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SL's trailer has new disc brakes!

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/17/2013 : 21:01:58

This is basically my article for the upcoming Mainsheet. Several people asked me to post it here as well, so here goes (long winded):

Backstory:
About fifteen minutes after we bought our boat, we were traveling on Highway 97 in Oregon on our way back home to the Seattle area, when I had to make a panic stop. I’m pretty sure the guy who made the right turn into the parking lot from the lane to our left never knew how close he came to becoming a hood ornament on our new truck. We stopped quite soon after the incident to fuel up the truck for the drive home, and while checking around the trailer, I noticed that there was brake fluid sprayed all over the tailgate and dripping from the coupler on my trailer. That coupler would eventually become almost unusable, nothing to do with it’s braking capability, it just became incredibly difficult to get the tow ball in and out of the cup. After our last launch, I swore I’d never use it again. We literally had to pound it off with a block of wood & a mallet which is problematic when you strap launch your boat. So, a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a complete disc brake replacement kit from Tow Zone, which would replace the existing hubs, drums, brakes, brake lines, and especially the coupler.

Removing the wheels, brake drums and hubs:
The procedure is fairly straightforward once you know how, but I didn’t, so the first wheel, drum & hub took a couple of hours, the second one was right around 45 minutes. The first thing you have to do is loosen the lug bolts on the wheel you want to work on, then jack up the trailer to loosen the bolts the rest of the way and remove the wheel. Make sure to use jackstands and don’t depend on the jack to support the trailer by itself.

Once you have the wheel off, in order to get the hub off, you have to remove the dust cup in the center of the wheel. My trailer has Bearing Buddies on all four hubs to prevent water intrusion. Getting these off is fairly easy, use a rubber mallet, and hit them on the outside edge trying to knock them out. If you spin the hub while doing this, it’s easy to hit them from side to side until they pop off.

Inside you’ll find the spindle, spindle nut, possibly castellated, or a castellated washer that fits over the nut like mine were, and a cotter pin holding everything in place. Straighten out the cotter pin, it helps to have a cotter pin tool, but a pair of pliers and a couple of gentle taps with a hammer will get it started, and just pull it all the way out. Remove the spindle nut (it should be fairly loose and easy to get off, if not, use a large adjustable wrench to loosen & remove it.

Spindle:

Spindle nut, castellated washer & old cotter pin with various tools of destruction:

The brake drum should pull straight off. If not, it’s possible that the brake pads have worn a groove into the drum itself, and you’ll need to encourage the drum off with appropriate tools. There might also be threaded holes to place jacking screws in depending on who made your hubs, mine didn’t have these. As it was, mine both came off pretty easily. Taking a look at the brake pads told me something I’d suspected for some time, I’m pretty sure my brakes never worked again after that panic stop, and I just didn’t know any better. The pads were essentially unworn, the brake components were frozen with rust and most likely hadn’t moved in years.

The guts of the old drum brakes:

Next is to remove the hub. It will most likely be held on by four bolts that attach it to a plate welded onto the axle of your trailer.

Backside of the assembly showing the old drum mounting & lines:

It pays to pretreat these bolts with a penetrating oil. The best one I’ve found for applications like this is PB Blaster. Apply liberally and let it soak in for a long time, a day isn’t too long if you have a very rusty situation like I did. I also used it on the lug bolts. The mounting bolts in my case had their heads on the outside of the hub, and the nuts & lock washers on the inside, inaccessible until the drum came off, and very rusty.

Once I got the bolts holding the hubs in place out, I tried to remove the brake lines, but they were also frozen in place with rust. Since I was replacing all the lines with new ones, I simply bent the old ones back and forth until they broke from metal fatigue. Astonishingly little brake fluid seeped out of them reinforcing my notion that my brakes hadn’t worked in a long time.

Notice the spider webs...

The spindles themselves looked like they were in very good shape, and only needed a bit of cleaning up with a couple of paper towels to make them look basically new.

Cleaned off spindle:

Installing the new hub and rotor.
The new hubs came with the bearings pre-greased & already in place, so I only needed to bolt on the new mounting plate, which is sort of a ¼” thick U-shaped plate with threaded holes for the caliper guide rails to mount onto. This was just four bolts, lock nuts & washers and a few minutes with the ratchet wrench to mount up. Then, slide on the new hub being careful to not damage the seal on the back, or push the outside bearing out with the end of the spindle. Snug the hub up to the back of the spindle and hand tighten the spindle nut. If you spin the hub while tightening the nut, the spindle seats itself better in the bearings than if you simply just tighten up the nut like I did at first. What happened was the spindle nuts didn’t get tightened up sufficiently, and the wheels would rock from side to side when their lug nuts were tightened all the way. A brief chat with a more experienced friend explained the better way to do it. The spindle nut should be just tight enough that the wheel/hub assembly doesn’t rock, but the hub still spins freely. This is easiest to do with the tire & wheel mounted back on the hub so it’s easy to spin the tire, and try to rock it from side to side. However, you still need to mount the calipers so don’t put the tire on just yet, the final tightening of the spindle nut can wait till then.

New disc/hub assembly in place and bolted up, still needs a new cotter pin:

Installing the calipers.
The calipers mount on rails that thread into the inside of the mounting plate. Mine came with the rail’s threads pre-coated with thread lock, and a caution from the manufacturer that if they needed to be removed and reinstalled, they must first be cleaned of the thread locker & new permanent thread lock applied before torquing them back down. I was able to do mine in one go, so this wasn’t a problem. Before mounting the calipers, make sure the brake pads are installed, mine came with only one side of the pads installed and the opposite side where the caliper piston resides had to be popped into place. The guide rails are installed through the caliper housing, so you need to hold the caliper in place while starting the rails into the mounting plate. The calipers go over the disc, so it’s a bit of a balancing act to get all three of them lined up, but not too difficult. Torque the guide rails down the the manufacturer’s specifications, in my case 40 ft-lbs. It’s a good idea to tape off the brake line ports since it would be easy to get debris into them during installation.

Calipers in place:

And from the back, notice the thick galvanized plate that mounts to the axle, and the rails that the calipers ride on (they're loose on the rails):

Now that the hubs & calipers are in place, you can finish tightening down the spindle nut. I recommend putting the tires on to do this, but it’s not required, just seemed to make the job easier. I had to do this twice and the second time the wheels were already on, and things just seemed to go better with the larger diameter of the tires giving me more leverage to move the hubs. There should be no play in the hub, and you shouldn’t be able to feel it rocking at all but the hub should rotate freely. Once the nut is tightened up sufficiently, install the castellated washer so one of the openings coincides with the hole in the spindle for the cotter pin (remember yours might have a castellated nut, so adjust these instructions accordingly). Insert a brand new cotter pin and bend the legs around so they don’t interfere with the dust caps.

Tow Zone provides new dust caps for the hubs, but I’d ordered new Bearing Buddy’s to replace them. Attaching them is as easy as aligning them in the hub of the hole, gently tapping them around their circumference to get them started, and then some heavier blows with your mallet to seat them against the hub. Once they’re on, fill them with marine grease.

Brand new Bearing Buddy:

Moving on to the coupler.
My old coupler was held in place by what appear to be the wrong bolts, and instead of through bolts in both places, there was only a single 4” through bolt in front, and two much smaller (in length) bolts holding the rear in place. Also the safety chains were attached to the front bolt, so they both dropped to the ground when it came out. All three of the bolts could have benefitted from a more liberal application of a penetrating oil, but I was eventually able to apply sufficient torque to break them free with a two foot long ½” breaker bar. Be careful of your electrical wiring as it’s most likely running through the same area and could be damaged. Once the three bolts were out, the old coupler was free and I did the same metal fatiguing bit to get the brake hose off. Then I pulled the old hoses out of the channel (and found a rodent had made itself a home up in the steel!), and routed the new hose through it. The only hardware not provided by the kit were two ½”-20 x 4” grade 5 bolts, nuts & lock washers, so I had to go get those before the new coupler could be bolted on. The trickiest part was getting the safety chains over the new bolt and fortunately my wife’s small hands made that pretty easy to do. I decided I didn't like the old chains, one was pretty rusted up, and while there was nothing wrong with the second one, I replaced it as well with some brand new anchor chain & clevis hooks. I'll probably throw away the rusted up chain, but keep the other one & put the old clevis hook from the rusty one on the other end just to have in my truck box.

Coupler installed:

Running new brake lines:
The kit came with all new brake lines, so I’d previously removed all the old lines and recycled them. The new lines were flexible, so they were easy to route where we needed them. We ran the main line down the left side of the trailer zip-tying them down as we went, and then routing to each caliper. It takes a 3/8” wrench to tighten each connection, and it’s a good idea to triple check them, we had one connection that was oozing brake fluid when we started bleeding them.

Bleeding the brake lines:
This requires two people, one to pump the piston on the coupler (the manufacturer provides a mechanism that makes it easy to do so with just a long screw driver), and the other to watch the lines bubble. I attached a short tube to the nipple on the bleeder valve and down into a Mason jar with half an inch of clean brake fluid in it. My wife pumped the piston while I worked the valve and watched until the bubbles stopped coming. This took longer than I expected, but eventually we got the brakes bled. While you’re doing this, you need to watch the brake fluid level in the coupler because we managed to let it go dry and ended up pumping more air into the system instead of pushing it out. The brake fluid that comes out during this process is surprisingly dirty, but I think it’s just the leftover schmutz from the manufacturing process and to be expected.

One of the things I noticed was that the brake calipers hadn’t closed down on the disc while we were bleeding and I wasn’t sure that they would. Some folks I talked to said yes, others said they didn’t think the manual pumping would be able to generate enough pressure. After further experimentation I fall into the latter camp. We hooked up the new coupler to our truck (SO much better than the old one!), and variously pushed & pulled the trailer up and down our block doing some hard stops. This had the effect of filling the pistons in the calipers with brake fluid, and we had to fill the reservoir in the coupler a couple of times, but eventually they pushed out all the way right next to the discs like you’d expect them. The nice thing about the coupler is it has a very-very simple method to lock out the brakes when you don’t want them, by inserting the captured ¼” pin (used to pin the coupler lock in place while towing) into the holes in that will lock the coupler and piston assemblies together so the piston can’t be compressed. They also supply a solenoid connection that will bypass the piston when your backup lights come on your towing vehicle. I’ve opted to not hook this up since we strap launch, we’d have to use the pin anyway, and it’s easy to set the pin in place when we’re backing the trailer into our yard.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - delliottg on 06/18/2013 08:27:42

shnool
Former Capri-25 Tech Editor

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USA
1032 Posts

Response Posted - 06/18/2013 : 03:50:01

This is is an excellent writeup on what I consider a great safety upgrade. Very timely.

Edited by - on

redeye
Master Marine Consultant

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3474 Posts

Response Posted - 06/18/2013 : 04:41:38

Sweet.. that's a nice setup.. I love the bearings already set in the hub.

Edited by - on

GaryB
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4275 Posts

Response Posted - 06/18/2013 : 08:16:04

What perfect timing for this post. I'm literally about to tear into my brakes this coming weekend.

What brand is your trailer. From what I can see it looks very, very similar to mine.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 06/18/2013 : 08:20:03

It's a Trailrite trailer. I'm pretty sure it came with the boat when originally purchased back in '97 since it has the mast raising gear.

Edited by - on

OJ
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4382 Posts

Response Posted - 06/18/2013 : 10:05:02

Heck-of-a-job there David. Thanks for the time and effort you put into the article. I think you'll feel a big difference in braking power.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 06/18/2013 : 10:24:14

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by OJ
 Heck-of-a-job there David. Thanks for the time and effort you put into the article. I think you'll feel a big difference in braking power.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Thanks!

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dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 06/21/2013 : 09:13:06

Thanks for the write-up. I'm thinking of buying the one of the Tie-Down kits to add brakes to my C-22 trailer, which has no brakes at the moment... as soon as I can come up with the funds.

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OJ
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
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Response Posted - 06/21/2013 : 11:20:11

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 The nice thing about the coupler is it has a very-very simple method to lock out the brakes when you don’t want them, by inserting the captured ¼” pin (used to pin the coupler lock in place while towing) into the holes in that will lock the coupler and piston assemblies together so the piston can’t be compressed. They also supply a solenoid connection that will bypass the piston when your backup lights come on your towing vehicle. I’ve opted to not hook this up since we strap launch, we’d have to use the pin anyway, and it’s easy to set the pin in place when we’re backing the trailer into our yard.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">FWIW, we used the pin when we trailered our new trailer cross-country (empty.) Eventually it became "mashed" to the point it didn't work anymore. This may have been by design to discourage use of the pin - long term.

Edited by - OJ on 06/21/2013 11:25:14

Tim M
1st Mate

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Response Posted - 06/21/2013 : 12:27:18

Great write-up David. I did the same job on my trailer before pulling my boat out last fall and found a couple more tips that others might find useful. Since I had 14.5" tires with the old 'doughnut' rims, I wanted to go to the more standard 14" and so needed everything changed out. I got new axles with stainless hydraulic discs and Vault hubs already mounted that are permanently sealed, maintenance free and guaranteed for ten years. For in and out twice a year and about 10 miles per year I think they've got a good chance - being permanently sealed. I've heard that a lot of the pro bass fishermen - who are launching often and put on lots of miles - are using them. A little bit more money but worth it for as much of a PITA that trailer maintenance is.
Also for bleeding the system, I used my oil change vacuum pump with the hose reduced to slip on the bleeder and it worked very well. Don't leave any brake fluid in the pump however - the seals don't like it.

Edited by - on

GaryB
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4275 Posts

Response Posted - 06/22/2013 : 17:28:22

I just finished looking at the brakes on my trailer. Turns out I have exactly the same brakes and drums that David had on his trailer.

My brakes didn't look quite as bad as David's but my trailer probably doesn't have 200 miles on it even though it's 10 years old. I'm tempted to try and replace the couple and see if the brakes will work. There is no wear on the brake pads.

David - Can you advise what kit number you purchased?

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 06/22/2013 : 21:31:38

Gary, this is the kit I ordered: [url="http://www.amazon.com/TowZone-Complete-Disc-Brake-Actuator/dp/B0030I3MGI/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=3VKAS8B0XU5BL&coliid=I3NF6GGWO6KB5Z"]TowZone Complete Disc Brake Kit with Actuator[/url]. It currently lists as unavailable, but that seems to go in cycles, I found it when it was available, then had it go unavailable, so started looking for a different solution, and then it became available again a couple of weeks later, so I had Rita order it on her Amazon Prime account (free shipping).

It's made by Tie Down Engineering, but marketed under the Tow Zone brand for some reason. There's nothing in the kit that says Tow Zone, it all says Tie Down for roughly $200 less. Go figure.

Edited by - delliottg on 06/22/2013 21:33:00

shnool
Former Capri-25 Tech Editor

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USA
1032 Posts

Response Posted - 06/23/2013 : 04:26:50

Interesting... I noted on my trailer (load rite) I also only have brakes on the front axle, drums...
Crazy question (and this is a legal thing)... PA requires brakes front and back, how do you feel about brakes only on the front?

I personally think working brakes on front only are fine (had a horse trailer that way)... but LAW requires brakes on each axle in our state on any trailer whose GVWR is higher than #3500.

I looked at the complete kits (for fronts and back) on etrailer... looks like this would cost me $680. I don't mind that to get my trailer right. I've also considered going to electronic (looks like that is even MORE expensive, like $1000). I am quite sure my brakes are not working right now. But then my all-up is likely only #4500.

Edited by - shnool on 06/23/2013 04:27:29

GaryB
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
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Response Posted - 06/23/2013 : 07:10:14

Anyone have experience with Kodiak S.S. brakes? Saw some on Amazon and their kit looks a little less expensive than the Tie Down kit even if you add in the trailer coupler.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 06/23/2013 : 11:21:26

John, who decides the weight of your trailer? Catalina contracts (I assume) with Trailrite for the C-250 trailers, and may have done something similar with C-25 & Capri trailers. While I'm certain they sell things to a price point, it would seem like they'd have to comply with federal, state & local laws when selling the trailers, and that'd include PA? In order to have brakes on all four hubs, I'd have to have backing plates welded to my rears. Currently there's no way to mount brakes on the rears, at all.

Gary, I looked at Kodiak while shopping around. I see nothing wrong with them, the reason I chose Tie-Down was to make sure that the hubs were compatible with my spare hub that we use for our launching 5th wheel. As it turns out, that may have been a bit over ambitious, when I went to replace the dust cap on the spare with one of the old Bearing Buddies, it didn't fit, the BB was too small in diameter, so on the off chance I'll ever need to swap the hubs (not very likely, I know), it may not fit on the spindle. SInce I'm far more likely to just need the spare tire that's ON the spare hub, I'm OK with that.

Edited by - on

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