Installing brakes on a homemade trailer

[davbell22602]

Does anyone have info on putting brakes on a 26 x 8 homemade trailer that used to be a mobile home frame?

Which axle do the brakes go on? Front, middle, rear, or all?

Do mobile home frame axles already have brakes when there being towed to the trailer park?

 

[Zembonez]

You'd have to find out if the mobile home axle has any provisions for brakes. I don't know if they ever had brakes available myself. Might have to pull off a wheel and see what's there.

 

[davbell22602]

You'd have to find out if the mobile home axle has any provisions for brakes. I don't know if they ever had brakes available myself. Might have to pull off a wheel and see what's there.

I'll get a picture of the one side where the wheel goes cause the wheel/tire in missing on both sides on the front axles.

 

[PenguinLTZ]

Your questions are vague.
-As for whether or not they already have them, you can look and see if the backing plates have brakes.
-Depending on the weight you intend to expose this thing to, you should have brakes on each corner.
-What kind of brakes do you want to add? Hydraulic surge? Electric?
-What size are the hubs and what tire/rim size do you want to stay with? If you intend to add backing plates with brakes OR hubs with drums, we are going to need to know the bearing numbers of the hubs you have now, AND the spider bolt patter of the backin plates that are on there.
-^^ALL of that depends upon whether they even have backing plates, so your best bet is to crawl under there with a flashlight and look, or give us some photos of what is under there.

 

[davbell22602]

Your questions are vague.
-As for whether or not they already have them, you can look and see if the backing plates have brakes.
-Depending on the weight you intend to expose this thing to, you should have brakes on each corner.
-What kind of brakes do you want to add? Hydraulic surge? Electric?
-What size are the hubs and what tire/rim size do you want to stay with? If you intend to add backing plates with brakes OR hubs with drums, we are going to need to know the bearing numbers of the hubs you have now, AND the spider bolt patter of the backin plates that are on there.
-^^ALL of that depends upon whether they even have backing plates, so your best bet is to crawl under there with a flashlight and look, or give us some photos of what is under there.

I'll get wheel/tire size this afternoon. Well state of VA requires trailer brakes on trailers that has a gross weight of 3,000 pounds or more and a break away switch controlled by the driver.

 

[davbell22602]

Here's pictures of both sides of the trailer where the wheels and axles are.

 

[ScottyBoy]

Judging by that front spindle, those axles have no provisions for brakes. You may need to replace everything on there.

 

[Zembonez]

You are going to have to install an axle built with provisions for brakes. I doubt there are any vendors selling retrofit kits for those axles.

 

[NMRam]

Some mobile home axles have brakes installed, usually at least 1 axle per moving section has brakes, sometimes 2 or more axles per section depending on the weight/size. Whether or not whoever built this trailer used axles with brakes is totally up in the air. I can't really tell by your photos, it looks like one axle might have brakes. You will have to pull off the wheels on at least one side or crawl up under the trailer and look to tell for sure. If either axle does, it would have a drum brake on it that would be easy to see with the tire/wheel off.

 

[davbell22602]

I try to crawl under behind it before taking any wheels off first to see if there's any brakes. There's so much weight from the trailer and whats on it that its sinking in the ground.