Trailer Brakes

[Peteg]

I just recently got a Northern Tool tag along trailer that I plan to use for tent camping trips with my wife. The wife and I together run about 320 lbs including any gear we'll have with us on the bike. We won't be doing any high speed touring, probably under 60 mph, lots of bicycle type county roads. I'm running Shinko MC tires 38 psi front, 40-42 psi rear and have a pretty stout pivoting ball hitch on the bike. Fully loaded I expect the trailer to weigh about 325 lbs, but definitely under 400 lbs. I have double sintered pads on the rear, like the light touch for low speed handling and stopping. I'm thinking I'll probably put double sintered pads up front, but it really seems the brakes are good as is for my loads and intended use. Also the bike is a 98 standard with hard bags and a trunk added.

Any opinions on whether I really should put brakes on the trailer? I've read some internet links that indicate poorly setup or operating trailer brakes can be a lot worse than no trailer brakes at all.

[WintrSol]

It depends on what the roads are like - mostly flat, like Kansas or Illinois, or plenty of steep grades, like western North Carolina. Our trailer weighs about #750 or so, and came with its own brakes. It really help when I needed to control it going down the mountains; sometime I would just activate its brakes by turning the brake lights on just to keep it from pushing me in the corners. Oh, yeah, the controller is activated by the brake light.

If you need it in mountainous territory, or in the rain, you may want brakes you can use like this.

[Avanti]

My Interstate loaded for touring with pilot and pillion wearing full gear and pulling a 500 pound trailer with a trailer hitch weight of 45 pounds weighs in at 1230 pounds. I do not use trailer brakes and have been on many roads that have a 6 to 8 and even 10% grades. In most cases using the correct gear will hold back the 1230 pounds and even slow it down.

We have been doing this for many years and in 2024 traveled over 12,000 miles.

You should be more concerned about the rear tire being over it’s weight capacity!

Notice the many years and 12,000 mile clause (experience).

Speed is still your enemy.

[WintrSol]

Yes, you won't need brakes with that rig. My issue with steep grades was the feeling the trailer was pushing the bike through turns, and activating the trailer brakes stopped that. Didn't have to, just felt better. It stopped better with the trailer helping, but then, the extra #250 does push the bike some doing that, too. All in how it makes you feel.

[Jims99]

I have not personally pulled a trailer, but would like to know if you’re in a turn and apply breaks, would the trailer breaks pull you to the side? I can see them working great going straight, I was wondering about turns. If I can get the wife to travel, I have considered getting a trailer.

[Skinhead]

The most important thing with the trailer brakes on a 2 wheel vehicle is to make sure you have a good brake controller and that it is adjusted correctly.  I personally do not have brakes on any of my trailers.

[WintrSol]

Yes. Our controller has an adjustable ramp-up to full on, so when I just need a bit, I can just turn the brake light on as long as necessary. The strength of 'full-on' can also be adjusted for even better control. Never had the braking pull the back of the bike to the inside of a turn, but a heavy trailer will, however, push it to the outside of a hard turn, and this is where a bit of braking on the hitch makes me feel better, especially on wet pavement.

[Peteg]

Thanks! This all makes me feel really good about my relatively light setup. I know from towing heavy trailers with my truck when trailer brakes are absolutely essential, controller setup is really important. Sounds like I won't need to worry as what I'm doing will be way less than what others are doing.

So I noted in Avanti's post he was very specific about the 45 lbs of tongue weight, if I understood correctly. Actually that's the one thing that gave me a little issue on my shakedown runs with my new rig. I ran the trailer lightly loaded (3ea 50 lb bags of sand) both 1 up and 2 up and I was very impressed. I have a 3' sq rubber fatigue mat in the bottom of the trailer to keep the load from sliding around in the open trailer, but the sand bags still kept sliding forward giving me excessive tongue weight (I was testing brakes) . The thing I noticed about the excessive weight on the hitch was bouncing on rough road surface. Pulling a trailer with my truck and a load balancing hitch it seems like it's hard to have too much tongue weight, but I'm thinking with the motorcycle I'm going to want to be right at 10% tongue weight. Enough to prevent trailer weave, but not too much preventing stressing and bouncing the rear end? Also like many motorcycle trailers the axle is pretty far back. It seems like it will be heavy stuff in the back and lighter in the front with bins for organization and prevention of load shift. Just don't get too light on the tongue to induce weave.

[WintrSol]

We use a luggage scale, and balance the load as needed; ~10% is fine, while 15% is on the high side.

[John Schmidt]

When I pulled a trailer with my Wing, I didn't concentrate the heavy stuff toward the rear. On trial runs over some undulating(how's that for an adjective) roads...not all chuckholes, and heavy loads to the rear tended to want to lift the back of the bike, making it lighter on the rear wheel. Not a good thing, especially when braking.

[Peteg]

Wintrsol, thanks a new cool tool to buy! Based on the initial run mine shouldn't take much, but I'll still wear it out looking at every little tweak and what effects what. It's just the way I'm wired.

John, thanks I'll watch for that. In my initial testing I made sure I rode over plenty of rutty stuff at low speed. My logic is if I ride into a camp ground that's rutty and pot hole'd and drop the wife, this whole experiment could end very quickly. When I tested mine I think I had a good tongue weight until the sand bags shifted forward and that's when I felt the ass end of the bike getting bounced at low speed on the rough stuff, but l'll definitely watch for the opposite effect when I start dialing things in this Spring camping. Funny I was actually thinking of you today. I'm putting dual sport tires on my little Triumph Bonneville. It's like changing bicycle tires. I think I'm about half as fast at changing the tires on it, as you are at changing the tires on a Valkyrie LOL!

[Avanti]

The trailer hitch ball on the motorcycle should be slightly above rear axle height.  The trailer tongue should be level when both trailer and motorcycle (including the rides) are loaded.

[da prez]

  Pete , I bought my trailer in 1988. It has been behind a couple bikes. I removed the hold down bolts inside and replaced with eye bolts.  There are a lot of fold down cargo ties around now. I always tie the load.  Even if fully loaded , it keeps the load from bouncing.
  I have pulled over a thousand pounds (I will not tell ) in the trailer.  I also went to 12 inch tires (came with 8 inch) as this decreases revs per mile. Choose tires carefully. Some were not listed as highway use(?).
  I really like the idea of trailer brakes. I started checking into a conversion. It is on my to do list after servicing the bike.
                             BTW , I still have a few trailer hitches available.

                                                        da prez
i

[Peteg]

Cool, Tiedown eyes to replace the bolts in these open bed cargo type trailers is a great idea! I think the Chinese open bed trailers have improved over the years. My northern tool trailer frame is all welded - looks like the welds were done by a robot and now they come with 12" wheels. They don't have trailers on display so I was surprised by the height of the tongue when I got my trailer home. I guess rather than have wheel wells in the cargo carrier for the 12" wheels or go with a wide axle and outboard wheels they just raise everything up by putting 2" spacers between the axle and the leaf springs. So for a level tongue I came up with a center of 1 7/8" ball 16" above the road which would be typical for a trailer with even larger wheels. This puts the center of  ball and associated pivot point height about 3" above the rear axle.  My ball is right behind the fender just below the license plate.

I custom fit an under frame for tip over protection, plus a removable hitch adapter or fender luggage rack. I'm sure it's not as professional as what you designed (Da Prez); I can't weld, but it works and I love to play with that kind of stuff. Looking at the pictures Avanti posted I imagine what I've done is similar in concept but butt ugly do to my inability to weld. Fortunately I can grind!
 

[da prez]

  Winter , would you share the controller info. I am to lazy (?) to csi it.

                                    da prez

[WintrSol]

It's a Curt 51120 for use with 12V negative ground. We've had it for something like 10 years, so you're on your own finding a substitute, if they no longer make that model. I don't see it on their website, and this one has a wheel to dial in the max power to the brakes; none of their current models seem to have this feature, but the 5110 seems close.

[Peteg]

I have a controller similar to Winter's only older on my truck. It's actuated by a pendulum that  regulates the power depending on how hard you brake, along with the dial to limit max power. There is also an override lever that allows you to manually emergency brake with your thumb. With a truck you need a lot of power to quick stop from 70, but the same power would drive you crazy in stop and go.

I like the way Winter's system can be applied by touching the brakes without actually applying, but Winter how does that work when you maneuvering at low speed? Does it just work off the front brake switch with a diode so the rear brake can be used without having the trailer brakes come in, or am my over thinking something I know little about?

I have self cancelling turn signals that use an electronic inclinometer and accelerometer that work great, so I assume if you get the right controller it will work better than the old ones that Winter and I use. The key is it will need to be reliable like the system Winter's been using. You definitely don't want full power or power applied to one wheel when your not expecting it.

[WintrSol]

It works off the brake light, so either brake switch will activate it. Pretty handy.
The description if the newer one looks the same in this regard; same for braking power.