Surge brake problem....help!

7

7lazy77

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Feb 28, 2011
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226
Took my boat in to get it summarized & noticed a jolting in the trailer when I would slow down/stop along with a jolting when I accelerated. It felt like I had no trailer brakes at all, so I assumed that my brake fluid was low..... I checked the reservoir & it was full. If the reservoir is full, what could be causing this & where would I begin to start troubleshooting??
 
bruceb58

bruceb58

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Mar 5, 2006
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30,581
  1. Brakes not adjusted properly
  2. Bad master cylinder
  3. Bad wheel cylinder
  4. Air in lines.
 
gm280

gm280

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Jun 26, 2011
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Trailer brakes really have a much harder life then vehicle brakes. And that is because the trailer sits for so long in between being used and gets wet at the water areas as well. That is harder on such systems then being used daily. So you need to look over the entire braking system very well to see what is working and not working. Bleed the system and make sure there is clean brake fluid in them. Make sure the wheel cylinders are working properly as well. Any leaks or discolored fluid means you have a problem that needs to be serviced. The master cylinder also needs checked out to ensure it is doing the job without problems too. Master cylinders usually don't see lake or river water, it still has issues sitting as well. It has to function smoothly to supply the fluid to the individual wheel cylinders. So you need to do some general maintenance and fix any and all issues. That should be a routine occurrence yearly at least but more so if conditions warrant. JMHO!
 
Thalasso

Thalasso

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What type of brakes? Disk or drum?
If drum you need to adjust the brakes. Usually this is 90% of the problem.
 
7

7lazy77

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Feb 28, 2011
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It is just a single jolt....happens when stoping & accelerating.
 
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B

BRICH1260

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1,380
I had the same problem on an old trailer, turned out the shock absorber inside the unit was bad.
 
U

UncleWillie

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Oct 18, 2011
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Find out where the Clunk is coming from before you blindly throw money at the problem.

Tow the trailer to a parking lot or a quiet side street.
While one person drives, have another walk next to ,but safely clear of, the coupling.
Pull forward briskly 5 feet and then stop just as briskly.
What Clunked?
Loose coupling? Sloppy master cylinder? Loose Ball? Hitch loose on truck? Draw Bar loose in Receiver?
Loose Axel/Tire? Boat moving on trailer? Loose Winch post? A box sliding in the boat? What Moved?

There are way too many places a Clunk can originate that you could spend big money and weeks on the problem and not fix it.
Be sure you know the source of the problem first!
 
bruceb58

bruceb58

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smokeonthewater said:
If it were an $0.80 fix I would still prefer my solution. ;-)
Click to expand...
If all you have is a hammer...

I would explore if it was an easy fix before gutting it all. Could just be that he needs to bleed his brakes. Personally, i would never put electric drum brakes on a boat trailer so even if the electric brakes were free, I wouldn't put them on. Of course you already knew that! :)
 
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U

UncleWillie

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Thalasso said:
What he said was, It felt like he had no brakes.
Click to expand...

+1. Exactly!

He also said he was taking it to get it "Summerized", implying that it likely had not rolled in over 6 months.
Braking surfaces with a six month layer of surface rust are not going to give much braking action until the surface gets worn-in again.

We have more questions than we have answers.
Throwing money at the problem is not a good way to find the real solution.
 
V

vans

Petty Officer 3rd Class
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Sep 26, 2004
Messages
78
Do you have any brake fluid in reservoir? I wonder if you have a leak and lost fluid, I had same thing last year and it turned out top be a leak in caliper.
 
Illinoid

Illinoid

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Sep 28, 2013
Messages
137
Originally posted by Thalasso View Post
What he said was, It felt like he had no brakes.



+1. Exactly!

He also said he was taking it to get it "Summerized", implying that it likely had not rolled in over 6 months.
Braking surfaces with a six month layer of surface rust are not going to give much braking action until the surface gets worn-in again.

I pull a loaded trailer every day and after just sitting overnight the brakes continue to work better after each stop till I have made 8 or 10 stops and the first 3 or 4 oare from highway speeds. It takes a while to get the rust out of the drums.
 
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