I have surge brakes and they work fine for me on Manning....but I know a lot of you like Electric brakes. My question is does dunking the trailer with the brakes plugged into the truck mess anything up????? Do most of you unplug them before you dunk the trailer and the rehook after the boat is loaded? It just doesn't seem right....electricity and water!

Just wondering?

I don't unhook... Electric brakes seem complicated to a lot of people. They are very simple devices. All the 12v does is energize a magnet, whick becomes attracted to the spining drum, causing the brake shoes to move out. There are no moving solenoids, motors, etc. I have never had an issue dunking electric brakes.

I would be a little worried about repeated salt water use since the backing plates are generally not galvanized, but I dunk mine a few times a year with no ill effects.

was thinking about switching over to electric brakes myself,,,was told that I will need to replace the drums as well,,anybody know if this is true?

i would pull one and have a look,if the inside of your drums are machined flat with no lip towards the top and as long as the studs dont go through the inside of the drum you should be able to use them..but you have to make sure the drum has a clean and flat surface in order for the magnet to stick and operate properly with no interference.

Didn't you just convert to EOH?




As long as all your connections are water tight, don't see any reason to worry.

sold that boat.

I had always unplugged even with surge brakes because of the lights. The tail lights are sealed, but the markers certainly don't seem water tight to me.

I'm sure you saw the other thread that I just went to electric brakes. While I don't plan on dunking the battery on the tongue of the trailer or the a$$ of the truck in the drink, I'll probably still unplug at the water line.

I wouldn't use electric brakes in saltwater. Stay surge or go EoH if you're playing in the salt.

I unplug mine just to be safe, only takes a sec....Im actually more worried about the lights than the brakes though....