MF294-4

Member
Son went to look at a tilt bed trailer last week and found it had surge brakes. Any advantages or disadvantages over electric? I'm getting to old and tired of man handling the ramps on my current trailer.
 
This is my opinion for what its worth to you. I always figured that surge brakes were adequate when they are maintained and set up properly. Elecftric brakes are different. Electric brakes can be working fine one day and not the next. I used to maintain a fleet of trailers for a contractor , he had 21 trailers,some single,some dual and some triple axle. I could go over the brakes,instal new magnets and shoes,lube all moving parts and a week later the trailer would be back in with some problem,that's their nature. We also found it was cheaper to buy the complete brake assembly than to rebuild. Surge brakes on the other hand don't seem to have as much go wrong,if the brake lines are good and the shoes adjusted the trailer will work with your truck as you brake.I guess it depends on how much hauling you are doing,but if the trailer is used sporadically , there is nothing wrong with surge brakes
 

the only disadvantage i know of with surge brakes is that they can apply as your backing up, esp on a upgrade. some brake cuplers have a "lock out" for just that purpose though. with electric brakes your wearing away the magnetic pickup every time the brakes are applied, plus you will need a controller in the tow vehicle and a big "rv" style plug. another plus on the electric brakes is that you can apply then with the in-cab controller as your going down the road, before you start braking, and you can control how much the brakes are applied. both types have good and bad points....and either is better than no brakes. (when they work of course) not sure what i would prefer in that type trailer, for a camper id want electric brakes, for a boat trailer you would want surge brakes. id always would want a tow vehicle with enough braking capacity in case of trailer brake failure, 3/4 ton pickups are a much better choice than a 1/2 ton for that reason alone, even if you dont need the heavier payload capacity.
 
I've had surge brakes on my trailer since I got it in '90. They've been just fine . I rebuilt all the cyls a few years ago , all the parts were available at a regular Auto parts store.
 
A few years back (5 to 10) there was a big stink about surge brakes.
Technically they were against federal law.
This is a technicality that was often overlooked.

Federal law said you had to be able to apply the trailer brakes separately from the tow vehicle brakes from in the cab of the tow vehicle.
That's kind of hard to do with surge brakes.

The federal law was changed to include surge brakes because of pressure from places like U-Haul.
So now surge brakes are legal on the federal level for trailers less than 20k lbs; and as long as you stay within a set weight ratio between the tow vehicle and the trailer.
I think it is like 1.25 or 1.5 to 1. (The trailer can weigh 1.5 times the weight of the tow vehicle)

With this brought a lot of stink from some states to where they were changing the wording of state laws.
Do not know how it ended but you might want to check your state's laws on trailer brakes.
 
I specified surge brakes on most of the trailers that I bought for ADOT, especially the heavy duty trailers.
 
Hi, surge brakes are a problem if you have to stop
on a good hill for some reason especially if you have
a heavy load. Don't ask how I know. Ed will
 
Here's what I've found, if you use the trailer at least monthly and weekly is better, then hydraulic brakes are fine. For heavy use trailers they may have an advantage in reliability. But if the trailer sits much the hydraulic type tend to rust up and quit working. The repair cost is much higher for hydraulic. I only built a couple trailers over 30 years with hydraulic brakes, but I changed many from hyd. to electric because the customers we unhappy. Never changed an electric to hyd that I can remember. If you are going to pull one trailer with several tow vehicles then surge brakes can be a good idea, especially if the tow vehicles are cars that make it hard to install controllers. But if you're going to pull with a single vehicle, especially a pickup, or if the trailer will sit for longer periods I say stick with electric.
 
(quoted from post at 21:30:12 04/24/15) A few years back (5 to 10) there was a big stink about surge brakes.
Technically they were against federal law.
This is a technicality that was often overlooked.

Federal law said you had to be able to apply the trailer brakes separately from the tow vehicle brakes from in the cab of the tow vehicle.
That's kind of hard to do with surge brakes.

The federal law was changed to include surge brakes because of pressure from places like U-Haul.
So now surge brakes are legal on the federal level for trailers less than 20k lbs; and as long as you stay within a set weight ratio between the tow vehicle and the trailer.
I think it is like 1.25 or 1.5 to 1. (The trailer can weigh 1.5 times the weight of the tow vehicle)

With this brought a lot of stink from some states to where they were changing the wording of state laws.
Do not know how it ended but you might want to check your state's laws on trailer brakes.

As is usual with gov't.,the people writing the laws/regs don't have much knowledge regarding what they're writing about.As a result we get stuck with bad laws.
As said, the least little thing can cause elec. brakes to fail without warning.Surge brakes can and will fail too but nearly always give some warning when they start to get weak.For some time now surge systems have an electrical set up so that when you go into reverse a solenoid toggles a lockout to prevent brake application while backing.Also surge brakes can give you an anti lock feature without any add ons.Tow vehicle brakes are applied,trailer M/C applies brakes which pulls the trailer back,releasing brakes and the cycle starts over.
 
I absolutely love surge brakes. They are much more reliable than electric brake. and, they are adjustable. no need for a controller and other expensive wiring
 

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