Anyone with a Dexter Brake Actuator in their Classic?

[KJRitchie]

I had my Actibrake replaced with a Dexter when I bought my 2008 Classic in March 2013. I never worried about it but I was looking in the compartment checking things out and noticed something strange on in the compartment.

The blue controller wire seems to be spliced into something. I think its an electric brake magnet.

I wonder if the Airstream dealer I bought from knew what they were doing?

Did they set this up to fool my brake controller, Prodigy 2. It has a setting for hydraulic actuators.

The Dexter instructions don't show anything like this. Looks like a kludge.

Kelvin

[Greg@AirLA]

They put a dummy load in there to simulate an electric brake system, some of the other brake controllers send a diagnostic pulse to check continuity, if your controller has an electric over hydraulic setting you should be able to remove the magnet. Carlise sells a large resistor with their pumps to do the same thing.

Greg

[KJRitchie]

I have a Prodigy 2 and I have it set for hydraulic brakes. I set it months after I took delivery of my preowned Airstream. I don't know if the Actibrake had this installed prior to the switch over to Dexter.

Kelvin

[tvketchum]

My Actibrake in my 08 classic responds to that diagnostic pulse with a fairly hard application of the trailer brakes. This is with the controller set in electric over hydraulic mode, and has done this since we bought the rig last year. I am hearing that the P3 will not do this, but I have also read about various ways to eliminate this with electronic plug in gizmos and using an old magnet. The magnet takes the pulse, but supposedly does not affect brake applications.


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Tom
TVKetchum

[KJRitchie]

So possibly when my dealer switched swapped out the Actibrake to Dexter they just left the magnet in.

I wonder if having the magnet with my Prodigy 2 affects the performance.

Kelvin

[tvketchum]

I'm curious to know if the magnet was wired in series or in parallel in the circuit. I don't want to spend money on a new controller let alone a new actuator.


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Tom
TVKetchum

[KJRitchie]

Here is another photo at a different angle. Looks like they spliced the magnet into the blue wire then ground the other end so I guess that is parallel?

Kelvin

[tvketchum]

That's what I think. I tried out my test lamp on the wires (blue to white ground), and it stopped the intermittent application, but did not interfere with actuation with the slide. Now, I'm soldering a magnet in, but I need a higher wattage iron to get the solder to flow into the copper. Thanks for the picture and the response. Leaving it in may be the better choice, no matter what controller is used, the actuator will behave and not wear out the brakes. If you haven't had problems with braking performance then leaving it won't hurt.


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Tom
TVKetchum