Mark in Baltimore

I've been talking to Carl at Trailex who seems to be a straight-talking, non-badmouthing guy. He says that electric brakes are more difficult to maintain since the pendulum in the braking box (?) is unpainted steel and needs to be maintained against corrosion. He also says that although electric brakes are adjustable, he prefers the simplicity of surge brakes. Price for either system is almost equal.

From some of the threads I've been reading, lots of people have gone with either one. Greg Fishman recommends electric (thank you, Greg) but I wanted to hear from other trailer owners to gain some sort of consensus, especially those of you who have had trailers for many years. What's the skinny?

Thanks for your help!

Karl S

I like the adjustability of electric brakes. When I have the brakes set for the trailer fully loaded, they lock up too easily if I tow the trailer empty. I also adjust them lower if it is raining, so I don't get lock up on the trailer.

Karl

Stroube Lander

Electric worked great for me. I pulled a 21'enclosed trailer with an expedition. The trailer and race car weighed about 7K. It stoped great. When it was empty I could adjust how agresseve the brakes were. No maintenance problems for over two years.

A930Rocket

I've used a U-Haul for years to haul my 930 to the track. They obviously have surge brakes. I could really feel it pull the towing truck down as needed w/o locking up loaded or not.

I've now bought my own open trailer made to my specs and made sure it had surge brakes.

Maybe it's what you're used to?

Jim

Mark in Baltimore

Hi, guys -

Thanks for the responses! While there are many here who like the surge brakes, I think I'm going to go with the electrics. I like the adjustability and am less concerned about other tow vehicles using it.

fatbillybob

Electric brakes may be an legal requirement in your state. check via GVRW of the unit. Also Electrics and take out the emergency sway you can get under some towing conditions. You can't do that with surge. Surge needs a special device to unlock itself to go in reverse. Electrics can and should be adjusted based on your drive style and load at that time. You can adjust the fell or get the sway out right from your driver's seat. Electric setups use 7 pin connectors. You can always convert down to 4 but you have to add a brake controler to go up to 7. Always have a breakawy switch set up with a battery back-up on your tongue. The pendulum thing is in your brake controler in your truck so there is no problem of this out in the elements.

Mark in Baltimore

Fatbillybob - cool. I appreciate the education. One more reason to go electric.

John Veninger

I trailer my car with electric brakes (5000lbs pull) and have surge brakes on my boat trailer (3500lbs pull).
Go with electric and a GOOD brake controller.

Tim

I have surge brakes on my boat trailer (had)and have electric on my car trailer. The surge brakes were a pian when backing up, you had to get out of the vehicle and lock out the brakes.

There is more than one type of electric brake controler, one which works of the brake lights, and another that is inertial and also works off the brake lights. The inertial one has a little pendulum inside the unit. Keep in mind the electric controlers are mounted inside the tow vehicle. So im having trouble believing you have to maintain the pendulum against corrosion (since its inside the vehicle)

Karl S

There are also digital and analog brake controlers for electric brake systems. The digital ones provide an LED numeric readout for each brake setting. The analog ones use a slider bar. The digitial cost a little more but I prefer them because it makes it very easy to return to your preferred setting for different conditions (loaded, empty, wet, dry, etc).

Karl

Mark in Baltimore

Hi, guys, thanks for all of the great responses! I hope I'm not going to have to install the carbon fiber, digitally-controlled, fan-cooled micro brake controller for my 4Runner.

Score another educational direct hit for Rennlist.

Stem

Me too. I'm gonna get a trailer and now it'll be with a digital electric brake controller. Thank goodness for this board and the info contained therein!!

RJay

And to anticipate your next question, the consensus seems to be the brake controller of choice these days is either the Prodigy or the Jordan. If you're interested in a good forum on trailering, <a href="http://www.thedieselstop.com" target="_blank">www.thedieselstop.com</a> (a Ford diesel forum) has a fairly active site with all sorts of opinions on trailer related stuff that you might find interesting. Click on forums and check the towing and trailering forum out.

Mark in Baltimore

RJay - thank you for the tip. ToddB informed me that the Tekonsha Prodigy electronic brake controller is the hot set up. A search revealed sites that listed all of the cool features. I will check out the Jordan.

Randy

Something else to consider. Under the circumstance where you will ever be trailering over any passes or taking a route where you will be travelling down any long grades, surge brakes are definitely a bad idea, and inertia type electric brake controllers have a definite shortcoming.

The reason is, that as you are going down long grades, the intuitive braking strategy for most people is to slightly rub the brakes to scrub off a few miles per hour, 65mph to 60 for example, on short intervals. With electric inertia trailer brake controllers, even with the setting at maximum sensitivity, the change in inertia as you slighly rub the brakes to keep the speed under control is not enough to effectively apply the trailer brakes proportionally to the tow vehicle's brakes. With surge brakes, fuggetaboutit. The net result is that the tow vehicle's brakes get hotter and hotter, which means less inertia change, which means the trailer brakes do less and less work, and it's a vicious cycle that ends with the tow vehicle's brakes overheated to the point of failure and the trailer brakes not even being applied. Thankfully, most electric controllers have a provision for manual application, but I can tell you from firsthand experience it's no fun, an understatement in the extreme, to fumble around trying to get the trailer brakes to work while it's trying to push you off the road. With surge brakes there isn't even the option to manually apply the brakes.

The solution to this dilema is to change your braking strategy, which the cops don't much care for, or use a static setting electric controller. The different strategy involves much larger variations in speed, because you will use the brakes harder, but for shorter durations, by going from 70mph to 50 for example. The trailers brakes will do their share of the work because the controller better reads the deceleration (inertia change), and the tow vehicle's brakes get a chance to cool a bit.

The true solution is to use a static setting electric brake controller that applies the trailer brakes to whatever force you want, regarless of the condition of the tow vehicle's brakes. The bummer is that they are jerky and require constant adjustment in relation to the load, road speed, grade changes, etc...

If a person is towing around locally, with a lighter open trailer and a good tow vehicle, the best choice is probably an inertia type controller like the Prodigy, since when properly adjusted they are nearly transparent in operation and are very effective. If there is a chance of travelling longer distance over rolling terrain with a heavier load, I would really consider a static setting device, or at least be very alert to using the different braking strategy.

Surge brakes exist mostly because they don't require any extra provisions on the tow vehicle and can be towed by a wide variety of vehicles. As eveything in life, there are compromises, and surge brakes are at the top of the list for compromising ease of use and adaptability for braking effectiveness.

These are my experiences anyhow.....