smaller and lighter for the jeep that can be towed on rougher terrain for camping trips. I just don't want the tail wagging the dog, if you know what I mean. Trail carnage sucks, and breaking my jeep because of the trailer is not on my to-do list.

So, I guess I'm asking is this: if you don't have brakes on your trailer, why not? Not enough weight to need them for your tow rig? Came that way and never added them? Cost? Not needed for the type of trails you take?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Burlbook48]

Just a picture for clarification of the type of trails I'm taking about. This is part of the trail, and it's fairly level. The trail is on the way to Red Lake, in the Red Mountain OHV Area, located in the Sierras above Fresno.

 

[Pooch72]

That's a good question! For me, personally, I'm ashamed to say that I just don't know how to make that happen. Sounds pathetic, but it's true.

I rebuilt my trailer from an existing trailer, and beefed it up. Since it's made from an early 60's Chevy truck, it has brakes at the wheels, but they're so rotted out that I just ripped them out. It's a hollow brake drum now. I think I would have to rig up some kind of quick disconnect like Semi-trucks have for their trailers to be able to use it. Or, find some way to use a mechanical system for the e-brake. Or, the third option would be to install a whole new electrical brake system.

This is why I just decided to tow it without brakes. Smart on my part? Obviously not.

 

[TRegasaurus]

I say Brake It. You already have tall tires which is a bigger load on your Jeep's brakes witout a trailer.

 

[Woods]

I'm mid build, on my trailer right now and wish I had put brakes on it. It doesn't add much to the cost and there's one scenario that has me wanting the brakes. There's a steep sand hill, on a trail in Afton Canyon, that I frequently go down. I wouldn't do the hill without brakes on my trailer.

 

['05TJLWBRUBY]

I run an '05 LJ Rubi that is built for wheeling purposes yet maintain a good dependable DD rig as well. I frequently tow a 5x10 loaded to max capacity of the Jeep. I have upgraded the brakes on the Jeep and am now on my second Vanco kit with 48mm dual piston calipers, centric premium rotors and black magic pads. This is far and away the best brake setup I've run on the Jeep and I've tested MANY pads over the years for the first Vanco kit that came out several years back. I can stop my 5x10 and have done so with my '00 AC 500 auto hard enough in a panic stop to actually snap one of the eyelet mounts off the trailer and send my four wheeler snatch block through my front mounted tool box on that trailer. The Jeep can stop.

However, when I built my big off-road bomb shelter build, I purposely put brakes on the trailer. I'm working on my own M416 now but don't have funding at the moment for a full custom build so I'm just cleaning it up and getting it useable. When I can afford to, I'll tear it apart again and do a full custom frame setup and go from there for the tub. It will have brakes too. Even on the small trailers, in off-road terrain, say coming down a steep drop or ledge making a turn, the trailer can "push" the Jeep at times. Having the ability to brake the Jeep and trailer helps reduce that a bit and make it easier to control. Hard to describe, hopefully you get the idea.

Best of Luck,

Mike

 

[Brazos609]

I ordered the parts to convert my hubs to electric brakes. It's cheap insurance to me if I'm just pulling the 1500lb trailer with a little bit of stuff but if I load a 1200lb side-by-side or a 1500lb pair of 4-wheelers on top it they are a must have.

 

[atavuss]

no brakes on my post WWll 1/4 civilian Bantam trailer. It did not come with brakes and I feel it does not need them. I use the trailer for camping trips and to haul a Hobie Pro Angler kayak. I don't use it for Rubicon class trails but it does see some fairly rough 4x4 trails.

 

[Burlbook48]

Yeah, off road downhill and/or panic stops are the main concerns. I've swapped my jeep's axles to stronger D44's, and have installed disc brakes on the back as well. The Jeep stops itself just fine, far better than my one-ton truck.

Uphill, on the other hand, presents its own problems. I've installed a hand throttle on my jeep, that will help with any stop-n-go trailering over the rocks.


For those of you towing without brakes, what is the percentage of your rig's towing capacity you are using? I'm figuring that a wild guess of, say, 30% of my jeep's towing capacity (in its stock form) would be as much as I'd want to tow off-road with my modified jeep without trailer brakes. Anything more would necessitate brakes for the trailer. Sound about right?

Guess I'm talking myself into making brakes a part of the trailer design right from the get-go.

So, as part of this question, is therea way to incorporate a parking brake into an axle equipped with electric brakes? Never seen this before, but it sounds like a cool option.

 

[Vince1]

I ripped the brakes out of my m416 as they didn't work. I rode around for a year without them. However, after building the trailer out completely, I found it was significantly heavier and really taxed my Jeep JKs brakes, especially on steep pass roads. Hence, I ended up adding ebrakes and Tekonsha controller. A big improvement, as I can fine adjust them so they don't lock up off road, which was a worry beforehand. I would really like a handbrake though and was thinking about adapting a e-disconnect device for this purpose. Just not sure how to do it, but have plenty of power on the trailer with dual batteries to power it. On my Yankee engineering list though. I don't need a brake while parked, just when hand easing the trailer around so a simple activation button should work.

 

[loren85022]

I'm mid-stream and going with e-brakes. Even though its a less-than-2000 ibs trailer behind a full-size van, I want to see how I like them. For resale, hopefully a smaller vehicle will find them attractive.

 

['05TJLWBRUBY]

Dexter makes a kit for many of their axles that allow for parking brake and regular electric brakes. It isn't cheap, but it's there. You'll need the hand lever setup/cable as I don't recall them offering that, but could be wrong. They DO have an option through for both park brake and trailer brakes if you order it special. Most places don't stock this though so a call to them direct is quite helpful.

Best of Luck,

Mike

 

[TacoDell]

I like my M100's parking brake so much...
that I didn't have the heart to dump its original axle

I've wheeled the trailer on a few moderate trails... coupla trips to Moab...
and didn't really feel like I needed ebrakes on it...

instead... I was really wishing my tow rig had a crawl box, a front locker and maybe even an auto trans ( < 'cause I'm getting old )



if money were of no concern...

I'd order up a 3500# Dexter W/10" ebrakes...
but... not before the crawl box and front locker

 

[Deleted member 9101]

I am use to weighing almost 80,000lbs when I tow.. so having to plan for a long stopping distance is second nature for me. Spending 500.00 for brakes on my trailer seems kind of silly when my Tundra w/camper still stops faster than what I am accustomed to driving...lol.

 

[Casper]

I have brakes on my Chaser trailer. Fully loaded it weighs in under 2000lbs. The tow limit on my trail rig is 5500lbs. When I first had the trailer the Nissan didn't have a brake controler, so no trailer brakes. On road, not an issue. The Nissan weighs in at 5920lbs and could panic stop with the trailer attached without an issue.

However, towing on road may not be a problem, but off road is where you run into serious issues. Even with the Nissan weighing quite a bit over twice what the trailer weighs I have had the trailer "push" the Nissan and scare the ever living h$ll out of me. Dropping a small ledge, facing downhill with no trtailer brakes the trailer pushed the back of the Nissan enough to pick the rear axle up almost completely off the ground and then the truck moved sideways almost a foot and a half before coming to a stop. It was not a big ledge, or a steep hill, but if it had pushed me much further I can honestly say I would have ended up on my side at the very least. When I got home from that trip I went straight to the parts store and picked up a brake controler. I will never tow off road without one again. I have also modified the controler so that I can apply the trailer brakes by themselves from a button on the steering wheel. That helps.

So my vote would be put brakes on it. Towing off road can be very very different from on road, and where you wheel has the kind of terrain that will do that to you. (the above insodent happened on the last little ledge before Brewer lake which is in your area. We drove to the camping spot right on the lake. If I can find the photo I will post it up.)

Hope that helps, and Cheers,
Josh