Brake Options on Dexter 3500 lb Axles (2 Viewers)

[greentruck]

Finally getting around to putting a braked axle under our M101 CDN, anticpating a potential trip to the Rockies. I came up with 55" hub-face to hub-face distance after rounding up from a measured 54" to the next odd inch axle length, which is what they stock. Will be ordered the U-bolt kit under the assumption mine are probably beat to heck, rusty, etc

What's a bit of a mystery are the choices in brake options. They all seem to be within $100, so cost isn't too big a factor. From Southwest Wheel Company, brake options are:
TruRyde 10" Electric Brakes Drum Brakes
Dexter 10" Electric Brakes Drum Brake
TruRyde 10" Self Adjusting Electric Drum Brakes
TruRyde 10" Free Backing Hydraulic Drum Brakes

This post indicates that all Dexter brakes have a parking brake lever that you can hook up to. Not sure about the parking brake status of TruRyde brakes. Anyone know?

The version with TruRyde self-adjusting drum brakes sounds attractive, except I don't know whether it takes a parking brake hook-up.

Dexter seems more of an OEM supplier, so probably easier to find parts for if needed. How much of a process is getting them adjusted manually?

I'm vaguely familiar with the electric brakes. Does the TruRyde Hydraulic brakes offer any advantages? How big a deal are these to set up on the tow vehicle side of things?

Any advice on these matters would be appreciated.

 

[pb4ugo]

I dont know about which electric brake woud be better other than Dexter is a well known trailer axle manufactuerer and are very common. Drum brake adjustments are not difficult and you will need a brake controller. I am somewhat familiar with hydraulic just because they are used on boat trailers. Hydraulic brakes are self contained to the trailer. It comprises of a master cylndr incorperated to the tongue which moves in and out to activate the wheel cylndrs in the drum brakes. When you apply the brakes on the tow vehicle the trailer tongue pushes on the tow vehicle and activates the trailer brakes. You will have an issue backing your trailer up, because it will activate the brakes. The master should have an bypass lever on it that you can manually disable the trailer brakes. I believe each time you backup you will have to get out and flip the lockout. You might have a slight issue going down hill because the trailer will be pushing on the tow vehicle too. It might be inconsistent.

 

[greentruck]

I dont know about which electric brake woud be better other than Dexter is a well known trailer axle manufactuerer and are very common. Drum brake adjustments are not difficult and you will need a brake controller. I am somewhat familiar with hydraulic just because they are used on boat trailers. Hydraulic brakes are self contained to the trailer. It comprises of a master cylndr incorperated to the tongue which moves in and out to activate the wheel cylndrs in the drum brakes. When you apply the brakes on the tow vehicle the trailer tongue pushes on the tow vehicle and activates the trailer brakes. You will have an issue backing your trailer up, because it will activate the brakes. The master should have an bypass lever on it that you can manually disable the trailer brakes. I believe each time you backup you will have to get out and flip the lockout. You might have a slight issue going down hill because the trailer will be pushing on the tow vehicle too. It might be inconsistent.

Thanks for the insights.

OK, then the hydraulic brake is pretty much the same as the surge brakes found on many military trailers. Since one of my main reasons for needing the brakes is going to the mountains, I suspect I want to avoid these and stick with the electric ones where I control things through a brake controller. Sounds to me like Dexter is the way to go.

 

[80t0ylc]

@greentruck I looked at my 3500 lb axle after browsing the other thread Trailer Park Break solved and took a couple pics. I don't have the lever so I must have the "TruRyde 10" Self Adjusting Electric Drum Brakes" choice from your 1st post. I know that they are the self adjusting, since I just packed the wheel bearings. I wouldn't touch drum brakes that weren't self adjusting, IMHO. I agree with your choice of electric brakes, especially after examples that @pb4ugo posted. In pics of mine, it's plain to see where the lever should go if I was to add a parking brake. The plugged hole between the rivets, on the rectangular plate at the top of the brake backing plate is where the shaft that the parking brake lever would be attached to, to activate the parking brake - if it was there. Not sure if I could purchase parts, but I'm sure that one could salvage what's needed at a well stocked trailer graveyard. But for now, tire chalks work fine for me.

 

[greentruck]

@greentruck I looked at my 3500 lb axle after browsing the other thread Trailer Park Break solved and took a couple pics. I don't have the lever so I must have the "TruRyde 10" Self Adjusting Electric Drum Brakes" choice from your 1st post. I know that they are the self adjusting, since I just packed the wheel bearings. I wouldn't touch drum brakes that weren't self adjusting, IMHO. I agree with your choice of electric brakes, especially after examples that @pb4ugo posted. In pics of mine, it's plain to see where the lever should go if I was to add a parking brake. The plugged hole between the rivets, on the rectangular plate at the top of the brake backing plate is where the shaft that the parking brake lever would be attached to, to activate the parking brake - if it was there. Not sure if I could purchase parts, but I'm sure that one could salvage what's needed at a well stocked trailer graveyard. But for now, tire chalks work fine for me.

Thanks for the pics, that does look like where the lever would go.

I heard back from Southwest and the parking brake is a $300 option. Planning on goving them a call to further clarify, since it's not listed as an option in the online order form.

 

[Jim S.]

I have electric brakes on my Ca. M101. E-trailer sells Dexter drums with the parking brake lever. I opted for the manual adjust. My Dexter axle is 54" and tracks well behind the 40.

 

[greentruck]

I have electric brakes on my Ca. M101. E-trailer sells Dexter drums with the parking brake lever. I opted for the manual adjust. My Dexter axle is 54" and tracks well behind the 40.

Yeah, I measured 54" but Southwest stocks them in odd inch increments. Figured I wouldn't want to wait on them customizing that over an extra inch, so decided to go with 55". With my tires being 33" skinnies and having added extra wide fenders, everything will still tuck underneath fine with the extra inch.

Other than welding the spring perches, was the rest pretty much bolt it together as it looks like should happen?

 

[Jim S.]

When I measured for mine I included measurements for the perches and they came welded on. It's a genuine Dexter axle I purchased through a broker in SE Texas.This was about 4 years ago and the axle delivered to SE Arizona
cost around $130 or so. Trailer is on 33" tires and 80 series wheels to match my 40. I built custom fenders for the trailer. Kept the original brake cables. just shortened them and had a friend machine new yokes for the Dexter brake
levers. I cleaned up the springs while I was at it. Hardest part of the whole job was removing the old bushings. Good luck with your trailer. They are really great rigs. Sorry for the thread hijack.

 

[greentruck]

When I measured for mine I included measurements for the perches and they came welded on. It's a genuine Dexter axle I purchased through a broker in SE Texas.This was about 4 years ago and the axle delivered to SE Arizona
cost around $130 or so. Trailer is on 33" tires and 80 series wheels to match my 40. I built custom fenders for the trailer. Kept the original brake cables. just shortened them and had a friend machine new yokes for the Dexter brake
levers. I cleaned up the springs while I was at it. Hardest part of the whole job was removing the old bushings. Good luck with your trailer. They are really great rigs. Sorry for the thread hijack.

Nice looking rig you have there, Jim. Here's a pic of ours.

Today it's hauling chunks of concrete, so more brakes could be a good thing. Got the axle spec-ed out and almost ordered from Southwest Wheel. Their Hold spiel noted they take Paypal, but when we go to to the end the sales rep seemed confused about anything besides a credit card. Said he was going to check on that, then never got back to me, so will call them tomorrow to get that squared away. Glad I got my order # from him. They would take an extra 4 to 6 weeks to come up with a 54" axle, so went with the 55" they stock.

 

[Jim S.]

Thanks Mike. Ours used to look like yours complete with rock fill for the yard. I like the hoist you mounted on the front. The wider stance of of the new axle will be a plus.

Cheers, Jim

 

[greentruck]

Some notes on adding Dexter brakes to your M101 CDN.

It may be cheaper to buy a complete axle with brakes, as I did, rather than buying just the two brake assemblies. Adding the parking brake option runs about $300 extra. That adds a parking brake lever, which has an internal return spring, along with a bracket that serves as the mount for cable end to act on the lever. The outgoing parking brake cable uses an external return spring, which I discarded along with the old cabling from the point where the bracket splits the cable from the lever two ways to go to each wheel. I retained the cable housings to guid the new cables back.

The new Dexter 10" electric brake assemblies bolt right on to the existing axle. The old manual-only ones should be in pretty good shape unless the trailer was drug around with the parking brake on. This led me to simply reuse the existing drums and save the new ones for future work, along with the bearings and seals that came with the new axle. If your drums/hubs/bearings are good enough to reuse would be another way to save money on this conversion.

I replaced the back part of the parking brake cables with new stainless steel 1/8" cables. I had a nice recycled (from my wife's old Schwinn exercise machine) bracket I used to replace the old one where they split to go to each wheel under the front of the trailer.

I attached cables back to the wheels, using the old cable housings, to the brackets on the brake backing plates by using thimbles to protect the cable ends and 2 standard cable clamps to fasten each end. I hillbillyed the other end, using a offset chain drive link to attach to the parking brake lever.

Ideally, you want cables with permanently swaged on cable ends so there is no chance of those failing vs the clamps I used. Since it's a parking brake and I should be able to keep track of any loosening, it's good until I can arrange a truly suitable aftermarket cable set like this:
Trailer Park Brake solved with pics - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/trailer-park-brake-solved-with-pics.1190026/

I had a flat 4-conductor connector on the trailer. I ran the blue brake wire I needed to add back to the brakes. The instructions say to ground the other side through the body, but for me it seemed worth the small added trouble to extend the ground wires forward to the original harness where it grounded to the trailer near the hitch.

There I used a round 6-conductor connector plug to add a brake circuit. It has one more circuit available if I wanted to run 12 v power back to the trailer, but I'm good for now.

I fitted a small brake controller to the left side of the underdash after fishingt the blue brake lead forward. I entered the cabin via the grommet around the rear sunroof drain, very easy to do. Hardest part was hooking one lead from the brake controller to the green with yellow stripe 2 wire in the ID2 connector in the driver's left kick plate. This is much "easier" than trying for one of the leads from the brake light switch itself, but still not easy. Beside it and the blue wire leads to the battery for + and - power finished things off.

Road testing went well. Having active brakes back there helps a lot with the clanging of the lunette and pintle, which you'll now hear mainly when accelerating.

It's worth noting that Toyota recommends trailer brakes for the 80 series when towing anything heavier than 1,000 lbs. This is a quick and mostly painless way to upgrade the brakes on your 1/4 ton M101 CDN.

 

[Jim S.]

Looks good. I like it.

 

[sjpitts]

When I measured for mine I included measurements for the perches and they came welded on. It's a genuine Dexter axle I purchased through a broker in SE Texas.This was about 4 years ago and the axle delivered to SE Arizona
cost around $130 or so. Trailer is on 33" tires and 80 series wheels to match my 40. I built custom fenders for the trailer. Kept the original brake cables. just shortened them and had a friend machine new yokes for the Dexter brake
levers. I cleaned up the springs while I was at it. Hardest part of the whole job was removing the old bushings. Good luck with your trailer. They are really great rigs. Sorry for the thread hijack.

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View attachment 2642444

Jim, your trailer looks amazing. I love the fenders. I love the front box and the lid. It is all exactly what I want to do with mine.

Mine has been sitting for a long time because it is still on the stock tires and I don't want to waste money on new tires if I am going to do an axle swap to run 80 series wheels

A few questions--

When you ordered your axle did change the width to account for the difference in backspacing between the stock CDN 101 wheels and the FJZ80 series wheels? Or did you just stick with the stock length on the axle?

Do you have the specs on the spring perches?

Did you do a spring over or other lift to fit those tires?

Finally-- and this is off topic-- where did you get that extended lunette?

Thanks,

Jared

 

[Jim S.]

Hj Jared, Sorry for the late reply. There's great info on Dexters web-sight for measuring. You will need mating surface to mating surface for the wheels you want to use. Regarding the perches, I measured from the center of my current axle to the perches. With the stock suspension that distance will not change. My axle is 54". I believe
the Fj40 rear axle is approximately 55.5". I compromised as the trailer fenders were getting wider than I wanted.

The trailer has stock suspension and is not sprung over. It sits on 33s. In a pinch I can use my 35" 40 spare to get off the trail. If I had not built my galley swing out on the back of the trailer I would have gone with a smaller rear mounted spare tire. You want to keep the CG low. The military stock tire is what... 28" or so.

Lunette : I cut the stock one in half and re-tubed it. There are examples on the net on how to do this. It works great however I am in the market for a stock lunette, should you know of one for a future project.

It's been a fun project. Good luck with yours. Feel free to reach out any time.

Cheers, Jim