I inherited an abused and abandoned car hauler. It is a Big Tex 70ch. It has trailer brakes on one axle. My cargo trailer has them on both axles. The wiring on the car hauler was butchered at some point and the original trailer brake harness left un connected. The question is if the brakes are meant for a breakaway system only or if they are to be wired for use with my in cab brake controller to be activated when I brake the truck. Internet search yields useless results. Anyone know?

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Big Tex 70ch

Did you find these? The manual references both systems. https://www.bigtextrailers.com/owners-manuals/ .You might be able to match the wiring to the wiring diagram.

You can use your brake controller, the only time the breakaway is used is with a pull switch. If the battery box is there, it will have power, ground and a brake activation wire, make sure they are wired correctly. The brake wire on the trailer will go from the brakes to the connector with a tie in splice from the breakaway.

My dad has the exact same trailer, with the wiring intact. If you need some pictures, let me know, and I'll see if he can snap some for you after church today.

If a trailer has brakes, regardless of which type, they are designed to operate while being towed. The emergency system is designed to activate should the trailer become detached from the tow vehicle.

The electric brakes on your trailer should be wired to operate from your tow vehicle. If you wanted brakes on both axles, the axles are typically already set up for that and you could add the components.

Thanks for that info, guys. I do wish I had the manual. I could probably download one but it would likely be for the current 70ch and mine is 14 years older so there are probably some differences. I’ll wire it to run with the truck brakes and with a breakaway kit.

It’s been kind of a relaxing project. When it was offered to me, it had been sitting derelict in a field for 5 years. The coupler was bent down and unusable, all tires were garbage, the ramps were gone, the wiring was a rats nest of splices and unreliable repairs, all but one light was broken/smashed, the jack was bent and hardly operable, missing safety chains and the deck was broken and rotted. Now everything has been repaired and replaced. The bearings and brakes serviced. New tires, and the new deck goes on today. In all I’m into it a bit less than half the cost of a new one. I did upgrade a few components better than new but that’s just preference.

I appreciate the advice and offer for wiring pics. I knew I could count on SIGforum.

On a related note and I apologize for the hijack, but, how hard is it to install trailer brakes yourself if it didn't originally come with it? I have a 10' utility trailer that I carry around 1300lbs or so with. Not a lot and my F150 handles it with no issue, but it would be nice to save a little extra wear on the truck brakes.

There is a trailer shop nearby but if it's easy enough to do it myself I don't mind doing it. I already converted it from a 4 pin to a 7 pin harness.

If your trailer axle already has backing plate flanges welded to it, pretty easy. You will just add the backing plates and drums.

If the axle is not currently set up it it's a bit more complicated.