How to Adjust Electric Trailer Brakes

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In this video, I show you how to adjust electric brakes on your trailer or rv. This is something you should do at least once a year. Steps to do this are:

1. Jack up the trailer and support it with jack stands or some other support that can't collapse. Lift the trailer high enough so that the wheels can freely spin.

2. Locate the oval shaped plastic cap toward the bottom or the brake drum and remove it.

3. Using a flat head screwdriver, stick it through the slot and engage it with the notches toward the bottom of the star wheel.

4. Move the handle of the screwdriver downward to make the notch in the star wheel move upward one click. The click is made by a metal tab that holds the brake star wheel in place. When you do this, it is causes the star wheel to rotate on a threaded rod attached to the brake pads. This moves the rod and pads toward the brake drum.

5. Continue clicking the brake star wheel in the same direction until the brakes start adding resistance to the wheel as it turns. Keep in mind, if the trailer sits for long periods of time outdoors between uses, you probably will need to spin the wheel several times so any rust can be rubbed off and removed from the brake drum.

6. Adjust the brake star wheel as described before until the wheel can't be turned.

7. Now you want to back off the brake star wheel by inserting the screwdriver back in the slot, but this time you should position the blade so that it aligns with a notch toward the top.

8. Now move the screwdriver handle upward one click, and then check to see if the wheel will spin.

9. Keep backing off the brake star wheel until the wheel spins freely but you can still hear a very light scraping of the brake pads against the brake hub.

10. At this point, the brake is adjusted properly. Remember to put the cap back in place in the slot. Adjust all the other electric brakes in the same way.