Surprised But Not Really...

[Wisconsin Retiree]

So I pulled my wheels, lubed wet bolts, check suspension bolt torgue, inspected brakes and repacked my wheel bearings. This is the first time I have pulled the drums off and upon looking at the brake wires I noticed one wire was wrapped in black tape. Upon undoing the tape this frayed/pinched/cut wire is what I found...who would do something like this and think it is acceptable???

[Lee-CI]

Might I suggest that you be thankful if this is the worst discrepancy you come across in this day and time. With that said, this a a perfect example of why pulling the drums to do a bearing repack is so important. Someone else might well have decided to do the Easy Lube routine with a grease gun and would never have been aware of the issue. Good eye and great job!
That's my two cents anyway.

[scuba dude]

Did you buy that camper new? Just wondering if it came from factory that way. Would not surprise me.

[Wisconsin Retiree]

A couple bought it new and it was too much for him to drive so he took it back and traded down after a couple months. I then bought it from the dealer. He had never touched anything on the trailer...

[rohrmann]

All bets are off. This wasn’t a virgin trailer and that brake wire issue may have been what caused the prior owner to trade it in.

[Daryles]

I would splice it.
With this kind of splice, when you heat the heat shrink, it oozes out the end and makes it water proof.

[Wisconsin Retiree]

That is exactly what I did. In addition to that connector I also put an additional heat shrink tube over it.

[RMcNeal]

You're lucky that was all it was. When I pulled mine 6 months after purchasing new, I found the wiring completely wrapped around the shaft and torn apart. The magnet was destroyed. Had to replace the entire assembly. I was wondering why it seemed like I had very little braking, and after reading of people pulling the hubs for their first service to find no grease in the bearings, I did mine early.
After some emails with Dexter, they did reimburse me for the parts, but of course, not the labor.

[Ttman]

I just replaced all of my brakes with the Dexter Never adjust a few months ago. Mine came with the electric wire messed up because of the way they package them. The brake assemblies are placed with the wire down and all of the weight of the brake assembly smashes down on the wires. The boxes were not beat up ripped, etc. during shipping, so it had to occur during manufacturing/packaging/storage and/or shipping.

My wires did not appear to be broken, only the insulation was smashed/cut. I used marine grade heat shrink so its hopefully waterproof and last long term. All four of my brake assemblies showed pressure on the wire insulation in the same general area, this was the worst one, so make sure to always check your parts!

[Wisconsin Retiree]

That is actually ridiculous that a new product wire would have that extent of damage from the get go...

[dfb]

This never happened in the 50s 60s and 70s.. this is a public safety issue....