Heres another one but on brakes

[XltRoger2003]

As far as I know its all stock I'm going to be towing about 5000lbs cause of my camper so are the factory brakes good enuff or do I need to upgrade ???? I don't even know what's on it except pads and rotors,,,are they dual piston???? Do they make dual piston ones for us????? I saw some power stop slotted and drilled rotors through eBay,,, what about them and I saw summit had some good looking callipers so what should I do????

 

[XltRoger2003]

Well now

 

[XltRoger2003]

I'll use this post to keep it going and maybe somebody might answer it all but who knows right???
OK just curious about something else on my brakes,,,, when I let off the brakes and give it some gas ,the brake pedal seems to "pop" like a spring instantly releasing it to go back to the non depressed location and I have felt it do that, so is this part normal or does somebody know what it might be before I change the rotors,pads,and calipers???

 

[XLTyler83]

I could be wrong but I believe max tow capacity for our vehicles are about 7k lbs so you'll be close to the limit and putting your vehicle through close to its max weight but not anything over it. You may want to get drilled rotors to keep them cooler, research high quality pads with good stopping power and long life, new calipers. I'm sure in missing some things I never tow more than about 2500 lbs. Research the expedition brakes. Theres also a thread on here that may interest you named explorer to aviator brakes, this may be something you could do.

 

[XltRoger2003]

Lol I just read that thread about 10 minutes ago,I'm planning on getting drilled and slotted rotors and good pads either ebc or powerstop brand,and I was going to get some new calipers as well and flush it all ,,,and thanks for the reply XLTyler83

 

[Mbrooks420]

What’s your actual tow rating? I’d definitely want a weight distributing hitch. If your camper is 5,000 you are probably close to the frontage limits, as well. You’re brakes should be adequate, so any upgrades will be extra security. A camper that big should have its own brakes, which will handle most of it’s stopping load.

 

[XltRoger2003]

OK the weight of the popup camper is 3500 lb almost completely loaded the other 1500 lbs is extra cargo and passengers, I put a brake controller on our old suburban and no matter what setting I used the camper brakes would lock up and I did about wrecked 3 times trying to use them until I gave up and ripped out the controller and tossed it and never bothered trying to use one again.. And that's why I'm going to upgrade the brakes and all but thanks Mbrooks420 for the reply

 

[XltRoger2003]

I just found some Wilwood 4 piston DPHA brake system but the rotors are 10inch but I still like the power stop setup for all four wheels but I don't know

 

[JW]

There aren't any significant aftermarket upgrades for the brakes on these. On my 2003, I'm installing the Aviator front brakes and EBC rotors/yellowstuff pads in a couple of weeks. The factory calipers are dual piston, but it's still a floating design, so the pistons are on the same side.

If you have the towing package (easy to tell because you'll have the larger hitch receiver), you have the wiring harness to add an aftermarket trailer brake controller up under the dash (you'll need a harness to go between the factory wiring and the controller). I have this one along with their harness and it worked very well for my daughter's high school band trailers (one of which was north of 7000 lbs fully loaded). I also regularly tow a pop-up that is in the 3500 lb range fully loaded; its brakes have never worked right, and I do just fine with that.

On my Ranger, I used to warp the rotors every 20,000 miles or so. The best upgrade I did was drilled/slotted rotors. I ran a set of those well over 100,000 miles without replacing them.

 

[IPcamper]

I have a 03 XLT with the standard brakes. We tow a 2500lb pop-up and probably have an extra 1000 lbs of stuff. The standard brakes on the explorer are OK, but not great. Upgrading to the Aviator's breaks is probably the best route, but I have never gotten around to it. The main thing for you is to make sure the trailer brakes are good and working properly. Most of the trailer brakes are electric drum brakes and need to be manually adjusted. ( https://www.dexteraxle.com/docs/def...cument-library/light-duty-electric-brakes.pdf ) We use a Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller. When it is adjusted properly, I can't even feel the trailer behind the Explorer when stopping, very smooth.

I have towed a 6000lb trails for the Boy Scouts with our explorer. I could definitely feel the weight when pulling, but with the brakes properly adjusted, I never had a problem stopping the trailer.

 

[Halford1]

One of the main reason I got my 2014 Explorer was the tow package. Without it, the Explorers are slated to tow up to 2,000 lbs even if you added hitch yourself. With tow package you can tow up to 5,000 lbs but give room for cargo, passenger, fluid weight, also. That probably leave me around 4200 Lbs to tow. I like to tow up to 4000 lbs and give my Explorer a break when towing. I tow Coleman Niagara which its GVWR is 3500 lbs.

I do not know if any Explorers can tow up to 7,000 lbs unless it has tow package, V8 engine with good transmission and gear box.

I advise not to tow over 2,000 lbs if you do not have two package, and not over 5,000 lbs if you have tow package.

 

[Halford1]

About the electric brakes in popups, they are very easy to fix or adjust. Sometimes the locking problems can be pointed to brake controller - you just have to adjust the brake controller to where you are comfortable in the braking. I do not have any problems going downhill with electric brakes especially at Grapevine Mountains.

If you have problems with brake controller, replace it with good brake controller. Change the brake pads and if necessary turn the drum or replace drums.

 

[XltRoger2003]

Well my ex is a v8 and has the tow package and I can't stand brake controllers all because it about made me wreck I even turned it all the way down and it still locked them up and started sliding in the other lane at 60mph and a tractor trailer about hit the camper and me that when I disconnected the controller,,,,,,, thanks JW ,ipcamper ,halford1 for all the info I'll have somebody check and adjust the camp which is a highwall pop-up........ But is there a answer about the brake pedal " springing " back into place after I take my foot off the pedal???

 

[Halford1]

Is your breakaway brakes functioning?

Could be one or both electric brakes that need to be replaced. it is not very expensive if you can do it yourself.

What brake controller do you have? Some of them are not good.

 

[XltRoger2003]

I don't have a brake controller anymore I tossed it when I about wrecked and that was on my suburban before I got this beast and I don't do brakes

 

[Mbrooks420]

I’d say you need to have your trailer brakes inspected and fixed or adjusted, and a quality controller installed.

 

[XltRoger2003]

Well one the controller they had 3 different models my wife said get the cheapest one so typical me I didn't listen and I went with the digital one that was the mid grade it was adjustable from 0.0 through 6.9 ,,0.0 was the only way to keep it from locking it up so I called the manufacturer and they said 0.0 was all the way off so I disconnected it and tossed it since I was able to stop with out locking it up and thanks halford1 and Mbrooks420 for the reply

 

[JW]

Did it also have a "boost" feature? The Prodigy has that. I never had to use it with the band trailers. My popup's brakes are so hosed that even with the controller's gain and boost features maxed out, I still had no effective braking from the trailer. Good thing it's light.

 

[XltRoger2003]

Well it had a thumb roller beside the display and on the side it had a button, I don't know what the button was for I never had the chance to try it to see what it did... Thanks JW

 

[IPcamper]

The electric brakes on the pop-up trailers need to be adjusted manually. On a car with drum brakes, the star wheel adjuster is automaticly adjusted when you backup and apply the brakes with a simple ratchet mechanism. The electric brakes on the popup don't have that. As the brake shoes wear, they no long grip the drum well. The star wheel needs to adjusted to get good grip. Another problem whit the electric brakes is poor grounding and damaged wiring preventing the brakes from getting full power. Lastly breaks that are very worn often have the electromagnet worn and it may need to be replaced.

Like I said, the Explorer brakes are OK, but not great. If you rely on the Explorer brakes to do all the work on on that much extra weight, you will wear them out, and seriously run the risk of the trailer pushing you around and fishtailing. You have a trailer weighing 3,500 pounds pushing a vehicle of only 4,400 to 4,800 pounds ( empty ). The trailers are designed to have brakes and in many states it is a legal requirement to working breaks on trailers of that weight. I don't know the laws in other states, but the State of Maryland requires brakes on trailers of 3,000lbs or more, with a break-away mechanism to stop the trailer if it becomes separated from the tow vehicle. About 10 years ago a young lady was killed in an accident near Annapolis MD when a trailer separated from a pickup truck and rolled in to the oncoming traffic and hit a small car coming the other way.

So do everyone a favor, and make sure your trailer brakes are working properly.