Patent ID: 7438368

Claim:
An electric brake device for vehicle trailers with a trailer travel direction and with a rigid hitch arrangement with a rigid member section extending in a rigid member section axial direction to a trailer coupling, the rigid member section axial direction being generally in the trailer travel direction, the device comprising: a brake means having a power supply unit that can be connected to a towing vehicle; a sensing means designed as a deformation-sensing device, mounted at the rigid hitch arrangement on the rigid member section for detecting deformation in the rigid member section and for determining the axial direction tensile and compressive forces acting in the rigid member section of the hitch arrangement in the rigid member section axial direction along the rigid section without movement of the hitch arrangement relative to the trailer coupling; and a control for determining the braking force needed based on the detected axial direction tensile and compressive forces and braking the trailer with the braking forces needed with the braking means.