How Do Brakes on Trailer Normally Get Wired

Question:

Have a tandem trailer with brakes on the rear hubs. It has 2 wires coming out the back of it that we’re cut. Do I need an apparatus to make brakes functional? Or just by wiring I. On the 7 blade plug will it be enough to make brakes function off of vehicle’s brake booster

asked by: David G

Expert Reply:

On the trailer side of the wiring you will need to run the cut off wires up to the brake output circuit of the 7-way wiring on the trailer. This will be the pin in the 7:00 position. There should be then an additional wire from the assemblies that will get grounded to the trailer frame or back up to main ground wire of the wiring. I attached a link to a page that has trailer wiring diagrams for you to check out as well.

Now on the vehicle side you will have to install a brake controller as you can't run just a 12 volt signal to the brakes any time you touch them otherwise they'll lock up everytime you touch the pedal. A brake controller is designed to give the circuit just the amount of voltage it needs to slow the trailer down safely.

So the easiest to install brake controller that also works really well is the Curt Echo Mobile part # C51180. Basically this just plugs into an active 7-way and once you sync it to your phone it's ready to go. This brake controller is proportional which means it senses the amount of deceleration your tow vehicle is applying and applies the trailer brakes in a relative way.

expert reply by: Jameson C