Electric or hydraulic brakes

[TBarCYa]

My boat trailer currently has hydraulic drum brakes with the lines cut and no surge coupler. I want to get the brakes working and am considering a couple things. First, should I consider putting electric brakes on the trailer or stick with hydraulic? Would electric brakes be prone to failure being dunked in salt water? I don't know the condition of what's there so it may cost the same to convert to electric as to repair the hydraulic.

Regarding the coupler. If the recommendation is to stick with hydraulic brakes is it best to stick with a surge coupler or are the electric over hydraulic solenoids as reliable? I prefer controlled over surge but I'm more interested in reliability than preference.

Thanks.

 

[tommays]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

electric is NO go

Next is how much you want to spend with the ele/hyd the best but BIG money compare to a surge unit


Then if you go disk MOST of the cheep units are of marignal quality Kodiak has 3 quality grades from around 100 to 300 dollars PER wheel



I do very well with drums and just do some prep work with 2-4-C grease i will be going with my 4th set of backing plates in the spring (new in 1995 saltwater)and new drums and a new coupler (both orginal from 1995)


Tommays

 

[captain zac]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I am having hyd. disk brakes installed today.
putting them on 4 wheels the kit includes the whole assembly
all new hyd lines, new master cylinder, new lights, new wiring harness add labor
1500.00 total
went over all options with the trailer expert and determined that the elec. brakes are more for the large trailers 40 ft and bigger but I did give them a lot of thought

Harry

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

If your trailer has the 10" rims ala pontoon trailer you will have to go hyd. drums.
Otherwise go hyd. disc.
elec, over hyd. is the sweet setup but cost more of course.

 

[TBarCYa]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I'm most likely going to stick with my hydraulic drums if they're rebuildable and even if they're not I may get lucky and the drums will be serviceable so the cost will be reasonable. I'll have to look harder into the electric over hydraulic systems and decide if it's worth the extra cost.

Thanks.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

My boat trailer currently has hydraulic drum brakes with the lines cut and no surge coupler. I want to get the brakes working and am considering a couple things. First, should I consider putting electric brakes on the trailer or stick with hydraulic? Would electric brakes be prone to failure being dunked in salt water? I don't know the condition of what's there so it may cost the same to convert to electric as to repair the hydraulic.

Regarding the coupler. If the recommendation is to stick with hydraulic brakes is it best to stick with a surge coupler or are the electric over hydraulic solenoids as reliable? I prefer controlled over surge but I'm more interested in reliability than preference.

Thanks.

I use nothing but electric brakes and wouldn't use hydraulics if you paid me. I have had no problems or had to replace any parts in 10 years towing my 24' Stamas and it has never been in anything but salt water.

Electrics are infinitely variable in the way you can control them. They are cheap to fix when they do break down. Plus you don't have to put up with the backing up hill stuff you have with surge brakes.

There is one thing I do that most don't do. I have a water lines that run from the backing plates to a 5 gallon tank in the truck and open the valve after hooking the boat up to the trailer and am walking to the cab to pull it up the ramp. This would benefit any drum brake setup BTW

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

My system is Kodiak disc brakes with an electric over hydraulic controller. I would not go the electric brake route.

This setup has all the advantages of the electric system that the previous poster mentioned without any of the disadvantages.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I gave up on brakes years ago, I don't tow that far and when I do I simply drive accordingly. I got tired of the saltwater eating away the brakes or things just getting seized up from corrosion. No matter how much I flushed out and maintained things, saltwater takes it's toll and fast. They would work fine when new but hardly ever the second season. I've even had the brake flanges rust off the axles in less than two years.
I never had a trailer frame problem, just the running gear and brakes. When the brakes rotted away on my tandem and they wanted big $$ to replace it all I just tossed it all. The odd part is that it don't tow all that different. On my regular trailers I run electric brakes with no problems, but I don't have any at all on any of my boat trailers. I haven't run brakes for over 20 years. I would probably be more concerned if I live where there were hills or if I drove farther to the ramp, but the ramp is at most maybe 30 miles or so on nearly all back roads.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I gave up on brakes years ago

If you live in NJ, this may be the guy driving behind you...

...scary!!!

 

[TBarCYa]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

Funny thing is, I do live in NJ but not near him...

I towed this boat all last season with a 6cyl Explorer and never had any problems that had me thinking that it needed brakes. It wasn't until I got the new tow vehicle and started towing my Jeep on it's trailer (dual axle electric brakes on both) that I realized just how nice it was having brakes on the trailer. The Jeep goes 220 miles each time it leaves the house whereas the boat makes an 80 mile trip at the beginning of the summer and many short trips to the ramp.

One thing tho is that the Jeep always goes into PA where there are hills and twisty roads and stuff whereas the boat stays in NJ where everything is flat and straight. I have to agree with imported_reelfishin tho that I don't think brakes are necessary because of how flat the state of NJ is... As long as you've got enough tow vehicle to control it.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I have to agree with imported_reelfishin tho that I don't think brakes are necessary because of how flat the state of NJ is... As long as you've got enough tow vehicle to control it.

As long as a small car doesn't cut you off and stop in front of you and you have to slam on your brakes to keep from hitting it...you are fine. You can just tell the relatives of the deceased that it was too hard to maintain the brakes every year.

I know of people that drive on bald tires and never have a blow out...doesn't mean you should do it.

Incredibly bad advice to post here and say you don't need brakes on a trailer. Reelfishin was talking about a tandem trailer too! Very irresponsible to the people around you that you are jeopordizing their safety...not even mentioning the people...most likely your family...that you are carrying with you in your vehicle.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

As long as you've got enough tow vehicle to control it.

Only a Tundra can do this (commercial says it'll stop 10,000 lbs).

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I didn't say you should drive without brakes.
I just refuse to spend a thousand dollars every year to drive a few miles to the ramp. My one tandem trailer came new without brakes, it doesn't even have axle flanges. Its rated at 4000lbs. The fastest speed I can tow at on the roads that I have to travel is about 40 mph. I have no problem stopping the trailer whatsoever. It actually tows worse empty than with the boat on it because with the rear antilock brakes, the rear of the truck is lighter with no load.
With my last truck, with a trailer with brakes, in a panic stop, it tended to jackknife since the front wheels could lock, as could the trailer brakes but the rear truck wheels would not. This fine feature would cause the rear end of the truck to slide and follow the crown of the road. It was fine so long as you didn't jam on the brakes, but on sand or snow it would slide.

I did price putting new brakes on my larger trailer, they wanted over $1500 for the parts, that's more than triple what my whole rig is worth. I didn't pay that for my truck, trailer, boat and motor. The way I see it is that I take that boat to the water maybe 2 or 3 times a year, it's just not worth it to spend that kind of money for a 20 minute ride a couple times a year. I did put lights on all of my trailers this year though.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

With my last truck, with a trailer with brakes, in a panic stop, it tended to jackknife since the front wheels could lock, as could the trailer brakes but the rear truck wheels would not. This fine feature would cause the rear end of the truck to slide and follow the crown of the road. It was fine so long as you didn't jam on the brakes, but on sand or snow it would slide.

At least with trailer brakes, your trailer wouldn't be pushing the rear of your truck around.

 

[Scaaty]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

Plus you don't have to put up with the backing up hill stuff you have with surge brakes.

The one problem with surge..

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I use nothing but electric brakes and wouldn't use hydraulics if you paid me.

I presume your talking about electric over hydraulic brakes vs straight electric?

 

[jevery]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

The one problem with surge..

I don't understand the problem backing up hills. Simply wire flat five harness as instructed. I've had two trailers now with surge brakes. Electric may very well be better, but surge brakes have proved simple, very effective, and economical to my satisfaction. Only problem I could see would be descending long grades in the mountainous states. Not a consideration where I live in the flatlands or even in the Ozarks where I frequently tow.

 

[captain zac]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

The guy that is rebuilding my trailer installed some sort of switch that disconnects the breaks when you are backing up not sure what it is called but I think it was about $49.00

Harry

 

[achris]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I have cable operated disc brakes, with bronze disc rotors. Apart from adjusting the clearance about once a year there is zero maintenance. I have also used SS cable so that's forever now. The only hint I would give you is that when you install them, install a piece of bungy cord to pull the arms back towards the axles, it stops the brakes dragging and extends the life of the pads.

Chris.........

 

[Lou C]

Re: Electric or hydraulic brakes

I have towed the same boat without and with brakes and there's no comparison in the level of safety. Unless you have a 3/4 ton pickup that weights close to 2x what the boat weighs, you will feel a huge difference when you have working brakes. If you are in violation of the laws in your state if an accident happens the liability could be serious. Let's face it boating is expensive, look at all the repairs that people on this site are always talking about, the way I look at it the brakes on the trailer is just part of that total. Plus if you flush em even the drums will last more than one season, the newer Tie Down Galvax brakes +the yellow zinc plated drums have lasted me 3 seasons so far. I do use the flush system and rigged up a 5 gallon tank with a livewell pump to flush them when there is no hose available.