I picked up a utility trailer a while ago with a spring type overrun brake, from pre-1982 as it doesn't have auto-reverse.
I'm not convinced the brakes will work very well on it currently as I can push the trailer about with them on, but I'm stumped as to how I test how well they will actually work.
All I can do at the moment is lift the axle, spin the wheel and use the handbrake to stop it, or try to move it on the handbrake, but that's hardly accurate enough.
The best I can think of to do is take a fairly heavy load somewhere quite and see how it behaves under braking and reversing, but that seems pretty dodgy and unscientific.
This is one of the old ones where the coupling is pushed back against a spring, and the back of the coupling hits the handbrake lever which engages the brakes.
So how would you recommend doing it?
I'm not convinced the brakes will work very well on it currently as I can push the trailer about with them on, but I'm stumped as to how I test how well they will actually work.
All I can do at the moment is lift the axle, spin the wheel and use the handbrake to stop it, or try to move it on the handbrake, but that's hardly accurate enough.
The best I can think of to do is take a fairly heavy load somewhere quite and see how it behaves under braking and reversing, but that seems pretty dodgy and unscientific.
This is one of the old ones where the coupling is pushed back against a spring, and the back of the coupling hits the handbrake lever which engages the brakes.
So how would you recommend doing it?