Thread: Question: How to share an electrically braked trailer?

Why is it your cost?

if you're nice enough there is a teshonka harness kit that can be used.

you buy yourself the whole unit, those who want to use your trailer outfit their vehicle with the harness and then you just swap the head unit across.

I dont rate the wireless units especially those that plug into the ciggy socket, fine if its your vehicle but how do you know their socket is wired up and powered up?

I would have thought that having electric brakes on your trailer would be a perfect excuse not to lend it to anyone.

If someone was nice enough to lend me their electrically braked trailer then I think I would be happy to buy and fit my own controller to my car.

Thanks for the replies so far. I think the main difference is that at the moment none of us tow/camp all that much.

The thing I haven't told you yet is that yes, for some mates I might lend it for free, but other people I might ask for $100 for the lend, which would help cover the costs of maintenance and buying it in the first place. In which case if they also need to fork out $400 for something so occasional it might not make it worth their while to borrow from me either...

You can buy a perfectly decent unit for under $100 but it is the labour to wire it up, if you can do it yourself then it is not an expensive excercise.

Originally Posted by eddomak

Hi All,

I have been considering buying a camper trailer and am in the research stage. I can see from the NSW legislation that I would need to fit an electronic brake controller within the towing vehicle. From what I can tell, this costs a couple of hundred dollars and a couple of hours labour. (Excellent instructions on the D4 forum... ).

But say I want to lend this to a couple of mates at different times of the year? They would also need to install EBC's in their vehicles?

I looked with interest at the Tekonsha RF (trailer mounted EBC but with a remote head unit that plugs into the cigarette lighter and communicates via RF) which would allow the easy transfer of the remote head unit, but it seems like it hasn't been released in Australia.

Has anyone else come up with how to do this (buy a camper trailer and lend it to friends without needing to do installations on each and every vehicle)?

Thanks!

Only applies if the trailer is two tonnes or more, less can be on an override brake.

Originally Posted by slug_burner

Only applies if the trailer is two tonnes or more, less can be on an overrun brake.

Thanks! I have now found the relevant piece of RTA paper, which backs that statement. So it means in theory I would not need an EBC at all (campertrailer is far less than 2 tonnes) so long as an overrun brake is installed.

It also seems to imply if I used the Tekonsha RF unit for improved handling due to braking under non-overrunn conditions then (providing the overrunnbrake is installed) I would still be compliant?