Recommended Parts to Add Electric Drum Brakes to Boat Trailer  

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Electric brakes are becoming more and more common on boat trailers due to their simpler installation and lower cost compared to hydraulic brakes. Although water and electricity don't get along well together by unplugging your trailer connector before you launch your boat you can avoid potential issues.

A great place to start is a review of the linked article, which covers all of the considerations for adding electric drum brakes to a trailer. You'll need to confirm the type of brake mounting flanges on your trailer (4 bolt or 5-bolt), the axle's weight capacity (usually on a sticker or plate right on the axle itself) to match braking power and also your hub's bearings. You will need to replace the idler hubs with hub-and-drum assemblies and you need to match up the bearings to ensure compatibility. The new hub/drums must use the same bearings in order to ensure they will fit on your spindles and they need to use the same wheel bolt pattern.

Let's say your axle is rated for 3500-lbs and has a 4-bolt flange. In this instance you could use left side brake # AKEBRK-35L-SA and right side # AKEBRK-35R-SA. If your hub uses inner bearing # L68149 and outer bearing # L44649 you could use hub # AKHD-545-35-EZ-K. Please note that there are several different 5-lug bolt patterns so you'll want to refer to the linked article to confirm which you have.

You will also need to wire a 7-way plug on the trailer, such as # H20046, which can be made easier with a junction box like # 38656. The box makes it easy to splice your lighting wires to the new plug. You can use # 10-2-1 jacketed wire to provide ground and 12V power to the brake assemblies. You'll also need ring terminals # 44-5310A for power and ground wires and # DW05702-1 for lighter-gauge lighting wires. You can use butt connectors # DW05745-10 for wiring your brake assemblies.

expert reply by: Adam R

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