surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

pricing triple axle trailers for a Formula 353 Fastec. will be used 2-3 times per week and dunked in salt water. whats the pros and cons

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Elect. over hyd is the ONLY way to go if you want stopping power...

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

We have a 38 Fountain on a Myco with Electric over Hyd. brakes. Launched our boat 25 times in brackish and salt water this season. No problems. Best investment I made for trailering a boat. Check your local regulations. Some states require them.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

I agree electric over hydraulic is the way to go. The old style drum brakes ( Surge Style) would always hold water and therfore rust out faster. Electric over hydraulic disc brakes will not lock up either. Also it is easier to get a hose in there and wash of the rotors and calipers then drums. I ordered my new trailer with 16.5 inch wheels also. I have a duel axel trailer and have noticed the difference in the way it tows over the toad on long hauls over the standard smaller wheels. If you are building a new trailer it is always easier to do it right the first time. Do not underbuild it. Get the biggest axels you can and definatly go with the disc electric over hydraulic brakes. I built a 10,500 lb GVW trailer for a 5,000 lb boat. And it was definatly worth every penny...

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

elec over hydralic, and you will never know your trailer is even back there.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

either with surge or elec over hydraulic gettin disc style with all stainless cadium components

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Just got done converting my surge brake/disc brake setup over to elec. over hyd./disc brake. The problem I had with the surge brakes with disc brakes is when towing in hilly/mountain areas, the brakes would stay engaged going down hills for long periods of time. The calipers got so hot that the rubber boots for the caliper pistons burnt up. The wheel bearings seized on the axle spindle. Two of my brake lines actually melted off where they screw into the caliper. I ended up getting all new brake lines going to all wheels, new rotors, new calipers and converted it to elec. over hydraulic. I just towed with it for the first time last weekend and no problems at all. Wish my trailer originally had this setup.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Most of the better trailers that have hydraulic surge are using disc brakes.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Make sure you have a cut off switch for the surge brakes. You can burn them up going down long hills.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Bernie for a good electric box you are looking at $700 for disc brakes. Carlise and Dexter make one. We are a distributor for the Carlisle. YOU HAVE TO USE 1600 PSI box with disc brakes. Do not use a 1000 psi box or you will have problems lagging and not enough pressure. Also 5500-6500 torsion axles use a 12 inch disc brake. 3500 Torflex use 10 inch brakes. All the advice I have been giving you has been reiterated by these owners as well. I also like stainless braided lines instead of plastic. Once again you get what you pay for. Axles, brake module, stainless lines and a good quality wheel and tire you are at $3850 and you have not even bought the metal to build the trailer.(That is with a spare) dual axle.

I goofed on that number I charged 7 aluminum wheel and tires with a dual axle assembly. But u get the idea.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Don't go cheap. EOH......is there anything else? :drink: :drink: :drink: :drink: :evilb: :evilb: :D

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

i have gotten prices between $58-$6500 for a triple axle, stainless/cadium caliper, brakes on 2 axles, torsion axles, leds all priced with surge disc set-up ...loadrite, fastload, hi-tech marine etc...south florida was at $8350

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Hey man if I could help u or anyone else I would be happy to. We have some large bids we are working on, to give you an idea on how expensive some of these components can be some of these emergency trailers use a small onan generator $13,500. Some of the flashing lights are $2250 for a light.

If you deduct the surge $350, add the box when ordering new.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

none of them have said anything about deducting anything for the surge set-up, just add $700 to quoted prices

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

get the EOH. You'll get it back when you sell it.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

We always liked the idea that surge brakes work with any tow vehicle with a hitch,no additional hookups. If you have to tow a boat with EOH and your truck isn't set up for electric,will the brakes work at all?

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Electric over hydraulic

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Nope, you have to have the brake controler in the truck for it to work. Even the EOH with drum brakes are better than surge systems. Go with the disc and EOH.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

My new surge-disc trailer stops just as well as my racecar trailer with electric drums.
With EOH you have to have a brake controller installed and fiddle a little with the setting until you find what works. Easy enough to have Uhaul install. I use a trailer connector in the cab so my controller sits in the glove box when not being used. I'd expect the trailer to come with a 7-way harness so you need that on the tow vehicle also.
With surge, you'll probably get an electric reverse lock-out solenoid, which is an extra wire seperate from the classic four-wire connector. It's supposed to be wired into tow vehicle's back-up lights so when in reverse the trailer doesn't apply the brakes. I'm not sure if these couplers still have the provision for a lock-out pin. I think I'm going to install a www.jetconnex.com wiring kit to clean it all up and make it easy.
Two ways to skin the cat I suppose, each with it's own pros and cons, with the EOH having a bit more up front cost. IMHO, the surge setup requires a little less thinking once the wiring is done. The only drawback might be as indicated, if you're towing through mountains.
Did you get my PM? I think I mentioned the price I paid, and they're building more Formula trailers now that I've given them feedback, and Formula specs :) They built mine in 3 days.
Good luck,
Michael

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

I have always had surge brakes, converted this trailer to
electric over hydraulic .
I had air over hydraulic and can't tell the difference.
Best investment I ever made.Pulling 40' Skater with 06 F-350
and truck was already set up for gain adjustments.
You have to apply the brakes for surge to engage in some cases this would be a little nerve racking.
Electric over hydraulic can be adjusted were you just touch the peddle and your trailer is stopping.
No problems backing or hilly conditions.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

I tow a 43 Black Thunder and a 23 Concept. I had both set up with EOH disc brakes. I did remove the brakes from one axle on the small trailer to keep from over braking at the controllers lowest setting. I would NEVER go back to surge or drums. The two vechile is a 06 GMC DMAX 4 door dually.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

I've had electric over hydraulic on my last two Myco trailers and would not want anything else. The current one has 3 axles, disc brakes on all 3. It is so good it will slow the truck down. F-250 pulling 36' Spectre Cat.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Bernie see a trend above. I know how this poll would go. Kind of like that Arneson pole.

Every truck after the year 2000 I believe should have wire harness in the glove box. You take the controller and hook it up to the harness and it plugs right in to these newer trucks.

Controllers cst 47-149

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Electric is definately the way to go. Big difference

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

what happens when you use more than 1 truck like in my case you use surge, my boat is only 4000lb dry so loaded 5000. will dual disk feel better than single??? I have drum now going to disk.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

When using more than one truck install a brake box in both or use the harness and plug in from truck to truck.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Suppose I wanted to change to EOH from Surge what do you do with the DICO sliding couplers? Weld it together or get something different? Some pics or links would be nice.

Re: surge brakes or electric over hydraulic
 

Un bolt the surge coupler and replace it with a solid coupler. Most trailer shops can get it for you and most bolt on. Just let me know what size the tube is when you remove the surge coupler and I can let you know a price.