Looking for opinions on trailer brakes
 

Which do you guys prefer? Hydraulic or electric? Candidate is a tri axle steel trailer with brakes on 2 axles.

Electric over hydraulic is the way to go.

With something as light as a 32 Skater, even surge brakes work well and are less hassle. I'm not a fan of straight electric brakes for marine use.

The ONLY way to go.

+1 I would never have a trailer without them again. With 3 axles, and the right setup, they stop my dually as well as the trailer.

I've only towed a couple of (horse & equipment) trailers with electric brakes; never a boat trailer. Some say they work fine for such.
Comparing similar 10-12K loads of Electric to EoH trailer brakes, EoH stops better in my experience.

EoH is THE BEST money you will spend on your towing setup, hands down.

EoH is the preferred way to go, but 9 out of ten cheap bassturds agree- hydraulic surge brakes will get the job done.

Eoh is the best option, but I've run electrics on boat trailers no problem. I don't understand some of the hype around why they "won't" work. Electric brakes are nothing more than a magnet that is energized by 12V. Much less to go wrong than any hydraulic setup, and they are dirt cheap, especially if you already have surge drums.

My buddy has those surge brakes and it scares the living $hit out of me when he hits the brakes with the abruptness of engagement.
He told me you'll get used to it, LOL!!!
EoverH is the best by a long shot.

See ya,
Kelly

I'm with you on that. My Loadmaster trailer has electric brakes and they worked perfect while I owned that trailer. I purchased everything to convert to electric, but now I'm having second thoughts. Maybe I will spend the coin on EoH setup??????

If you have all the parts, it go ahead with the electrics. To go EOH I would go to disc brakes too to get he most benefit. IMO For the $$$ it's not worth it if you already have the parts.

I had Electric Brakes on My Loadmaster trailer and loved them. Simply the ability to dial them in made them worth it. Since that boat/trailer I have had two trailers with surge brakes and I hate them. The surge brakes on my Alumitrail (under my Velocity) didn't have a reverse lock out pin. So when baking up a steep hill, it would engage the brakes. I tried to put it at my Father-in-laws driveway back a few winters ago. Because it kept applying the brakes, the trailer kept sliding into his lawn. Finally I just cracked the bleeder screws and drained the fluid out! Certainly not the best solution, but it worked. Never put fluid in it over the 4 years I owned it. In town towing, I jus use my truck to brake. Now I have another Surge set up under my Concept. Right now, it has no fluid in the system so really don't have any issues. But I guess it has an automatic reverse lock out that works off of the reverse lights??? I don't trailer but a few block so not having any brakes is better for me than fighting with surge brakes.

I'm in the process of converting my trailer to electric over hydraulic right now. I can't stand surge brakes!! ..feels like I'm on the edge of out of control every time I come to a stop. Whether that is in town or out on a highway.

I'm sure the surge system needed some TLC, but I've had EOH on previous trailers and they work very nice.

Can you do a write up on parts, install, etc? I need to convert over, the boat is the only surge brake trailer we own and I am not a fan. The control and feel of the EOH is remarkable.

Yes !

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/t...ml#post4119572

I have surge brakes totally rebuilt on two out of three axles on my 29' Fountain on an aluminum trailer. I have but a two mile pull to the ramp on the island where I live.
They work fine but I rarely go over 35-40. My biggest complaint is that I have no brakes backing up. I have to back down my driveway and would love to have braking
capability. When I had the brakes rebuilt it would have been a good time to switch over. Probably a good time to upgrade from drums to disk also...

Just redid my surge disc brakes, and yeah, there should be a solenoid behind the m/c that gets wired in to the reverse light circuit to keep the brakes off. I trailered mine with the discs for the first time last night and I don't mind them at all, but I'm only towing 5k pounds.
The one and only advantage to surge is you can tow with different trucks. Boatless friends with full size trucks and towing experience will gladly do the towing in exchange for a ride to Jobbie.

If you don't have the 5th pin on your wire harness for backing you can flip the 4 pin over and I believe the power for your running lights will activate the solenoid so that you can back up. I had electric brakes on my myco tandem trailer and they seemed to work fine. My fast load is a tri axle with 2 axles having surge disc. They seem to work fine too. The Allison on my truck helps out incredibly also, I would however like to go with EOH someday I too would like to have brakes while backing down hill.

Go EoH!!

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Update.... I returned the Electric backing plates, they sold me the wrong seals anyway, so I had to exchange them. I got a price on the Dexter Electric over Hydraulic set up with battery and breakaway. $640. He told me he could have it by Tuesday. That is the best price I have seen for it yet.

I specifically ordered my trailer with straight elect. Going into my forth season love them. They work fantastic.

+1 E over H is the only way to go. Once you have towed with them you will never be happy with Surge brakes again.

Wow glad I found this post. I have a 1997 tri-axle Eagle trailer towing a Baja 302 with surge drum brakes. Absolutely hate the surge setup! I got by with them because I lived on a lake and seldom towed, also used short shallow ramp. Just moved to Vegas, now will be towing often and ramps are long and steep. I'm currently trying to get info from Etrailer on which EOH system I need (looking at Titan BrakeRite II severe duty setup). It appears I will also need a reducer for drum brakes (pressure?) and possibly a different controller (2004 Avalanche 2500 Tekonsha Sentinel). If anyone knows that I'm looking in the right or wrong direction, I would appreciate your advice...Thanks!
Dan

X2. I want todo the same thing but not sure how.