Dr911

Many trailers come originally equipped with surge brakes. My observation is that electric brakes are available at an additional cost and readings online suggest that electric brakes are superior, however several friends shared their opinion that surge brakes are better.

If anyone here has tried booth, could you share your experience please? Thanks in advance

Bill Lehman

On the advice of my Trailex dealer, I went with electric. I haven't used surge brakes but find the electric brakes work well. I do adjust the controller between city driving and Interstate driving.

linzman

I have driven trailexes with surge and electric brakes. The electric are better, although they can be complicated by tow vehicle "bulb out" warnings, etc. , especially with LED lights. Surge are simpler, but can't be activated independently of tow vehicle, i.e. if the trailer starts swaying and you just want trailer brakes, not tow vehicle brakes (doesn't happen often on an open trailer). I seem to recall when I sold my trailex, the guy only wanted electric brakes because he claimed surge brakes were illegal in some states????

ExMB

That is what I found out as well. With the caveat that it is MY dependent. The other thing to consider, muddy the waters , is how many enclosed trailers use surge versus electric.

DTMiller

I *think* that, assuming my memory is correct, that surge brakes are only going to be on trailers under a fairly low GVWR, like under 5000# or maybe even lower.

I have surge brakes on my 2007 trailex. I don't have any problems. Of course I tow a miata with either a Nissan Armada or a 35,000# RV. Both have more than adequate braking capacity regardless of the trailer brake type. I wouldn't want to try to squeak by towing my trailer with a 'just enough' tow vehicle.

lmnsblu355

I towed a uhaul car trailer with surge brakes a few years ago. Worked OK. But as said above, electric brakes can work independant of the tow vehicle.

By design, surge brakes only activate when the trailer is "pushing" on the tow vehicle. The speed differential is what pushes on the master cylinder on the trailer to activate the brake pistons.

With electric brakes, you can adjust the gain on the trailer brakes so the trailer slows down enough that the tow vehicle doesn't feel any "push" from the trailer. In an emergency, you can activate the trailer brakes directly to stop sway or slow the trailer independant of tow vehicle brake function.

Definitely go with electric brakes with a good, hardwired brake controller.

ShakeNBake

I had surge on my 8045, and they were flawless and brain-dead simple. I loaded the trailer correctly, so I didn't ever experience a situation where I needed to independently control the brakes. May have helped that german SUVs tend to be over braked. I loaned the trailer out a couple times to people at the track with car issues and that was only (easily) possible because it was surge. I would not hesitate to get another open trailer with surge.