Just painted my hauler and am going to re wire it. looking for tips. one thing i was told that i would like confirmed. The trailer has 6 wheel brakes. i was told if you run 6 separate wires to all 6 brakes, there for all the wires are diiferent lengths the voltage to each wheel will be different and the trailer will want to pull to one side or the other depending on which side has the longer wires. Any truth to this and any other tips would be great.
GREG
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1989 F-350 SPEED 7.3
EXTENDED CAB
FIRST DESIEL LOOKING FOR TIPS.
For that length, you need to run 10 guage wire from the front to the rear axle. Then cross each axle with 12 guage wire. It will look like the letter "E". Wouldn't be a bad idea to run a 10 guage brake wire on the truck either.
I'll try but some on here will laugh and say I dont know what I'm talking about.
Get enough 7 wire 6-12,1-10 to go from the truck to a safe place on the neck of the trailer.7 pole distrubution box water tight.Four wire to go to the back of the trailer run, right .left. ground. maake shure it is 12 gauge. Get the brake wire made for electric brakes. run it to the center of the axles and then another box. Try to make the wires going to the brake magnets the same length. the less splices the better. Run the same wire ro the ccenter fouward to the frount jumktion box center to rear to rear. Great light no problem in snow. Have fun and dont forget the brakaway.
That's BS.
All the wiring for the brakes that I've seen runs down the left side frame rail and connects to each axle. The wiring then runs through the each axle tube to the right side. Thus all the brakes are wired in parallel so they all should receive the same voltage.
Besides, there wouldn't be enough voltage drop to make a difference in the braking.
Capt Ron
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May 2003 F-350, CC, DRW, 6.0L, 6sp man, LB, Al Wheels, Moon Roof, 52gal tranfer tank. Hitches: Draw-Tite 16K 4X and B&W GN, 8040lbs GVW. Towing 35' Newmar Kountry Star 5th Wheel Camper, 14,000lbs GVW, or Wells Cargo 24' Car Hauler, 12,000lbs GVW.
What I see is that neither one of you answered the man's question but just called out wire sizes and methods of running the wiring, that's not the main thing that he asked.
The question was if different lengths of wires would cause a difference in voltage and result in the brakes pulling to one side or the other.
The short answer is no.
I'm going to bed now.
Capt Ron
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May 2003 F-350, CC, DRW, 6.0L, 6sp man, LB, Al Wheels, Moon Roof, 52gal tranfer tank. Hitches: Draw-Tite 16K 4X and B&W GN, 8040lbs GVW. Towing 35' Newmar Kountry Star 5th Wheel Camper, 14,000lbs GVW, or Wells Cargo 24' Car Hauler, 12,000lbs GVW.
Well the smaller the guage and the higher the amperage the more voltage drop, but I have never really known how much TB magnets draw. I guess if the wiring is spec'ed at the small end of the scale there could be enough to cause them to pull, especially say you were to run 14GA wire and daisey chain it to 4 magnets. Take your time and wire the trailer yourself and save money AND do it correctly. When I got my chassis cab back from the bed builder/installer who did an excellent job on the bed (but not wiring) I used two of the 7 pole junction boxes and each LED lamp was wired not with the 6" pigtail supplied but with 144" jacketed leads or in the case of marker lamps the TruckLite made daisey chains harnesses, so no splices, ScothLocks, no tape. Plenty of premium 3M heatshrink. A trailer will be much easier.
EDIT: As J_apeterson said, use the 7 wire bulk cable. Not only is is better but it is actually cheaper than the flat 4 stuff if purchased from a truck supply house who stocks it in 50', 100' or 500' rolls.
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Any truth to this and any other tips would be great.
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Ron, you must really be tired. Get some rest.
Sorry I didn't write a novel explaining every last detail. I used to do that. But then you get four or five guys like toilet/j_apeterson/whatever he's calling himself today in here that all spout the same wrong information, and everyone else takes it for the gospel because the majority rules. My time was wasted. Now you just get the short and sweet.
A quick call to Dexter would have resulted in the same response that I gave. It's the quickest and the easiest with the least amount of voltage drop. I know that answer because I've had to fix a few factory mistakes that required re-wiring the trailer on the factory's dime. Needless to say, we spoke with Dexter on the matter rather than tech support at the factory.
If it doesnot cause difference in voltage then why recomend 12, or 10 wire, why not put 20 guage you said it didnt make a difference. Ill tell you why they dont use the smaller guage wire lik 18 it dont work right with that lingth it will loose voltage.
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If it doesnot cause difference in voltage then why recomend 12, or 10 wire, why not put 20 guage you said it didnt make a difference. Ill tell you why they dont use the smaller guage wire lik 18 it dont work right with that lingth it will loose voltage.
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Because the 10ga is carrying the load for 6 brakes, each 12ga leg is only carrying the load for 2 brakes. Both are plenty large for their respective jobs, therefore a negligible (if at all detectable) voltage drop over the 8' or so across the axle.
20ga would probably- depending on the amount of current- melt the insulation, causing a dead short on the axle housing, causing a fuse to burn or the controller to take a puke, leaving you with no brakes on a 16,000# load... voltage drop would be the least of concerns using a wire that small.
edit: gnilleps
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2003 F350 CC, Short, XLT Sport (leather), 7.3PSD, Auto, 4x4. Homemade Tymar, Blizzard 810 Power Plow
This is what my plan was. i have rewired the complete trailer from front to back with all new lights and wire. half way back i have a 7 pole junction box running all the left side lights. At the half way point i am going to run 7-in-1 wire across to the right side to another junction box to run all the right side lights. From the first box on the left side i am going to split to a third juntion box directly in the middle of all the axels. From here i am going to run 10 or 12 guage wire wire exactly the same length of wire to each wheel. This should stop and problems ( if any) with voltage drop to any wheel. Some of you are likely wondering why i would run the second junction box to the right side, well, i think it's too many wires to try and jam into one box. I am running 6 lights down each side and most of them have turn and brake lights built in so there are 3 wires per light. Let me know your thoughts on this, please.
GREG
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1989 F-350 SPEED 7.3
EXTENDED CAB
FIRST DESIEL LOOKING FOR TIPS.
The side and rear light that have turn and clerance you only need to run 2 wire one is a ground and You use trailer to ground, The 7 pole juntion boxes are not that expensive, But I think you got the Idea. Just use the 10 wire inthe 6-12 1-10 for the brake activation.the wwhite one is the 1-10 You will know the color.
Linear Mode
