Hydraulic Disc Brakes connecting to Chevy controller

[Squirrel]

The Dexter hydraulic brake system installed on my Excel would not work on my Chevy controller. I tried to connect the controller from the truck to my Excel, but it would not recognize the brake system. Then I spent about $200.00 on trying to connect a Tekonsha 3 brake controller to the wires on the truck. The Tekonsha has two settings. One for electric brakes and another for hydraulic. I pulled the fuse on the truck, but the computer on the truck faulted. So it was back to the drawing board. I then called Dexter. They had an engineer that knew the problem. He said that the Chevy brake controller was looking for a magnet brake system that the the computer on the truck would recognize. The magnets create a resistance that the computer recognizes. The engineer at Dexter said that if I bought a couple of magnets and installed them in line in the bay of the Excel that the on board computer would recognized the system. I have now traveled about 4,000 miles and it works great. The wires are connected just prior to connecting to the hydraulic master cylinder in the front bay of the Excel.

I hope this information will save someone a lot of time and expense.

[evan0810]

Squirrel,
I have an '08 Chevy w/ the integrated brake contoller pulling a 33TKE. I was wondering what number you set the controller at. Mine is set to 8.5 at the present and doesn't feel like it is enough. Just curious.
Ed

[Squirrel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evan0810 Squirrel, I have an '08 Chevy w/ the integrated brake contoller pulling a 33TKE. I was wondering what number you set the controller at. Mine is set to 8.5 at the present and doesn't feel like it is enough. Just curious. Ed

Ed, I have mine set at 8.5. It seems to pull on my tow when I am in heavy traffic and stopping a lot. So I have lowered it when the brakes get hot. Sounds like 8.5 is a good setting. Do you have hydraulic brakes? If so did you have the same problems?

[evan0810]

I have just the electric brakes. At the time we ordered ours, people were having problems w/ the Ford brake controller and hydraulic brakes. The problem wasn't resolved yet so I was tentative about ordering them.
Ed

[Squirrel]

Ed, this isn't the first mistake the Squirrel has made. I was wrong on the setting of the brake controller. Mine is set at 7.5 and NOT at 8.5. Sorry for the mistake. I just checked it this morning.

[davydee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evan0810 I have just the electric brakes. At the time we ordered ours, people were having problems w/ the Ford brake controller and hydraulic brakes. The problem wasn't resolved yet so I was tentative about ordering them. Ed

FWIW, we've found that we could turn the gain down considerably when moving from electric brakes to the disc brakes.

[KU9L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evan0810 Squirrel, I have an '08 Chevy w/ the integrated brake contoller pulling a 33TKE. I was wondering what number you set the controller at. Mine is set to 8.5 at the present and doesn't feel like it is enough. Just curious. Ed

We have ab '08 Chevy w/ the integrated brake controller pulling a 2001 28rgo with drum brakes and ours is set to 5.5. Any higher and the brakes seem to grab a lot harder without stopping much faster. I initially set it to 6.0 after using that setting on our Prodigy controller last summer with our SBO TT on our Ford Ranger. Someone at an SKP park told me to turn it down to 5.5 which still stops us nicely. I am probably talking about apples and oranges bringing up our drums brakes though, but we are looking forward to disc brakes on our next unit (drum has worked for us well since our Allison 1000 transmission does a lot of the work anyway).

Dave

[jnchadley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squirrel The Dexter hydraulic brake system installed on my Excel would not work on my Chevy controller. I tried to connect the controller from the truck to my Excel, but it would not recognize the brake system. Then I spent about $200.00 on trying to connect a Tekonsha 3 brake controller to the wires on the truck. The Tekonsha has two settings. One for electric brakes and another for hydraulic. I pulled the fuse on the truck, but the computer on the truck faulted. So it was back to the drawing board. I then called Dexter. They had an engineer that knew the problem. He said that the Chevy brake controller was looking for a magnet brake system that the the computer on the truck would recognize. The magnets create a resistance that the computer recognizes. The engineer at Dexter said that if I bought a couple of magnets and installed them in line in the bay of the Excel that the on board computer would recognized the system. I have now traveled about 4,000 miles and it works great. The wires are connected just prior to connecting to the hydraulic master cylinder in the front bay of the Excel. I hope this information will save someone a lot of time and expense.

Good morning Squirrel

I was very interested in your entry as I am trying to see if anyone has done this. Ford tells us that there onboard brake controller system won't work with the hydraulic brakes but I heard second hand that Dexter says it will so I am looking for information.......Will you please elaborate on how the magnets are wired. Thank you very much for your time..c-n-j

[davydee]

What model year Ford do you have? We're doing fine with the IBC and dexter discs on our unit. We get about a half-second or so delay, but we've gotten use to it.

[Squirrel]

JNchadley, I have the Dexter Axle E/H 1000 & 1600 Brake Actuator. If you can find two electric magnets from an old electric brake system you can save some money. I had to buy two new magnets from a trailer supply store. You need about 18 inches of wire on each magnet I then spliced them in about six inches from the actuator (round tube with black fill cap located in the front bay of my Excel) I used the white wire from the ground and the blue wire from the in-cab controller to hook up the magnets. It does not matter which wire on the magnet is connected as long as one goes to white and one to blue. I put the magnets on the metal floor of the front box right next to the actuator. I taped all wires good and taped the magnets to the metal floor. When connected to the fifth wheel the brake controller recognized the brake system and when the brakes are pushed in the cab you will here a humming just like the electric brakes on the old brake system. I hope this helps! I love those hydraulic brakes and will never own a trailer without them.

The Squirrel

[wa8yxm]

Sounds like a lot of work to me.... Did you get the Tekonsha to work?

[Squirrel]

wa8yxm, it only took about 10 minutes to hook it up and tape it. No problem at all. I never did get the Tekonsha to work even after I pulled the fuse on the built in brake controller. I think both the Ford and Chevy brake controller is looking for an electric magnetic system. There must be a resistance of making a loop in the magnate that causes a resistance that the in line brake controller is looking for. This signal lets the on board computer know that the trailer is connected. I do know that I have about seven thousand miles on mine and the system works GREAT!!

The Squirrel