Need help with hydrastar brakes!
Submitted by Mattywalton on Wed, 2015-04-15 03:28
Hey guys
I have hydrastar brakes on my boat trailer. I need help with the constant 12 volt supply to the hydrastar unit.
I have a 2010 ford ranger xlt with a tekonasha voyager brake controller. Currently the hydrastar wiring to the plug on the trailer is earth to pin 3 and 12 volt to pin 2. How ever on the car side pin 2 is still the standard wiring. Do I need to run a new cAble from the battery to pin 2? If so do I need a circuit breaker or fuse on this line. Below is a picture of the wiring of the boat trailer plug.
Image Upload:
Piggy
Posts: 549
Date Joined: 24/08/12
New Wiring
Sounds like you need new witing from your battery to the hydrastar unit to charge the battery for the break away?
If thats the case then I used an anderson plug and my standard trailer plug on my car.... I dont have photos to show you unfortnately. If you run a new power wire from your battery to the plug then you will definently need a fuse... The old regs for trailer brakes use to state that you have to use fusable links but I dont think you have to anymore. Anyway if it still you are still required to use fusable links I have a whole heap of 20amp links, I would be happy to give you one.
Hope that helps
I go boating not fishing
Mattywalton
Posts: 4
Date Joined: 14/04/15
could I tap of the positive
could I tap of the positive side before my Anderson plug and run it to pin 2. Instead of running a new wire all the way to the front of the car? Also could I just use a 20amp automatic circuit breaker instead?
Piggy
Posts: 549
Date Joined: 24/08/12
Depending
Depends on what that anderson plug is running and how many amps it is drawing.... If ii has 4 - 6mm wire and not running anything else then using that power supply I think would be ok, but like I said depends what it is running and how many amps it is drawing.
I go boating not fishing
Mattywalton
Posts: 4
Date Joined: 14/04/15
Anderson plug isn't getting
Anderson plug isn't getting used at all so I'll just use that I think. Thanks for your help.
Rob H
Posts: 5796
Date Joined: 18/01/12
As far as im aware you must
As far as im aware you must use an auto reset fuse on the supply, use the anderson plug, much less fiddly.
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
Mattywalton
Posts: 4
Date Joined: 14/04/15
20 or 30 amp?
20 or 30 amp?
mullows
Posts: 738
Date Joined: 25/12/08
Just had a look at mine and
Just had a look at mine and have an inline 20 amp fuse.
Cheers
Mullows
The Older I get the better I was :-)
rodkarr10
Posts: 15
Date Joined: 29/02/12
12 volt supply to the hydrastar
you only need 12 volt power to the unit if you have a battery for breakaway unit. this power should run directly from battery to pin 2 or Anderson plug.
have a look at the web sites below for some help.
www.dunbier.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/HydraStar_SM.pdf
www.dunbier.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Hydrastar_Wiring.pdf
www.hydrastar.com.au/brake-actuators/hydrastar-hba-series/
ps for your testing make sure you follow instructions, if you stuff up the unit, a new one will set you back $1k+
hope this helps
roddo
Posts: 486
Date Joined: 16/10/09
Be very careful doing this
Be very careful doing this yourself as it can cost you a lot to get fixed as the ranger electric system is very sensitive i would get it installed by a professional the hydrastar unit needs positive to activate the brake actuator and it also sends a small charge to the brakeaway battery. If u just run a positive wire to it it sends different volt messages to the cars computer which can fry things ring a local auto sparky to get confirmation. In older vehicles its as simple as picking up 12 volts from anywhere.
triggy
Posts: 128
Date Joined: 14/09/11
The hydrastar battery is
The hydrastar battery is charged by your running lights. If you have the wiring diagram for the hydrastar, you or an auto sparky should be able to wire it such that the running lights are charging the battery.
It's not too complicated but unfortunately few people have any knowledge of the hydrastar stuff, I had all of the wires terminated in a junction box which was mounted on the draw bar. It was then possible to run just the wires needed for lights etc to the plug, much neater and easier.
My sugestion is work out what needs to be earthed on the hydrastar, work out what requires power from the running lights, work out what requires power from the brake lights as this obviously activates the brake unit. Terminate these seperate to your plug. Knowing what each wire from your hydrastar is, run your wires from the plug into the required terminators. You may end up with as many as 3-4 wires terminated in a single terminator.
I'm not an an auto sparkys a***hole so im not sure what is what in your plug, a diagram of a 7 pin flat plug will be easy to find.
Hopefully that made sense, send us a pm if I can be of any help.
triggy
Posts: 128
Date Joined: 14/09/11
And I ran mine on a late
And I ran mine on a late model ranger, no dramas
Vinesh87
Posts: 2751
Date Joined: 02/04/11
Yeh you shouldnt run your
Yeh you shouldnt run your hydrastar of your running lights.
As stated in the wiring rules for hydrastar this needs to be a constant 12v 25-40amp supply directly from the battery on a auto-resetable breaker.
opsrey
Posts: 1200
Date Joined: 05/10/07
Why does the hydrostar send volt messages to car computer?
So the hydrostar needs a feed back to the cars computer?
triggy
Posts: 128
Date Joined: 14/09/11
It shouldn't.The hydrastar
It shouldn't.
The hydrastar only needs an earth, power from the running lights to charge the battery, and power from the brake lights to activate the actuator.
If you are fault finding make sure the battery is charged.
Broady
Posts: 130
Date Joined: 16/01/13
Feedback's not the issue
The Ranger/BT50 electric/computer system is sensitive to voltage drop so you need to use Relays in your circuits. Plenty of info on the Web about this.
Got a similar setup and after 3 years the battery for the breakaway on the Hydrastar unit died. Definitely wasn't getting enough charge through the trailer circuits and I now charge it separately as part of routine maintenance.
rodkarr10
Posts: 15
Date Joined: 29/02/12
hydrastar
the system is running with a tekonasha voyager brake controller. this supplies a variable voltage to the Hydrastar electronic unit. not from brake lights.
also the power should come from the car battery as per the manufactures instructions.
so power from controller
power from car battery
earth to car earth (not trailer)
triggy
Posts: 128
Date Joined: 14/09/11
Apologies
Jumped the gun there, this is a different unit to what I am farmiliar with
Vinesh87
Posts: 2751
Date Joined: 02/04/11
To answer your question in
To answer your question in short:
Yes you need to run a new cable to your pin 2(Reverse lights pin is generally used to do the power when you don't have a 12 pin connector or anderson). This needs to come directly from your battery ( Not running lights) via a Auto- Resetabble fuse to the value of 25-40A as per manufactureres instructions.Wire size is recomended at 10 guage.
Have a look through this.
http://www.hydrastar.com.au/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=uQfi70bDVDE%3d&tabid=197
dan1
Posts: 379
Date Joined: 11/07/07
wiring
just remember whaT broady said about the charging system.
on the rangers it is a voltage sensing system. We had promlems with our rangers at work they wired the high bay tail lights up to the car factory tail lights and the car would sence there is more load coming off that circut and would shut down the tail lights
we had to then wire it into the factory trailer plug wiring harness to stop that issue
i seem to remember some where on a forum saying you need to run any accessories from the powersuply from the ignition with a relay or something but dont hold me to that
and i guess it dedends on what hydrastar model he has to to how its wired