add trailer brakes?

[oldblumerc]

I have an old 18ft 74 tahiti and in cali. they require trailer brakes on everything over 1000# or something like that. I my trailer never came with them i don't even think it was an option when my dad bought the boat 30 years ago. Can they require me to up grade this sucker. And if so am i going to chop off my coupler and put on a new one. this would really suck because we have been towing this boat with bacically the same truck (my dad a 1/2 ton chev pickup and me a full size blazer HD) we have never had any problems with braking and we have had some instances where a high pucker factor was involved and neither of our brake setups have ever failed to stop us in a good short distance.<br /><br />ps i say the same truck because the blazer and the 1/2 ton pickup have the the same setup (just about) when they both run a 350.

 

[PDS]

Re: add trailer brakes?

I hate to deliver bad news, but when it comes to safty issues, the law usaully wins. No Grandfather clauses. While I'm not from CA, in my state(WI) they're thinking of outlawing mechanical surge brakes and if your trailer has surge brakes, you'd have to switch over to electrics(if law is passed) I can only assume it the same in your state(But what do I know about California, we ended up with a president that used to work with monkeys(Ronald Reagon) from your state. P.D.S.