phoenix2013

Alas, you are a wise sage and a public servant. Myself, I also spent decades on various boards, wife on council boards. Ignorance of the rules was not going to fly. To make matters worse, one is also known to the officialdom having taking out various permits for, hurricane windows, doors, driveway widening, etc. Why the sudden weakness of the mind? Ah, I had a "partner" in that crime. More on that later, but first why the need for it in the first place?🙄 As my friends know, the ET business had a commercial space at on time. In the process of unwinding it it was split between 10 x 20 commercial storage bin and the 2 1/2 car garage (cars were "evicted" from the garage during that phase). Further unwinding deposited the ET business into the capable hands of Young's Welding. More unwinding welcomed wife's convertible in the garage, Curiously the 10 x 20 storage remained full, FOR YEARS, at $175 (then more) per month. Now and then I would visit the storage to re-acquaint myself with the "treasures", but those visits did not produce in a timely fashion the realization, "hey moron, can you get $175 bucks if you sold everything in here"? The answer was, "yeah, more, but not much". The second realization was the purchase of the brand new Pacifica, after killing the last minivan transporting the ET business in it to Kansas. GVW 6,500 lbs, I have a CAT scale ticket to prove it. I haven't bought a brand new vehicle in decades, this purchase was reasoned to be the last automobile to last till depends days and loss of license with loss of sensibilities. Such longevity for a car in Florida sun is impossible unless the car is garaged. Hence another self question, "hey moron, can you get $175 bucks for the stuff hanging around the garage"? Since the answer was "definitely yes", this generated an action item, "buy or build a shed". Those of you who know the Old Goat probably surmised by now that he did explore the buy option (about $6 grands, fully permitted delivered and set up), but he rejected it. Why? Where's the fun in doing JUST THAT! He can do it himself, better, cheaper and have fun in the process. So where do we stand as of now? We have already crossed the $6 grands line and it is not yet fully finished, nor permitted, but the adventure continues and it's quite humorous, I shall share it with you. Quick peek, yes progress was achieved.

Not exactly an HDT project, but somewhat related. My "understanding" of how things like this are done was grounded in decades of living in the state of New Hampshire ("Live Free or Die"), community of 1,000 people. Same project in the city of 1/4 million people is a totally different "adventure.

True, but it depends on the parts. The motherboard I need was discontinued.

Ah, Samsung appliances🤮😝 Top of the line fridge, stove, microwave and curved TV. Fridge and the TV went to the dump. Mama was not happy. Fridge couldn't handle Florida humidity creeping up the ice dispenser, would freeze the dispenser solid. Required heat guns and mallets to "open things up", off to the dump. TV developed tiger spots on screen, replacement chip on the motherboard $300 if you could find it and the shop to install it. Off to the dump. Stove, the display and control board funky, half the display works. Samsung stopped making the board, there is an outfit in the US that can "try" to refurbish it, $200. Dump is looking better and better. Microwave is hanging in. Replacements are sporting the LG logo.

In "perfectly" built head the jaws should grasp the pin completely around with no gap. There is a lot of welding (on the jigs) to build a head, about 3 1/2 hours. With that much welding each head is slightly different. Sometimes the jaws are tight around the pin sometimes there is a little gap. Even with the gap the jaws are securely locked. I know how to make "perfect heads", requires about 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour screwing around, mostly grinding here and there, before you send it to paint. Perfection is a sworn enemy of good enough and "finished". In manufacturing finished and shipped is a sworn enemy of perfect.

Wise statement containing perfect solution. More UNIVERSITY. Original Binkley fifth wheel latching mechanism was patented in 1977 (49 years ago) Patent # 495,706. Good ideas are timeless. Few years into the production cycle Holland patented additional improvements to the jaws in the area where the two spurs project into space when jaws are open (the little reliefs you see) to control better the jaw motion when the pin comes in and closes the jaws around the pin. Holland would not sell me the jaw sets to go into my (competitive) head design (can't blame them) and since they did not maintain the patents beyond the original 17 years protected period, I reverse engineered the crap out of their original design and had a casting house cast me a bunch. Those who work with castings know that these are only at a starting point. These required about 45 minutes machining on various jigs I developed. and additional 45 minutes of hand fitting on each head to make these work right. The main reason why these are so massive compared to jaws in other hitch heads is that these were cast from the beginning and casts don't have the same strength characteristics as rolled steel. But there is no documented failure of these (that I know off) in 50 years of their existence. I knew there was a better way than the two hours of machining and hand fitting. I found out from Jack Meyer that he knew about a nifty waterjet outfit in Kansas. Bit more engineering and this is what I got from Kansas. No machining, no screwing around with hand fit. The only machining requires was to remove steel in the interlocking areas in both jaws and welding on spacer rings for the jaw mounting pins (spacers were cast in the originals). I was blown over when the prototypes did these. Young's Welding started using these pretty early in their production after we attritioned the last of the cast jaws they "inherited" with the company. So why this change didn't do away with the SOL problem? Any guesses? Let me know and I'll let you in on the solution on the way.

Just cannot resist an "opportunity" to conduct a KING PIN UNIVERSITY lecture. First the kingpin. Installed on millions of commercial trailers and RVs. Industry standard, not to be deviated from regardless whether the pin is forged or turned to size on a lathe. Grab your micrometer and check the numbers. Dimensions you should be "mightily" interested about. Did they weld it in the pin box and protruded it down 1.308" from the pinbox plate to the 2.00" reduced neck area. With the forged pin like the one you see above there are no "options". RV pins are typically turned on the lathe and don't come with a flat bolster plate, which means that how it's anchored and how the welder achieves the 1.308" distance relies on his welding skills and the anchoring methods. I've seen those methods inside the pinboxes and they range from unique to bizarre. Now for some math. Subtract 1.308" from 2.762" and the difference is 1.454". The cast jaws on the original Binkley heads are 1.125" thick where they grip the kingpin in the reduced 2.00" section. I originally had these cast to the identical 1.125" Binkley dimensions. The new redesigned ET head manufactured by Young's now utilizes rolled steel jaws waterjet cut. The steel plate they use is also 1.125" thick. More math again. Subtract 1.125" from 1.454" and the difference is .329". In an ideal world the pin is welded perfectly with an equal gap above and below the jaws. .329 divided by two equals .1645. So the bottom gap is .165" before you start raising the pin to insert a glide plate. I found half a dozen plate vendors, they tell you the overall size, nobody wants to tell you how thick they are. Found one on Amazon who did. 3/16" is actually .1875 already more than .1645. Some wit decided to measure the actual thickness which is even more than that. So if you pin is welded low, you might be OK, if you find a thin plate you might be OK, Otherwise the math says that you are SOL. Being SOL is not a good thing, product that results in SOL is not very attractive. I am currently working with Young's to eliminate the SOL situation, more on that in my next post.

Had a thought, need a confirmation of the thought process. Above is the picture of the prewired unit ready to go into the truck (DirecLink not included, the customer had one). The optional wiring kit available with the Jackalopee contains the following items. This connects the truck to the trailer and having functioning lights on the trailer. It does not contain any parts needed to wire the brake controller or the battery charging circuit. Although many people deal with it, it's in the manual, substantial number folks call, " how do I do it", "where do I get parts", etc., etc. The fact that you are going to need more parts (blue, black and red wire, crimp lugs, circuit breakers, etc.) is a given. The thought banging in my head says that these should be included in the kit to make it complete? The assembly above went out with 15 feet of wire of each color (12 gauge blue, 12 gauge black, 16 gauge red). Is it too much, not enough to do typical wiring of a brake controller and charging, assuming the Jackalopee will be mounted on the back of the cab. The other question, does the idea of adding those parts to the kit have merits?

Thanks Robert, I get calls all the time about, "what you recommend for a brake controller"? The pendulum based units don't perform well in semis because the the weight ratios between the truck vs. trailer are running 1 : 1.5 and on lighter trailer even closer to 1 : 1. So the pendulums don't displace at the same rate as on pickup pullers where those ratios can be 1 : 3 or even higher. I always had appreciation for Hayes approach because it responded to the actual output of the truck air braking system in a proportional manner. Although I had some questions about the longevity of the rheostat slider used in that repeated manner. I'm guessing that the "old stuff" was replaced with a pressure transducer which as an input sensor should as good if not superior. Although the old simplicity had to give way to more complex electronics. I always give more credence to statements from an actual user that it "works flawlessly" vs. the assertions from product's marketing departments.

You guys are sharp

Good morning gentlemen. Got some photos this morning of the recent installation of an ET Senior and a Jackalopee. Incidentally when I was still "trucking" on the old trusty Ketchup, my Jackalopee was installed on the front ET panel Now, my question for you old timers is what kind of truck you see in the first picture, here's a hint

Next instalment in the Jackalopee University course. You might have been puzzled why this was purchased with the assortment of wires, crimps, breakers, etc. On account of this inside the unit if you mount the Jackalopee in a funky spot. Which if persistent can damage the circuit board. The unit has gaskets all around and rubber boots to seal the cables and wires going in and out. So what's the culprit (discovered by a relentless owner). It's the cheap-ass RV cable. RV industry operates on the premise, it must be cheap to be used, other requirements are secondary. The 7-wire cable is not molded it's sheathed. As a result there are air gaps between outer jacket and the wires and between the wires. So if you mount a Jackalopee with these cables going down to it, the morning dew will turn into droplets inside the cable and migrate into the units, drop by drop by drop. The unit shown above was sitting upright on the deck and accumulated enough water to submerge the portion of the board carrying the 12VDC between the batteries. So, mount the Jackalopee so that the cables go up to it and here's a precautionary fix. Drive silicone into the end of the cables terminating in the Jackalopee, between the jacket and the wires and in between the wires. Finished task Doing the same on the plug and socket end, wouldn't hurt it either.

This was perhaps the prime example of a masochistic relationship between the Jackalopee and its owner. A pity for the Jackalopee was involved in the replacement decision. Bad mounting of the Jackalopee is a cause of the water getting in. The reason and cure will be explained in the Jackalopee University forum.

Moresmoke provides valuable information about this "connection" which has a dual purpose. The "classic" way to connect the red wire going back to the pickup installations is to tap it into the brake light switch which is right there at the top of the brakes pedal on most pickups. Why tap into that circuit? First reason, as I explained, the controller needs to know that you are braking. Second reason, if you are using the manual brake actuator (bar, lever, etc.) the controller does not need "prodding" from the brake light you are manually prodding it, but if you are not touching the brake pedal (manual trailer brakes only), the controller needs to activate the brake lights on the trailer to let the folks know that you are braking (with the trailer only). The brake lights don't give a rat's behind where the power comes from (truck, trailer, or both), they should light up. My suggestion to connect to the brake lights circuit in the Jackalopee is driven by the fact (personal experience) that getting to the brake switch in the semi (air actuated, under the dash) is a bitch of an exercise of tearing panel apart and putting them together. But as Moresmoke says it might not work wired the way I suggest on certain trucks. So what's my answer to that, try it, because "one test is worth a thousand opinions". If it doesn't work, do it the hard way.

First, the missing screws, pure FUBAR, while putting lots of covers on pile of units at the same time. Email me a name and address and more will arrive via first class mail. Ah the green wire, another teachable moment. Your solution is fine but now I have an idea to "suggest" that in this pattern (trailer side) the green wire is 5 inches long instead of 2 inches long, then depending which way one wants to wire the RUNNING LIGHTS it's a much simpler task (cut 3 inches off), although I feel most folks will go for the 5 inches option. The reason and the difference is explained on page 7 of the manual, for those who are MANUAL-less here it goes. Both RUNNING LIGHTS and MARKER LIGHTS are the same, they come ON when you turn running lights switch ON. The difference is that you can flash the MARKER LIGHTS on and off with a momentary switch mounted either on the steering wheel or the dash. Wonna' flash those running lights on your trailer like a trucker, go with 5 inches. Another teachable info. Note that the wire going to the marker lights tab on the board, from the truck plug, is black and heavy 10 gauge, same as the white 10 gauge. This is the legacy from the old pre-LED days. If you wanted your truck and trailer look like a Christmas tree with lots of running lights you needed lots of juice, hence the heavy gauge wire.

4. Anyone able to tell how long shipping was to Canada? Two to three weeks, depending of customs and location.

Good morning Gentlemen, Welcome to another session at the Jackalopee University Heard from the individual who received the conglomeration of the Jackalopee and parts. He's installed most of it, it works like a charm, he hasn't been on this website, he is going "by the book" (the manual). He is up to installing the DirecLink and he provided me with another teachable moment worth sharing. I have one of these provided to me as a courtesy by DirecLink. Going with my philosophy, "don't' BS folks to appear smart when you don't know poop" I never installed or programmed one (I had air over hydraulic brakes on the trailer, didn't need one on my Volvo). So, I will post what I know and pose questions for others with direct experience to fill in. It's probably the most sophisticated instrument for the job of braking on the market at the moment. I've had electrical and electronic (sophisticated) brake controllers in my trucks and I had BluDot air over hydraulic on my last Volvo. I consider BluDot superior. Why? Instantaneous, fully proportional, all mechanical utilizing components produced by the millions proven in millions of installations. The downside, only works on trailers with hydraulic brakes, which is a fraction what's produced. The DirecLink (and many other) electronic brake controllers will also work on trailers with hydraulic brakes utilizing electronically controlled hydraulic pump. The key to this unit's operation is that coiled harness with a DB-9 connector that plugs into the DirecLink and that round plug at the other end that plugs into the the OBD socket on your semi. OBD stands for On-Board-Diagnostic and pretty much every vehicle now has one. This is a socket that a technician uses to plug his computer in to read the codes and the data on your vehicle and its "health". The port is connected to the vehicle computer which monitors multitude of sensors throughout the vehicle, but what the DirecLink is most "interested in" is the vehicle speed which the computer monitors. They have an algorithm in the unit (we heard a lot about those nasty algorithms lately) which can determine if the vehicle is accelerating, decelerating and if decelerating is it a gentle stop or a panic stop. Depending on which, it knows how much current (or hydraulic pump signal) it needs to send to the trailer brakes to match the braking of the truck. As we all know we decelerate all the time, going up hill, lifting foot off the accelerator pedal, coasting to a stop. You don't want the unit "doing its thing" every time it sees a deceleration. That's why what we talked about earlier is important. The connection of the red wire from the unit to the brake lights line is the key. When it sees the brake light being activated it know that it needs to go to work and send whatever power it calculated to the trailer brakes. That's it in a nutshell. Now a few items that could use a wider discussion from more knowledgeable people. Apparently there are different OBD cables for different trucks from different truck manufacturers and even different vintages of computer software on those trucks. This customer has a Pete and DirecLink wasn't sure which one would work (they have two), so he ordered both to find out which one he needed. Comments and wisdom would be appreciated. Use of OBD Y harnesses? He discussed his need to Y the OBD output since he plans to use it for two purposes, tracking and the DirecLink. The answer he got from DirecLink, they weren't sure if there could be a conflict and the devices might knock each other out. Comments and wisdom would be appreciated.

Ah, so you are the clever one. I was intrigued because in engineering you learn that anything can be designed many different ways and different does not mean wrong, only different. The other reason was, that this facet of wiring generates most phone calls for "help", so any route to simplification is worth exploring. So, using the +12V AUX to power the controller explains one thing, but it raises another questions, what are you using to charge the trailer batteries? What is the year and make of your truck? I'm asking because on newer trucks utilizing the AUX circuit can throw a computer code, or sometimes prevents turning off the engine once started. The other question I have is the picture on the lower right corner of the schematic you attached. Essentially color transition from DOT plug to RV socket, and the reason is? This whole thread started because I was preassembling an entire Jackalopee system for a temporary installation, so why not use this "opportunity" to document some of the not so obvious aspect of the installation and share it with you guys. Here's few other things I can share with you guys. No, I am not interested in doing this or offering this as a service. The reason I did it, the guy was in a real bind and the truck dealer was offering to do it "their way", but the more he asked what their way was the fuzzier the answers became. I suggested that he save the day of work and $700 and RUN, I'll help you. Anytime anyone suggests that it can be done on a semi by cutting here and splicing there, RUN. So, how much time it took a "pro" to get to this point, five hours. But, I was taking pictures and screwing around with other things. Four or five hours is reasonable time to get to this point. But remember that does not include mounting the unit, running the cable along the frame, mounting the RV socket, mounting the brake controller and running the wires to the brake controller and the truck battery. Another "pro" tip for saving ton of time and getting the "look". 😉 Want to avoid this look? 😝 In the manual on page 14 there are a couple of pictures for the RV side and the truck side. Cut to those lengths, strip (1/4-3/8"), crimp on the lugs and this will be the results. Another tip, use decent long nose pliers and and start installation with the heavy conductors first (white, black and blue). Next session we will talk about the reason I purchased this.

Welcome to the afternoon session. I was "intrigued" by the power and brake controller Jackalopee wiring one of the individuals did utilizing multiconductor SO cable and all inside the Jackalopee . I like clever ideas and since I had a quantity of the splitters I tried engineering a practical solution. I figured you would need a 5 conductor SO cable and two splitters. So here it goes: One conductor from the batteries across a breaker to the splitter on top of the +12V SWITCHED From the same splitter another conductor to the brake controller black wire (+12V power) One conductor from the GND tab in the upper left corner to the controller white wire (Ground) One conductor from the BRAKE CONTROLLER tab to the blue wire in the controller blue wire (braking power) One conductor from the BRAKE LIGHTS splitter to the controller red wire (brake lights) It would also require different cable grip for this cable to seal it. Hmmm? Doable and cute, buy I didn't like the same conductor feeding the charging circuit and the brake controller circuit and not having its own circuit breaker. So what do I recommend for the charging circuit. Run a length of black wire (12-10 gauge) from +12V truck battery terminal across 40 Amp resettable breaker to the Jackalopee +12V SWITCHED terminal. That terminal is connected and continues on the circuit board to a relay. Also note that there is a blue wire coming from the truck plug and ends on the +12V AUX tab. There is a connection from that (AUX) tab to the same relay, you can see it on the PCB Note on the trailer side that the relay is connected to the black wire which goes directly to the trailer battery (+12V stud). So a beautiful marriage occurs along the +12V SWITCHED circuit. You get into your truck, turn the key on, +12V AUX goes to +12V, that +12V clicks the relay on and the truck battery circuit is happily married to the trailer battery circuit. You turn the key off and get out of the truck and the relay instantly divorces of the two systems.

Number of distributors carry this part manufactured by Molex. About 9 cents in quantity. https://www.newark.com/molex/19043-0053/mmfa-bulk-tab-adapter-2m-1f-rohs/dp/57R8610?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhqaVBhCxARIsAHK1tiN-VgNe4HtUPkV3ZmbWM79K2IYIaKjXdR7Fm3dhVAxxgfN6h8HdGnAaAuIBEALw_wcB&mckv=_dc|pcrid||plid||kword||match||slid||product|57R8610|pgrid||ptaid||&CMP=KNC-GUSA-GEN-Shopping-PMAX-Med-ROAS

Carl, my first instinct was to go with something like this, but depending on the skills of the installers and the tight space, it provided ample opportunity for shorts (you have to modify this thing to work). And believe me I have witnessed some truly peculiar wiring skills and "attempts". The customer actually PAID to have this done and after things got shorted and board burnt up he had to buy another Jackalopee. So this is the part I found and felt would work the best. It is supplied with every Jackalopee sold, it comes in a little pouch attached to the instruction page dealing with its application. Many of you "older timers" haven't seen these two page (front and back) Cliff Notes (email will get you one). These are sent in addition to the 16 page manual. Why the 2 pages of Cliff Notes. For those who are terrified off or, TOO LAZY, or on the high horse WHY DO I NEED TO READ, 16 pages. Remember when Macbeth was your assignment and you didn't, you bought Macbeth cliff notes and pretended that you did. 16 pages boiled down to two. I'll have some "new material" for the afternoon session.

The second bit of wiring, which goes through the Jackalopee is the brake controller. Your semi has more than enough of air brakes to stop it and the trailer behind it, however, for safety reason (trailer jackknifing) you better have something in the trucks that activates the trailer brakes. Which means, some sort of electronic brake controller to activate the electric (or electric over hydraulics) brakes in the trailer. Brake controllers through various electronic and sensing methods determine how much electrical power (current) needs to go to the magnets in the trailer electrical brakes, or in the case of electric over hydraulic brakes send a digital signal to the hydraulic pump telling it how much hydraulic pressure needs to go to the hydraulic brakes (typically disk brakes). Whether it's a current or a signal it comes out of the controller through a blue wire. Above is a typical 4 wire harness as supplied with DirecLink, you should see a similar harness (and color code) on other controllers. Note I separated the four wires into two pairs, blue and red and black and white. Blue and red will go to the Jackalopee and black and white will go to the truck battery. After you mount the controller in the truck, it will be obvious that its harness will not reach neither of those places. Note what is going on here. There is a coil of red and blue wire coming out if the Jackalopee sufficient to connect the two in their mounting locations. The harness black and white wires will likely also need to be extended to reach the battery bank in the truck. So, what are the functions of the wires: As mentioned the blue wire carries either the current or the signal to the electric brakes in the trailer. The red wire is connected to the truck brake lights circuit in the Jackalopee (also a red wire). The white wire is connected to the ground terminal on the truck batteries. The black wire is connected to +12V terminal on the truck batteries, across a breaker. Basic principle in automotive electrical wiring is you never connect anything requiring battery power directly to the batteries, hence the substantial fuse panels in vehicles, boats, airplanes, Abrams M1 tanks, space shuttle, space station and Starship Enterprise when they build one. So put a breaker on the black wire before you get to the batteries. 20 Amp is a nice size for that application. Yellow from this manufacturer. Why one of these? Unlike standard fuses which burn up when overloaded and need to be replaced, these will thermally open up, but if the overload goes away, they will function again. They require #10 ring terminal and the brass colored terminal goes to the battery, the silver terminal to the load (harness). Depending on the battery bank you have in the truck, you might find that the 3/8" ring terminal (shown) fits nicely on the battery studs. So this is how things should look inside the Jackalopee. The blue wire plugs into terminal marked BRAKE CONTROLLER, the red wire shares the BRAKE LIGHTS terminal. Any questions, please post? We'll talk about the black wire in the next post

Question about this unit? I've installed in the past couple of the "original" Hayes models, which essentially moved the wiper on the rheostat to increase the current to brakes with the varying control air pressure. It was a beautiful bit of electro-mechanical simplicity, proportional to braking air pressure and worked like a charm once set up. Does the new unit still use rheostat, or did they switch to pressure transducer? Also looking at their picture I only see three wire coming off the unit, what's missing (ground)? Or, are there actually four wires?

We'll talk about these also tomorrow, some primer material

Tape has been used on this project although inferior in quality to the brand you mention. It was used to protect the cable as it exits the plug, normally that function is done by a spring protector you see below. It appears that the latest batch of those residing in the stockroom have the opposite thread from what the plugs want. Inquiries produced Sergeant Schultz responses, "I know nothin'. Solution beyond the tape, ordering bunch of rubber boots (P.N. 11-762) from North Carolina.