Electric brakes

[missruby]

i live in the Sierra Nevadas between Tahoe and Sacramento. Mountainous terrain dominates our trailering experiences. Fresh water lakes, trailer the boat in and out for every use. Does anybody out there have positive experiences with electric brakes? Stories/suggestions regarding conversion from hydraulic to electric? i've read a number of the previous posts regarding this debate, but if you eliminate salt and flat land what is the opinion?

Thanks!!

 

[mudslinging79]

Re: Electric brakes

i had a trailer woth electric brakes, only downside is i had to get the control box that one wires to the brake lights... other than that i liked it cause you could set the sensitivity of the brakes at the module, and it was less wear and tear on the truck brakes, as well as eliminating the chances of being pushed downhill. it was probably overkill for the size of the boat compared to the truck, but it was piece of mind.

 

[Splat]

Re: Electric brakes

I can't comment on them as far as for boats. I've never owned a boat that needed brakes on the trailer. I have however done A LOT of towing with other trailers that had brakes.

Electric brakes are FAR SUPERIOR for stopping. The control box in the cab of the truck allows you to set how hard the brakes will activate, and also when they will activate. What I mean is you can adjust the pendulum slightly forward in the controller so the trailer brakes will lead slightly when you press the brake pedal. This is great for control, and helps eliminate wear and tear on the truck brakes as much. Also the brakes on the trailer can be manually activated via a lever on the controller, this is useful for checking the brakes while getting underway, also if you happen to get a bad sway from a poorly loaded trailer a little tap of the trailer brakes will bring it back around behind you straight and true. One last thing, this feature allows you to activate the trailer brakes manually in the even of loss of truck brakes.

How well electronic brakes work depends on a few things like, keeping the plug on the truck clean, and the quality of the brake controller. I would HIGHLY recommend a inertia controller. These controllers most commonly use a pendulum swinging through a electrical gate(think like having a necklace hanging from your mirror). As you apply the truck brakes the pendulum momentum wants to push it forward, thus the harder you hit the truck brakes, the further forward it swings, the unit senses this and applies the trailer brakes proportionately. As you begin to slow, the pendulum begins to come back to center thus the trailer brakes begin to decrease slightly. This allows for a smoother stop.

I would highly recommend this unit, they are more expensive but I have them installed in all my trucks. The Prodigy from Tekonsha. it's also the only unit I know of that allows the trailer brakes to work in reverse.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/prodigy-brake-control/20535

the other option for controllers are Time Based ones. These simply are timers. They determine when you touch the truck brakes and begins to add trailer brakes to the limit you set in the time you set. This all happens regardless to what your foot is doing with the brake pedal.

Like I said, never used electronic brakes in and around water but I don't see a large problem with doing so. Someone may be able to elaborate more on that. Hope this helps. If you have anymore questions please don't hesitate to ask away.

Bill

 

[mudslinging79]

Re: Electric brakes

the brakes i had were on an old military style axle, as for the box control, i had both types, pendulum and a newer electronic one. i liked the electronic one cause the setting was easier to read, as it used colored leds. you could set it to how hard it would start braking when you used the pedal, so the trailer would start braking before the truck which is nice for the steep downhills i had going to the lakes.

 

[Splat]

Re: Electric brakes

the brakes i had were on an old military style axle, as for the box control, i had both types, pendulum and a newer electronic one. i liked the electronic one cause the setting was easier to read, as it used colored leds. you could set it to how hard it would start braking when you used the pedal, so the trailer would start braking before the truck which is nice for the steep downhills i had going to the lakes.

This still uses a pendulum and is called a inertia controller. Just FYI

Bill

 

[missruby]

Re: Electric brakes

Does anyone know what i would have to do with the surge tongue on my existing trailer if i converted to electric brakes? Thanks again for all the great feedback and opinions. Miss Ruby

 

[Titanium48]

Re: Electric brakes

^ The surge coupler is probably bolted on and can be replaced with a standard coupler.

I put electric brakes on my boat trailer last spring. They worked great all last summer. Electric brakes use iron-core electromagnets though, so even freshwater will cause some corrosion - think of a nail left out in the rain. I haven't had a chance to look at mine yet, but I do expect the magnets to need replaced sooner than they would be on a non-boat application.

The way to avoid the corrosion problem is to use electric over hydraulic brakes. You would keep your hydraulic brakes and replace the surge coupler with an electrically actuated master cylinder. Lots of $$ (around 600) but something to consider if the boat will be in and out of the water a lot, or ever launched in saltwater.

Here's the deal on brake controllers:

In the beginning (well, in the 1960s anyways, don't know about before that) electric brake controllers were variable resistors that were operated by hydraulic pressure from the vehicle brake line. They worked well, applying the trailer brakes in direct proportion to the hydraulic pressure in the tow vehicle braking system. They were incompatible with ABS systems though, and were discontinued in the 1990s.

Modern brake controllers are operated electronically rather than mechanically. Splat explained the difference between "time based" and inertial controllers. I wouldn't use a time based controller unless I could stop well without trailer brakes and only needed them to comply with equipment regulations. For example a 1-ton truck towing a 3200 lb trailer.

Inertial controllers work much better, but can have limitations if the trailer is very heavy relative to the tow vehicle. Full application of the trailer brakes will be delayed if the tow vehicle brakes alone can't generate the deceleration needed to fully actuate the controller. You can compensate by biasing the controller to apply the trailer brakes as soon as you touch the brake pedal, but this can make the trailer brakes too grabby for gentle stops. This problem is fairly rare though. The Tekonsha voyager I got for $5 from a junkyard works great for towing my 1600 lb boat through the mountains of BC with my 2400 lb car.

There is another type of electronic controller that solves the delayed braking problem with very heavy trailers. They use a pressure sensor in the vehicle brake line to determine how much stopping power is being requested. The trailer brakes are immediately applied in proportion to how hard you push on the brake pedal. They don't actually displace any brake fluid so they are still compatible with ABS systems. Lots of $$ though.