Trailer Brakes, Drum or Disc???
 

Hey Guys

I have a tandem axle alum. "performance" trailer that my 25 Baja sits on, the trailer doesn't have brakes, over the winter I am gonna put brakes on both axles, should I go to Drum or disc brakes? What are the pro's and con's of both?

I would also like to upgrade to a set of "nice" 15" alum rims to replace the 14" ones, any recomendations?

Thanks!
Michael

Discs.

Drums probably provide better overall stopping power, but discs are SO easy to swap out and seem to last longer.

Depending on your location, you could check out Eastern Marine. They have a ridiculous amount of trailer parts. You can literally build a trailer from the ground up with one trip to their store.

I would go Disc.

If you have a Dexter distributor near you then you can try them. They have very good prices and quality.

Electric over Hydr. are the way to go but pricey to retrofit. I put disc brakes on our sons 28 Skater trailer for about $600.00 on one axle. Bought a kit from here. www.championtrailers.com. Very easy install, and they provide technical help if you need it.

Disc brakes absolutely. I'd strongly recommend Kodiak over Tie-Down Engineering.

Electric/Hydraulic brake controller absolutely. It is NIGHT and DAY difference compared to surge brake systems.

Also, you will find wheels and tires on eBay as well as Champion Trailers. You local tire shop can get the Pacer 'Outlaw II' wheel for about $100 bucks and you can go with bigger trailer tires at that point.

There are DOZENS of discussions about trailer tires on here. General consensus is stay away from Carlisle tires. Goodyear Marathon and some LT truck tires are the way to go.

+1 on disk,,,, and elec over hyd if you can swing it

Ditto on disk. drums are terrible on boat trailer. E/O if you have $$. Kodiak stainless if the trailer sees salt water.

Great, if there are any links to companies that make a kit, please post of PM me!, sounds like discs are the way to go, boat will never see salt [or brackish] water.

Just curious?, why are drums terrible on a boat trailer?,

Thanks Guys!
Michael

hey..
champion will set you up with everything...down to the left nut....go disc...less moving parts, easy maintenance, longevity...initial cost is more than paid for over a short time....drums harbor salt and moisture, too many places for it to hide, no real good way to rinse/dry...unless you live in arizona!
c

I can tell you from experience that you need brakes on both axles . Just bought a new trailer .. This one has 4 disc surge brakes and stops GREAT. My last trailer had discs on 1 axle and they burned up quick so I removed them. I could not tell any difference when I had discs on one axle compared to no brakes at all. Boat is a 24 ft vip vindicator around 5000lbs wet and loaded.

Chris

Discs without a doubt.

And Electric over Hydraulic actuator. Best $700 you can spend.

Brakes on both axles with a 24' boat? It all depends on the tow vehicle...I had no brakes on my 28AT Continental 12k trailer and it was OK @ best. But I have always had a tow vehicle that was superior to the load.
Now I just put all new 12" Kodiak disc brakes on front axle only and it works too good; my mileage is down... I would not think you need 2 axles with brakes until you go over 32 feet; with the proper tow vehicle, of course.

Tow
 

I tow with a 2004 2500 dodge quad cab 4x4 . Yes it did seem safe with out brakes on the trailer. What I ment was I could not feel any stopping power what so ever from brakes only on 1 axle. Now that I have a trailer with brakes on both it hardly seems like i am towing anything as far as braking goes. I do agree the Hyd over elec is the way to go..

Chris

Disc, brakes on only one axle can cause what is called spring or suspension wrap up. A trailer with only front axle brakes forces the frame to accept full stopping torque in a concentrated area, the trunnion. In the event brakes are applied when a bump or pothole is incurred the frame may bend due to shock load. Otherwise, the suspension on the brake axle simply twists or torques, thus,wrap up.

We use electric/hydraulic disc on larger trailers. However, a good surge coupler w/ disc on both axles also works well, for your application.

The thing to remember about surge brakes is they need that initial jolt from the tow vehicle to push the master cylinder and start the braking action. I've got a load that is at my trucks maximum limit with surge brakes, and for the most part we have never had a problem. One day it was raining and when I went to stop, the truck started sliding, the ABS TRIED to stop the truck but I couldn't get that initial jolt to get the trailer brakes to actuate and ended up getting pushed through a intersection by about 30 feet. We got extremely lucky in that there were no cars in front of us and my light turned from red to green before I slid through the intersection. Things could have gone a lot worse...

EOH is the very next thing that will be done to that trailer and a MaxBrake will be going in my truck...unless we find a Top Kick soon :D

Exactly! Remember, surge brakes only work when the truck and the trailer are aligned in a straight line! If you would have had ANY kind of angle between the truck/trailer due to a slight curve or evasive maneuver, you would have jackknifed instantly.

In a perfect world the EOH is the ultimate. However, the controller may need a little adjustment, the connections may have a little corrosion, we may use a different tow vehicle....

A GOOD 2 5/16" coupler rated at 10,000+/- that is well lubed is pretty user friendly. The downside to an actuator, some have not been used enough to break in before corrosion sets in to close tolerances and encourage sticking. Further, the trailer manufacturer may have painted on a tolerance critical area or failed to lube or failed to final test the force to actuate.