I have a Sea Ray 260 that weighs in around 7400 dry. The gross weight with fuel and trailer let?s say is 9500lbs. The trailer is a tandem axle Magic Tilt 2882 which is designed for a 28' boat. Originally it came with Surge Hydraulic drums on one axle; you can imagine that this did nothing. I paid some idiot shop (I will not mention C.J. Marine in Des Moines, WA here as that would not be appropriate ) to put disc brakes on it and they ran a bunch of lines everywhere with 12" discs, put a lock out solenoid on and connected it to the drum brake actuator; I ended up in a middle of an intersection skidding 
. I didn?t take it back and cut my losses. I tried ordering the disc brake actuator, Six Roblees gave me a Drum brake one and I didn?t realize it till after, it seemed to work for a mile or two then failed. I finally said forget this noise and took it into what seems to be a reputable operation. They told me the following: Contrary to popular belief brake fluid can compress and because of the size of my trailer, weight and length of my lines I would be better off with Electric Brake Rite II of Hydraulic system and that its unlikely surge brakes will work right for me. Everything he said seemed to make sense but what gets me is why would they design a trailer with a single axle drum brake that was meant to carry 10K pounds when its rated for that? (That?s what the plate on the side says it can carry and I confirmed it with Magic Tilt).
Anyways can someone comment on Electric over Hydraulic and if that is the way to go for me. On other factor is I am 30-40% above the GVWR (NO LECTURE ON THIS, I HAVE ALREADY BEEN DOWN THIS PATH ON ANOTHER THREAD, I only two 2-5 miles) and there is a couple of steep grades along the way. The guy at the new shop said he felt bad and would try to do it for $850 which seems like a deal. I looked into doing the whole thing myself and I was into it in parts alone for almost that much.
Comments??
. I didn?t take it back and cut my losses. I tried ordering the disc brake actuator, Six Roblees gave me a Drum brake one and I didn?t realize it till after, it seemed to work for a mile or two then failed. I finally said forget this noise and took it into what seems to be a reputable operation. They told me the following: Contrary to popular belief brake fluid can compress and because of the size of my trailer, weight and length of my lines I would be better off with Electric Brake Rite II of Hydraulic system and that its unlikely surge brakes will work right for me. Everything he said seemed to make sense but what gets me is why would they design a trailer with a single axle drum brake that was meant to carry 10K pounds when its rated for that? (That?s what the plate on the side says it can carry and I confirmed it with Magic Tilt).Anyways can someone comment on Electric over Hydraulic and if that is the way to go for me. On other factor is I am 30-40% above the GVWR (NO LECTURE ON THIS, I HAVE ALREADY BEEN DOWN THIS PATH ON ANOTHER THREAD, I only two 2-5 miles) and there is a couple of steep grades along the way. The guy at the new shop said he felt bad and would try to do it for $850 which seems like a deal. I looked into doing the whole thing myself and I was into it in parts alone for almost that much.
Comments??
