Question about trailer brakes

upnover

upnover

Grumpy, decrepit Old Man
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Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Morganton NC
I have seen them, but never used them. Surge brakes that is. From what I understand, as you apply the brakes of tow rig, the push from the trailer actuates a master cylinder and it's Hydraulic lines to the axle brakes and disk brakes on all four wheels of the trailer. Anyone use these? Pro's? con's?
If they work good seems they would be good simply because you would not need all your tow rigs wired for brakes.
Just wondering
 
They work, but elec. brakes are 10x better, the surge brakes are used a lot on boats and such as they get submerged in water all the while and where the load stays consistant (same boat on same trailer etc) and can be adjusted for the load.

They have to (should) be pined, to allow backing up.. The pressure pushing on the coupler during backing mimics stoping and that applys the brakes on the trailer. The pin stops the brakes from working..

All that said if thats all you had to work with, its better than no brakes..
 
I've used surge breaks 1 time in my life, on a emergency rental from sunbelt. The trailer was also a pintle hitch, so I had to use an adapter that plugged into my reciever.

That combination was damn scary.

I had to break once more aggresively than I would have liked, and was really worried that it would not stop.

The trailer I borrowed had a "balanced" surge so that when backing it depressed far enough to allow backing...uh yeah, did same thing under said hard brake...

Essentailly the brakes dont work until the trailer is pushing (or trying to) the vehicle, where as with electric the brakes start nearly simultaneously with the auto brakes.

Way have been the half assed set up.
May have been the under rated tow rig, but IT SUCKED!
YMMV
 
Naah, they all-around suck. The only time it was just OK was behind the dually, but there was still a good "push" from the trailer as the truck slowed and the trailer wasn't, before the brakes kicked in.. yuk.

Great recipe for a jack-knife in adverse conditions..
 
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