E brakes and brake lights

[Texas Diesel]

Rather than answering "how did you do that" each time here are the directions:



The brake light mod is really easy, right after I did it there was a thread in the RV forum about a guy getting a ticket by a cop who saw him decrease speed too fast. The way I do it, it is really simple. Take a relay, basically any relay used in auto apps. Take one side of the coil to the lead that goes through the firewall to the Ebrake solenoid,

take the other coil lead to ground. The relay will close now when the E brake comes on. Then find the Normally Open contacts, attach one to the battery feed wire in the brake controller wiring harness, it is +12V and already fused . The wire is big and on one side of the harness, use a voltmeter and look for +12 volts. Take the other side of the NO contact to the 3rd wire in the brake controller harness and attach. This is the wire that allows the brake controller to turn the brake lights on. ( I would verify that you have the correct wire by pressing on the brake pedal and making sure the 3rd wire goes to +12V, this is assuming you have a brake controller installed)



This mod will cause the Ebrake to activate your trailer brake controller, so add a toggle switch in either of the coil wires so you can disable it. Jordan Ultima controllers are immune because they dont use a +12V signal to turn them on.



( this is a much easier than the precedure on the PacBrake site )

 

[RustyJC]

Originally posted by Tejas Deezul

This is the wire that allows the brake controller to turn the brake lights on.

A minor correction. This brake light wire in the brake controller harness is there to activate the controller. In other words, the brake lights turn the controller on. The controller does not turn the brake lights on.



As you say, none of the above applies to the Jordan.



Rusty

 

[Joe G.]

What is wrong with haveing the e-brake activate the trailer brakes? That seems to me to be a desirable thing.

 

[Texas Diesel]

Rusty, I knew that!



Joe G. , having the Ebrake activate the trailer brakes would defeat the purpose of the Ebrake namely to save brake wear.

 

[Joe G.]

I'm not worried about excess brake wear on the trailer. Maybe 7000 miles maximum a year after I retire. As far as I'm concerned the purpose of the e-brake is to increase braking so I don't have to depend on the truck service brakes to do so much work and get hot. More of a safety thing than a brake saver. In a slick situation I would like the trailer doing some of the brake work. Actually, brake wear on the truck is no big deal either since I do all my own brake work. If activate the trailer brakes or not is just a wear concern, I will rig mine to activate the trailer brakes.

 

[Texas Diesel]

Excellent, please comments your thoughts after you tow with it set up that way.



What type of brake controller do you have? I wonder if inertia types will detect enough deceleration to actually apply the trailer brakes



What E Brake do you have?



One big advantage to E Brakes is towing in the mountains where you do not want to overheat your service brakes. I have made it down 10,000 foot mountains before using ONLY the Jake brake

 

[Joe G.]

Hopefully, we will be taking a trip to Idaho in late April or early May.



I have a Pacbrake and a Prodigy. I was also wondering about how much inertia it would take to get any help from the trailer. The Prodigy has a "boost" adjustment so I can fool around with that and see what happens. One grade in particular will be a real test. It's about six miles of 8% average with some 20MPH turns. I can get down it without service brakes for most of it with the trans in 2nd with the TCC locked up. The steepness should provide plenty of intertia to see what happens.

 

[RustyJC]

Just my take on this. If I were going down a 6-mile long 6% grade with the e-brake on and the trailer brakes dragging, I'd keep a close eye on my mirrors and have lots of fire extinguishers in the truck!



Good luck... .



Rusty

 

[Joe G.]

That's something to watch for alright. However, I really don't think it's a problem. I have followed a lot of trailers on the two lane roads around here. Many of them have their brake lights on all the way down these grades. This California north coast area is redwood park country. Every year is an RV stampede. I don't know of any of them having a brake fire in spite of the ignorant way a lot of them drive. More likely to get run over by an irate logger than have a brake fire.