[VAC] Re: Variable resistor for brake controller?

["Weimers" <mweimer@xxxxxxxx>]

It seems to me that these resistors needed to be mounted in the engine
compartment away from anything because of the heat they produce ....could
start a fire if too close to something flamable inside a vehicle.  Isn't
that correct??  I think you'd better go with the extention shaft!  ....or at
least a box to protect it.

I have a really old brake controller in my vintage ('68) hauler. It has an
adjuster inside the contoller. By turning the manual level one way or the
other you can increase or decrease the amount of coils contacting inside the
controller ..therefore affecting the current passed to the trailer brakes.
But, when this system was installed in my Aunt's '67 Impalla SS convertible
they did have a variable resistor (coils of wire on a board with various
studs to adjust it) in the engine compartment. I remember she had to take it
back to the dealer when her tiny Shasta trailer locked up it's brakes in
every little town she passed through. They hooked her brake wire up to a
different stud on the variable resistor (to pass thru more coils of the
wire).

The variable resistor did look like coils of wire out of a heater .....and I
remember that they felt hot after the brakes had been applied.  Be careful
how you mount it!

MARC WEIMER
Punxsutawney, PA  -  Home of the Groundhog
#15767
1963 Globe Trotter
1971 Globe Trotter
http://users.penn.com/~mweimer/weimer.html