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Electric brakes with a tractor
I'll be pulling around a 5000 lb. chipper with my JD 4310 tractor and I was thinking it would be good to take advantage of the electric brakes on the chipper. I don't know anything about how electric brakes work. Is there some sort of controller I could use on the tractor to activate the electric brakes on the chipper?
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Electric brakes with a tractor
Ken with the brake lites on the newer tractors it's a snap! It's even easier then on a pickup truck! I know you have a lot of slippery surfaces to cross but I don't know how much of a value I'd put to the for the price of the controller.
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Electric brakes with a tractor
Ken, there are several ways to do it.
As Art stated you can use the 'direct approach' of just using power from the brake light circuit if your machine is so equipped. The problem with this is there is no adjustment, it is either full on or nothing.
Our machines are equipped with electric brake controllers just like you would put in a pickup truck. The newer style ones use a motion-sensing technology that automatically applies the trailer brakes when it senses the trailer slowing down, they don't work very well at slow speeds though because there is little momentum involved. They do have a manual over-ride to allow you to use them manually however, this is usually what we do.
You could probably rig up a little reostat to accomplish the same thing as the brake pedal moves down it would start to give the brakes an ever increasing amount of power.
Maybe even just a flip switch as a sort of 'emergency brake' system would suffice.
Best of luck.
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Electric brakes with a tractor
Thanks Art & Murf! I don't often use the tractor brakes since the HST braking works fine. But with a heavy trailer pushing me maybe I'll need to use the brakes more often. If the HST braking works adequately with the trailer maybe the brake light all-on method will be all I need.
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Electric brakes with a tractor
I would suggest however Ken that you carefully check the circuit, if it is not capable of the current load produced by the electric brakes it might prove more exciting than you would care for.
Half way down a hill is a BAD place to discover that there is no brakes on the load behind you because the fuse blew ort the switch melted.
Since you are running a HST unit anyways you might want to install some other foot switch, like the old style high/low beam switches, which could activate the brakes with the left foot independantly of the tractors drive system. This way you could 'throw out the anchor' by using the trailers brakes while accelerating or holding speed with the tractor. We have to do this on occasion with loaded dump trailers that start to get a little to eager heading downhill behind you.
Best of luck.
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Electric brakes with a tractor
Thanks again Murf. Those are good points and the idea of a foot switch is a good one. I've burnt up a few circuits in my life and now make a practice of using relays when switching this kind of stuff.
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Electric brakes with a tractor
Ken,
Deere sells a 7-Pin Electrical Outlet Socket Kit under part number LVB25364 for $46.00. I use a the same kind of connector plug for my trailer when I pull it with the truck. Deere's kits usually come with everything you need to hook it right up and you can buy and adaptor plug for your chipper trailer if it does not come equipped with the 7 pin plug connector. Do you think this will work?
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Electric brakes with a tractor
Good info Chief! I didn't know about that kit, but I'll order the kit through JD Parts right away. If it saves me an hour or two of screwing around it will be worth it.
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Electric brakes with a tractor
That part number is showing as obsolete with none in stock. I ordered it anyway to see what happens.
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Electric brakes with a tractor
My experience with trailers and HST's on hills is that the wheels lock up on the tractor when you let off on the HST pedal. The trailer, if it is heavy enough, just pushes the skidding tractor around.
Stepping on the brake does little at this point.
I think a surge brake on the trailer hitch is the answer along with never, never operating in 2wd with a heavy trailer in tow.
BTW, when I park my 5th wheel I rig up the tractor so it weighs about 3200# with me on it. The trailer weighs about 4000#.
If I keep it in low range + 4wd and hold the speed to a walking pace, the HST will stop/control the whole load on a slope that I cannot safely stop my pick-up on without skidding.
I think it helps that I tow/push the 5th wheel from the front of the tractor, not the rear.
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