Axle replacements 13' trailers

[Chris L.]

Well, here goes. I have a 13' Scamp and had the axle replaced 10+ years ago. It is a one ton dexter axle with brakes. Anyway, I finally had a "revelation" today while servicing the bearings. This axle (like anyone else that has a leading arm but reversed like the Scamp) is reversed to be a leading arm. Well, long story short, the brakes are then backward too. It has taken me 10 years to figure this out, I just clean and repack the bearings and put everything back together the same way and don't think anything about it. While at an RV repair shop I started looking at trailers that were having bearing service and low and behold the magnet orientation was just the opposite of mine. So, today, I got at it and removed the backing plates and transferred sides so that the magnets are oriented properly and oh my goodness, do my brakes ever work BETTER. They were always pretty good, but what a difference this has made in their operation! Has anyone else with a 13' trailer ever changed the backing plates to the other side? I am curious to know. Those who have had new axles may want to check the orientation of the magnets. Here are a couple of pictures of the before and after. (The first pic the top spring is not hooked into its hole.) The last pic is of my shiny Scamp ready to roll. Just got a fresh coat of wax yesterday!

[Greg A]

When we replaced our 13 Scamp with a Dexter # 9 we had to turn the axle to facilitate it as a leading arm. When we did that we had to switch the brake backing plates or they would have been on the wrong side. Your axle was probably replaced and turned, but they didn't switch the brake plates.
The brakes are normally labeled left hand/right hand, but if you don't see the labels the magnet arm should be on the front side of the trailer on the backing plate.

[Chris L.]

Exactly! I had the axle done about 10 years ago and was much less informed than now. I have no idea if Dexter even included any information back then. I just wanted to inform anyone changing out their axles to be sure that the backing plates are oriented properly. Now off to go camping..............