No More Surge Brake Headaches

pickledboater · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2014 10:24 pm

Finally had it with the surge brakes. Bought the stuff today to switch to electric. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!

ric · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2014 11:08 pm

YEah!!!!

People seem to dog the electric brakes, but I don't see why. You can control their pressure with a brake controller anytime you wish AND... AND!!

Sure, if they corrode guess what? $50 bucks shipped gets you a new complete electric brake assembly with shoes per wheel. Let's see someone with surge brakes replace their whole brake system for $100 an axle.

deafwish · **Posted:** Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:18 am

Ah, but try fixing that on the side of the highway when the mechanism seizes!
Cable operated, mechanical override disc brakes are simplicity at its best...

blue dragon · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:01 pm **Posts:** 792

Electric over hydraulic? I've been thinking about it for sometime too.

TFD2001 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:48 am

blue dragon wrote:

Electric over hydraulic? I've been thinking about it for sometime too.

It's what I've had on my last two boat trailers! Love them! New one is much better than the first..

LouC · **Posted:** Tue Jun 10, 2014 11:06 am

Lol hard enough to keep trailer lights working in salt (finally ran separate grounds to frame rails) forget about electric brakes here. My surge drums work well with a little back yard engineering mods to take care of their deficiencies....

kd4pbs · **Joined:** Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:34 am **Posts:** 350

deafwish, I do wish we had the ability to use a simple system like that here in the states. Alas, we are stuck. Electric over hydraulic is nice, but only in the sense that it allows for more control of the brakes. One still has to deal with the hydraulic system that a surge brake system has, as well as the electric actuator. I put electric drums on my last trailer, and it worked great, but indeed I never put it in salt; Lou is right... electric drums in salt is a major headache from everyone I've ever heard that tried it.

pickledboater · **Posted:** Fri Jun 20, 2014 4:43 pm

So far the brakes are working excellent! One thing is to remember to un-plug or turn them down all the way when the boat is off the trailer, they work a little too good then. The controller I have in my truck is a time based one rather than inertia based. It worked really well when I pulled the boat behind my fifth wheel. I switched to a truck camper now and it seems to be a little harsh with the reduced weight. May look into another controller.

LouC · **Posted:** Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:24 pm

That's the one nice thing about surge brakes, they engage based on the weight on the trailer, light weight little brakes heavy weight stronger brakes. Believe it or not, if you use the right ones, surge drums can work very well and can last much longer than the legend has it. You need to start out with galvanized backing plates and galvanized or zinc plated drums, not the painted stuff. Then you make the wheel cylinders as water proof as possible, grease the piston inside the cylinder and grease the adjuster and pivot points with OMC triple guard. Doing that I get good life from them.

Compared to disc brakes, drum brakes unlike discs are self-energizing and therefore work better at lighter weights and lower actuator pressures. I live where there are very steep hills and they really work fine. Just need some careful choice of parts a bit'o re-engineerin'.....

pickledboater · **Posted:** Sun Jun 22, 2014 2:28 pm

I agree with ya Lou. When my surge brakes were working they did do a good job. I guess I'll admit that the main reason I went with electric is that I'm both cheap and lazy for the most part. As far as controllers go, remember back before ABS, when you just put a tee in a line at the master cylinder and that actuated the rheostat in the controller? Ah, but for the simpler times!!

www.iFourWinns.com

No More Surge Brake Headaches

Who is online