Brakes, Electric Vs. Surge?

[AZRiverRunner]

Anyone here have experience wth electric boat trailer brakes? Over the years I've had issues with surge brakes, but not sure about the newer electronic controlled boat trailer brakes.

 

[shunter2005]

Considered swapping surge for electric or EOH. Everyone I talked to liked electric much better than surge and would never go back. I didn?t mind surge when they were working properly, but lots of things to go wrong (master cylinder, wheel cylinder, etc.). Do you have drum or disc now? With electric, if you have 12v, you have brakes. Not for salt water use. Easy and inexpensive swap if you do it yourself.

 

[braindead]

I have electric on mine but that's what they came with and didn't have the coin to change to hydraulics when I blew a bearing and ruined the spindle.

I've had them for 2 years now and they have worked great! They have greater adjustability and with a newer controller you can set it up so they grab quicker, if you need that. I drag the boat to the San Berdo mountains for most of the summer and leave it there until August when we head to Sacramento. Heading down the hills is easier on the brakes because the electrics completely release when you take your foot off the brake, hydraulics don't fully release unless they get a forward tug. And there's the backing up thing

As far as rust, yes they do, but so do hydraulics. I have left them plugged in while launching and they still work fine, no shorts. They one small problem I did have was wiring. When I put the new axles/brakes on the original wiring was shot, it had not been hooked up for years so I ran new wires, problem was soldering them. It could of been my soldering gun not working properly or the wires just being too big, but I couldn't, so I went to the local box store and found some water resistant wire nuts. They are filled with a silicone based dielectric grease, I believe, and help keep things dry, have about 30-40 dunks on em and there still dry inside.

Other things to remember is that you need a brake controller, if you have a newer vehicle you can get a pigtail that will just plug and play with your brake controller and the 7 way plug at the back of it. You will also want/have to install an electric breakaway switch, so if the trailer breaks loose from the truck it will come to a stop. Search online and see what they look like because you will have to mount it to the trailer and it needs to be above the water line.

Long story short, I'm a fan. If you didn't want to change to electric, you could always switch to disk brakes, don't hear as many complaints as drums and there easier to work on.