Anyone here tow a tent camper, a time out, or leesure lite behind their Spyder?

[Millermatic252]

How fast do yall usually run with your campers?

 

[2dogs]

Two things to consider. One is rather important, the other would be a deal-breaker.

What kind of suspension do you have? Do you have independent torsion axles or leaf springs with a tubular axle ?

If you have independent suspension, check the 'drop angle' of the trailing arms. More angle will give you more suspension travel, but may make the brakes act funny. The arm that activates the brakes is curved around the front half of the backing plate. When mounted at an angle, a bump might cause the magnet to drop down a bit, activating the brake in the process.

If you have leaf springs with a tubular axle, the brakes would be mounted level, but the deal breaker would be whether there are mounting plates on the ends of the axle. (you need those mounting plates on the independent suspension, too) There should be a square plate that is maybe 4 or 5 inches across that the brake backing plate would mount to. They can be added if you don't have them, but it's not that cheap.

One last thing to consider: when you have electric brakes on a trailer, you need to have a controller on the tow vehicle. Not all that hard to mount and wire, just another expense that you might not have thought about up front.

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Yep, just as we suspected Steve. No backing plate and little or no room to add one. It appears that a complete new torsion system, axel, backing plate, brake kit, and drum, would need to be purchased and installed. And no telling if the new torsion axel would mount to the same plate as the OEM unit. If not, then the trailer would have to be removed from the frame and a new mounting plate installed. A 7" brake kit and drum are not that expensive. It's the torsion axel with the backing plate and the possibility that the new torsion axel will not match the OEM bolt holes that make things bookoo expensive.

 

[Stangman35]

Mine has the torsion axel and has the 4 bolt ring that the backing plate bolts to, u won’t have a backing plate if it didn’t come with brakes.