brake controller

[kevin07]

I had my tow pack fitted when I purchased the car, but im concerned about the hayman reece brake controller its wired off the battery with wire at its maximum would be 20 amp with a 20amp circuit breaker. I don't know if this enough as I would have thought 50amp would be required. thanks kev

[Bigcol]

you would need a circuit breaker that was LESS than the wiring capability
otherwise, the wiring would burn long before the circuit breaker worked....


my thoughts anyway

[kevin07]

but is that wiring big enough to power it. my van brakes pull 26 amps themselves

[Bigcol]

you just answered your own question Kevin07

I fed 8mm dual core cable to the rear plug for the Elect Brakes - (not sure of the rating, but more than sufficient )- with a 30A circuit breaker

I also ran 10mm dual core to the rear for the Anderson plug with a 75A circuit breaker

[threedogs]

Im thinking 6mm with a 30 amp curcuit breaker

[the evil twin]

but is that wiring big enough to power it. my van brakes pull 26 amps themselves

26 Amps is a large power draw... is it a dual axle 4 wheel brake setup or something odd?
The 20 Amp CB should be tripping at that amount of power

A single axle 10 inch setup should only pull about 10 amps depending on braking effort settings
Most of the popular brake controllers won't deliver more than 25 amps max, some much less.
Redarc specify 25 amp for some of their controllers.
Tekonsha 20 amp for most of theirs.
Hayman Reese similar.
Wire gauge size for that means 12 gauge (approx 4mm) will be heaps or 10 gauge (approx 6mm) if it is a looooong run

Sooo... for 'standard' 10 inch eleccy brakes most brake controller manuf specify 20 Amp cable (and a beefed up earth as well if the trailer/van manuf is a tad tight tight arsed).
That would mean that the vehicle is set up as 'standard' if it has 20 amp wiring and protection.

A quick check would be to look at the wiring splice at the controller and if the sparkie used similar gauge to what the manuf has from his unit then all should be OK

[kevin07]

its a twin axle van and each brake pulls 6.5 amps plus lights all other power is through 2 anderson plugs 1 off each battery

[the evil twin]

its a twin axle van and each brake pulls 6.5 amps plus lights all other power is through 2 anderson plugs 1 off each battery

Hiya cobber... I replied to your PM but for others reading this...

12 gauge will be fine but if replacing thinner stuff I'd use 10.
Make sure the controller will output 25 amps, a fair few will only do 20 as the most popular set up is single axle 10 or 12 inch.
Once upon a time and depending on suspension setup many dual axle trailers were only braked on the leading axle, dunno if that is still the case.

[kevin07]

all 4 wheels are braked sorry im not sure about 12 and 10 gauge I used 6b&s on the andersons how does it compare to that

[the evil twin]

all 4 wheels are braked sorry im not sure about 12 and 10 gauge I used 6b&s on the andersons how does it compare to that

Cool... and, yes, that will be about 25 to 30 at max current but often the controller will be wound down below that whne you set it all up

IMHO 6 B&S is waay too large for your brakes.

For info...
AWG and B&S are essentially the same IE 6 gauge AWG is the same as 6 B&S, 2 AWG same as 2 B&S etc
but...
B&S terminology isn't used past 8 B&S so smaller dia wire is spec'd as AWG or mm2

10 AWG is about the largest wire you will comfortably get in the smaller vehicle plugs (7 pin round, 7 pin flat etc etc)
Beware of "automotive cable" sizes as that refers to the dia in mm not mm2.

Hope that helps...