How to Choose Correct Axle and Electric Brakes for Trailer

Question:

Greetings. I have a task of rebuilding this trailer. This is a Magic Tilt brand trailer. The owner bought it as is, and the original data sticker is extremely weathered. Cannot gather any data. It was issued a home built trailer V.I.N. through the State of Georgia. I am also a cop, so I ran the V.I.N. through Georgia, and nothing comes back in relations to this trailer. The owner wants to convert it from surge brakes to electric. My question is: he wants only one axle assembly with the electric brake assembly. My question is: will one axle set be sufficient enough to properly stop the trailer with load? Thanks

asked by: Walter L

Expert Reply:

As you may imagine, with no information about a trailer other than the brand, it's simply not possible to tell you what might be sufficient to stop the trailer. Realistically, you need to know its GVWR to get both the proper axle rating and properly rated brakes. Without knowing a trailer's maximum loaded weight capacity, everything else is just a guess, and as an officer I'm sure you can appreciate that may not be the safest thing in the world. Sometimes you can get the general capacity of round axles by measuring their diameter, but your photos (thanks for those) show you have square torsion axles, which rules that out. It also looks like the trailer was a double axle so I recommend sticking with that to be safe, as it will also help ensure you have the proper load distribution.

What I can tell you is how to choose a new axle; you will need to know the dimensions of your current axle's hub face to hub face and spring center to spring center as in the diagram I have added. Your trailer's GVWR is important as well, but without knowing that you are somewhat stuck so the best thing you can do is weigh the trailer at a weigh station and find out at the very least what its unloaded weight is.

I've added a link to our selection of axles for you to check out, as well as a link to our electric brake assemblies.

expert reply by: Kyle S