Originally Posted by
hillbillyk
I will check the amps tonight, the magnets are new, the old ones were so soaked with grease that I could not get them cleaned out, but I had the same symptom with weak brakes before I changed them. The trailer is an 05 Kaufman 14k deckover. The brake shoes look great, plenty of meat on them.
thanks again for the help, I'll either fix it or blow the thing up.
It will take a bit of step-by-stepping, but each diagnostic step gets you closer to the answer. If you have a good power source and new magnets and you do not see 12 amps or close to it, it has to be a loose connection or ground at the trailer. I am trying to leave the truck out of the equation so we can work in halves as it is possible to have more than one problem.
When I work on systems, I try to always use my own good known power sources thus using the battery or jumper box at the trailer. It is pretty simple to troubleshoot the circuit doing that.
Since you said you get some stopping power at the trailer wheels, but not enough, it sure sounds to me like a power issue, but if you get a full amp draw, I would guess the shoes need adjusting as there is no way to make the magnets draw any more than their max.
Don't forget to put the pin back in the break-away so you don't melt the switch.
Steve