Disc Brake System Wiring

[Cate&Rob]

Attached is information on how I wired the EoH (Electric over Hydraulic) Titan actuator for the hydraulic disc brake system that I installed on my 2015 Reflection 303RLS.

One complication that enters into this is that the wiring recommended by the brake system supplier assumes that a new battery will be installed to power the actuator in the event of a trailer break-away. Most RV installations use the trailer house battery to provide this emergency power.

The truck battery and the trailer battery are already connected together with a relatively large gauge wire. This is different than the Titan generic plan of adding a break-away battery that is kept charged by a low amperage connection though their actuator. This OE connection between the truck and trailer batteries cannot be replaced by the trickle charge through the actuator because this does not have enough current capacity.

In my arrangement, there is no need to route additional wires from the pinbox to the front compartment as recommended by Titan. The end of the large gauge wire (usually blue&white on GDRV products) in the front compartment is electrically the same as the end at the pinbox. The black and the violet connections to the actuator can tie into this blue&white wire anywhere, including in the front compartment. The white ground wire from the original electric brakes to the ground connection at the pin box becomes a “spare” wire that can be used for the brown wire connection between the break-away switch and actuator. The existing blue brake signal wire goes only from the truck to the actuator blue wire.

A concern that I have with the Titan recommended wiring is that their version has the violet wire going directly to the actuator from the trailer battery with no fuse to protect it. I installed a 40A circuit breaker in this wire as shown in my wiring diagrams. I measured the current draw of my Titan actuator and it was 28 amps on startup and 22 amps while running. This is how I selected a 40A circuit breaker which is the same size as Titan recommends for the main (black wire) power feed from the truck.

I did discuss my wiring plan with the supplier that I purchased my system from and he confirmed that the manufacturer said that “this would work”. Obviously this wiring plan differs from what the brake system manufacturer recommends, so use this information at your own discretion.

Rob

[JCZhome]

Very nice, detailed lay out there Rob. I know that you're very happy (and much more relaxed and confident) with those disc brakes.

[SouthTX]

Nicely done. Thanks for taking time to document and share with the rest of us.