Can Electric Brakes be Added to Trailer with 3,500 Pound Axle and 10 Inch Wheels

Question:

Looking to purchase a 4X8foot enclosed stainless steel food trailer gvwr 3500 lbs, 2,650 curb or empty weight, tires 20.5 X 8.0 - 10 with a load of 5, wheels are 5 hole, 3,500 lb Dexter torflex axle. Can electric brakes be installed on this trailer? If you can’t install the electric brakes based on the present set-up of this trailer what things different axle, larger wheels, smaller brakes available to install on these standard 10” wheels, etc. are possible to make this happen? Thanks

asked by: Rick

Expert Reply:

You can indeed install electric brakes on the food trailer you are looking to purchase but you will need to upgrade to larger tires and wheels as well. The additional components you will need will just depend on what the trailer is already equipped with.

The reason the existing 10 inch wheels on the trailer won't work is because they won't fit over a 3,500 pound hub-and-drum assembly. This likely isn't an issue with the idler hubs that the trailer is currently equipped with but you will need to change to hub drums in order to add brakes. You will need to change to at least a 13 or 14 inch wheel and tire combo, still making sure that the combined load capacity of the tires meet or exceed the 3,500 GVWR of the trailer.

I have attached a couple links that will take you to our available selection of 13 and 14 inch tires and wheels that you can look through.

I then recommend inspecting the trailer (or asking the current owner if you don't have it on hand yet) to see if the axle already has brake mounting flanges attached behind the hub assemblies. Most axles do have these but if the axle doesn't they will need to be added by either welding flanges in place or swapping the axle with one that is already equipped with them.

The idler hubs on the trailer will need to be replaced with hub-and-drum assemblies. In order to choose hubs that will fit the trailer spindle, you will want to pull the existing hub and check for the inner and outer bearings that are used. The numbers should be stamped right inside the bearings themselves. For a 3,500 pound axle most likely the hubs use the # L68149 inner bearing and the # L44649 outer bearing but it is still a good idea to verify this.

If this is correct the etrailer.com Hub and Drum Assembly # AKHD-545-35-K will work great. The hub features a bolt pattern of 5 on 4-1/2 inches which you will want to make sure matches up to the new wheels.

Then for electric brake assemblies that will work with these drums you can use the etrailer.com # AKEBRK-35R for the Right Hand and # AKEBRK-35L for the Left Hand. These feature a 4 bolt mounting flange pattern so you will need to make sure this matches the pattern on the existing mounting flanges.

Then it will be a matter of wiring up the trailer for electric brakes. I have attached a great article that details everything needed to install brakes on a trailer and toward the middle of the page it details this wiring process.

Please just let me know if you have any further questions and I will be happy to help!