trailer brakes: Electric vs mechanical

I know in the boating world, mechanical trailer brakes are the norm. You hit the brakes, the trailer tries to shift forwards against the tow vehicle and the MC built into the tongue applies the trailer's brakes.. the harder you brake, the harder the trailer brakes. Relatively simple and robust with few electrical connections to fail..

However, while I will use that system on my boat's trailer.. I am looking into a small "acorn" sized camping trailer I want to build into more of an expedition style camper for taking my smaller boats into more remote areas with a lack of hotel space.

Most expedition trailers seem to use electrical trailer brakes. Any idea why? I know little about that system, so I need to learn all there is

Buy a good brake controller, wire the tow vehicle for it, that's about it. They work internally more or less like hydraulic brakes but with a solenoid on an apply arm trying to grab the spinning drum instead of a slave cylinder pushing the shoes out directly. Electric brakes are probably cheaper to build since you don't have a beefy telescopic tongue to build like you do with hydraulic surge brakes.

In reply to mad_machine:

Why? Easier/actually possible to back up uphill and over rough terrain.

Cheap and none of the complications of a hydraulic system. Entire electric brake assemblies from backing plate to shoes are under $100 per wheel for my camper. Rebuild, troubleshoot, test? Nah- just slap on a new one.

I have electric brakes on my car hauler, and a cheap controller in the truck. It works well. I basically turn it off when the trailer is empty and turn it up when loaded, with heavier loads getting more "brake." When you're towing a 3K lb car on a 1.5K trailer with a 86 RN Truck that might weigh 3K lbs, you need all the help you can get.

IMO, surge brakes are barely better than no trailer brakes (and IIRC, they don't legally count as brakes). Run electric brakes and a good controller, it's much, much better.

And if the trailer has to get wet (like a boat trailer), run an electric over hydro setup (keeps all the electronics on the tongue, as it uses an electrically controlled master cylinder and hydraulic brakes at the wheels).

I can see the attraction of mechanical brakes on a trailer that gets submerged in water, and that's about the only plus. Electric brakes with a controller are awesome, allowing you to stop almost as if there's nothing back there.

Think of electric brake like drum brakes with an E-brake installed but instead of a cable there's a magnet on the arm. Cheap, simple, never needs bleeding!

With electric brakes, you can hit the lever on the controller to help get things under control if the trailer starts swaying around for whatever reason.. hydraulic trailer brakes don't give you that capability..

Most of the rationale is that boat trailers are underwater a lot (often in saltwater), and electrical systems don't like water, especially saltwater that corrodes wiring and such - so you need much more weatherproofed electricals for boat trailers, which is less cost-effective.

There is no actual advantage to surge brakes other than not needing a brake controller, IMO. I will never tow a heavy trailer with surge brakes again if I can help it. Electric is the way to go.

Surge brakes are better than nothing. Nothing is what you get with at least half the electric brakes I ever see (mostly landscapers). Nobody maintains them until they scare themselves in a panic stop situation.

Surge brakes are better than nothing, but won't help when doing 65 on flat terrain and the tail starts wagging the dog.

Brake controller saved my azz.

Don't forget, when you back a trailer with surge brakes, you have to get out and put the lock pin in the coupler so you're not pushing against the brake.

914Driver wrote: Surge brakes are better than nothing, but won't help when doing 65 on flat terrain and the tail starts wagging the dog. Brake controller saved my azz.

I have done a LOT of towing over the years with unbraked trailers. Only once did I get the tail wagging the dog, and that was due to poor loading on my part.

However, I am glad to see that electric brakes do not look as daunting as first seems. I will probably retrofit electric over oil for the boat (the trailer has non-operable surge brakes) and go for pure electric for the camper

Dashpot wrote: Surge brakes are better than nothing. Nothing is what you get with at least half the electric brakes I ever see (mostly landscapers). Nobody maintains them until they scare themselves in a panic stop situation.

Really? I can tell right away on my two car trailer if the brakes aren't doing their part. And that's with a diesel 2500 doing the towing, so it's not like the trailer is too big for the truck.

Electric with a good controller is amazing. Stops with the truck when tuned well. I have a Prodigy p3, it will progressively apply the brakes in relation to g force, IE stop fast and it applies more. I can feel the trailer try to stop my truck when stopping fast or if the brake power is turned up, but when its just right it feels like ti stops perfectly with the truck with no tire lockup.

Electric all the way for me. Surge brakes range from pretty good to completely non-functional. Most surge brakes don't even actuate unless you brake very hard. In fact the only surge brakes I ever used that I could actually tell they were working in normal situations was on a Uhaul trailer I rented.

If you get surge brakes that even vaguely work, you need a lockout solenoid for backing, and you have all the frustrations of rust and water intrusion of a normal brake system.

Electronic brakes are really quite wonderful. I have them on all of my larger trailers.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Just an outsider observation. Everyone on this board cares about such things with their private possessions, commercial users not so much. The construction guys & landscapers I see hop in whatever truck/trailer combo is available and take off. Brakes or no brakes.

This is the shop trailer Plus I've got a DOT number, so I have to inspect and log. But regardless, I can tell before I'm a mile from the shop if the brakes aren't set right on the controller. You can feel if the trailer is pulling, pushing or matched.

I think a lot of the people that don't care have just never driven a well set up rig so they don't realize how bad the E36 M3 they're driving is.

How hard is it to add brakes to a trailer? I have a 15' boat that I tow with a Toyota Corolla and I often wonder if having some brakes on there would be a good idea.

Enyar wrote: I have a 15' boat that I tow with a Toyota Corolla and I often wonder if having some brakes on there would be a good idea.

QOTM - I think you just answered your own question...

In reply to Enyar:

If the trailer has a flange for a backing plate it's a bolt on AFAIK (backing plate, drum, wiring/plumbing), trailer parts are very standardized. If you want hydraulic you'll need to replace the coupler on the tongue. Depending on the boat you might actually be within the unbraked rating of the car though.

In reply to mad_machine: Surge brakes will fit on any tow vehicle with a hitch. Electric brakes require matching systems/connections and too often the trailer or the connection is wrong.. I've towed all over the country for decades with surge brakes and never had a problem. For more than a decade I towed a tandem axle enclosed trailer all over the country with a little S10 Chevy. Up and down mountains filled with race car/spares* and an insanely heavy toolbox.

Three ways to back up a trailer with surge brakes. First back up gently. Second have a hole in the sliding coupler and a pin ready to drop in. Or third use a line lock hooked up to your backup lights..

Since few here understand that drum brakes require periodic adjustment to stop properly I can understand why not everyone likes the simplicity of surge brakes. Also it helps to have a grease fitting or two on the slider. Rusted sliders won't stop as well as well greased ones do.

*Jaguar engines weigh over 700 pounds, add a gearbox, rearend and a set of tires you were easily over 1000 pounds. Never weighed my tool box But it is a Big Snap-On that I can't see into the top drawers without a step stool, my guess is over 2000 pounds.

Dashpot wrote: In reply to Keith Tanner: Just an outsider observation. Everyone on this board cares about such things with their private possessions, commercial users not so much. The construction guys & landscapers I see hop in whatever truck/trailer combo is available and take off. Brakes or no brakes.

That's a pretty over-reaching statement.