Husky Towing Products’ complete backing plate kit saves time and money when doing trailer brake jobs
Equipment trailers are a vital tool in the construction and landscaping trades, so having them working properly and being well-maintained is a critical part of business success.
One area of trailers that dictates their usefulness and efficiency is brakes: Brakes are the biggest wear item by far, and if they aren’t maintained, some serious safety issues arise. [youtube cV5zD8aYeNI nolink]
Electric brakes are the most common and they are remarkably simple in their operation:
- Step on the brake pedal and a 12-volt current is sent to a small electromagnet inside the brake assembly that then actuates the brake shoes.
- When the magnet is energized it grabs hold of the face of the brake drum.
- That motion causes the metal arm, to which the magnet is attached, to pivot outward, forcing the brake shoes against the brake drum.
Husky Towing Products’ electric trailer brake kit makes short work out of brake jobs.
Such simplicity makes doing a brake job on electrics easier than dealing with hydraulic or surge-type brakes.
The service can be sped up even more by utilizing a complete electric brake backing plate assembly like those offered by Husky Towing Products.
Husky’s bolt-on trailer brake kits are available for 7”, 10” and 12” electric brake systems.
What makes these nice for commercial landscapers and construction companies that do their own maintenance is they already have the brake shoes and all related parts installed in the backing plate.
This saves both time and money as mechanics don’t have to spend time removing and re-installing brake shoes, springs and the magnet arm assembly.
We used the Husky kits while replacing the worn-out brakes on a 12,000-pound-capacity tandem-axle Big Tex 12LX dump trailer running 12-inch drums.
The old brake shoes were worn down and one of the brake’s electromagnets had quite working.
It took a shop mechanic less than three hours to do the tandem-axle trailer’s brakes using the Husky backing plate kits.
The photos in our gallery below (and the video slide show above) shows the steps — and highlights some key areas of the install.
