Electric Brake and Electronic Brake Control Setting

Modern trailer electric brakes are of course a full time operational brake system used on most of today's small and medium duty trailers. They are not to be compared with the mobile home trailer brakes that were never designed as a full time operational braking system. There are two systems working together with the electric brake system. One is the brake actuator or electronic brake control and the other is the electric drum brake system typical of many trailers. Both the electronic brake control and the drum brakes can be adjusted. When a trailer is new it can take a few hundred kilometres for the brake shoes to seat in. Once the brake shoes have set in it is then possible to adjust the sensitivity and gain on the electronic brake control. The sensitivity and gain will vary somewhat with respect to typical load weight. If however when you apply the brakes and the trailer brakes seem to delay and then lock full on this probably means that you will need to adjust the brake shoes so that they are closer to the brake drum. Adjusting the brake shoes will eliminate the delay and by further fine tuning the electronic brake control this will make the braking operation smooth and seamless. If you are not getting enough braking from the trailer you can set the gain up higher. If after adjusting the gain you find that the trailer is not providing enough braking it may be that your electronic brake control does have the capacity to handle the load. Check with the manufacturer or your dealer. You may have to upgrade your electronic brake control to one with a higher output capacity.