Going to rock on to electric avenue...

[kmenard]

I wiped out one of the spindles on my trailer last year. Thinking about going to electric brakes... anyone done the conversion?

[BraceMaker]

Yes but you want to do discs with electric over hydraulic actuator not drums

[kmenard]

@BraceMaker Why is that?

[skiinxs]

If you go electric and don't have a brake controller in your truck, HERE is a great solution. It simply plugs in to the light plug and is completely self-contained, no wiring at all. You can use a Bluetooth connection to your phone to control settings and if you want the ability to manually apply brakes. I use it with my utility trailer.

[kmenard]

@skiinxs I have a brake controller built into the truck, which is why I want to go electric.

 

It is a Gekko, so not a heavy boat. I was going to use these: https://www.trailerpartsdepot.com/p-493-dexter-marine-products-11003-10-galv-x-free-backing-left-hand.aspx

 

[BraceMaker]

@kmenard havent tried that specific one yet it might be OK but most drum kits I've had in marine service very quickly go out of adjustment and I just don't have the energy to be pulling drums and messing with the adjuster everytime they go out of adjustment.

 

Air over hydraulic disc once bleed are like car brakes they work till the pad or rotor wears too much and any fault is serviced up on the tongue.

 

Electric actuated drums work till they have an electrical issue somewhere on the frame or the adjuster is set wrong and then they either drag or they don't work well. Certainly that is a cheaper option and if they work great.

 

But 1 working brake on a single axle trailer is a fiasco. Notice in their own add dexter says "no more replacing brakes every year" that's because with most electric drums it was more like fixing brakes every time you trailered.

[Fastguy888]

I was facing your same decision 3 months ago @kmenard . I already had electric controller for my rig. Pricing it out (I also needed new actuator) would have been close. I ended up going traditional Hydraulic Drums like factory. Was $900 including new A-60 actuator, lines, bearings, and Inner Drums including labor. My thinking's were if I ever switched vehicles, or a friend needed to pull my boat, or if I rented an RV through Outdoorsy.com the brake system would be self contained and good to go.

[kmenard]

Given @BraceMaker input...I am thinking this might be the better idea? https://www.trailerpartsdepot.com/p-3731-dexter-82405-vented-10-disc-brake-kit-for-two-wheels-6600-rating-82405.aspx

 

 

[BraceMaker]

It'd work - as fastguy said its a surge with out the electrics.

 

Honestly ski boats really don't need brakes for safe trailering. They're pretty light and compact so as long as the truck is properly sized its easy. Using a 4Runner I'd want the brakes. Behind an F-250

[BrennanKMN]

I converted my trailer to electric over hydraulic after constantly dealing with crapy master cylinders and other brake crap. It's not cheap, but hot damn is it vastly superior in every single way. If you don't tow a lot in stop and go or a lot in general, just putting on quality brakes, calipers and a good master cylinder is probably the way to go.

 

I did this half as an angry reaction to surge brakes and half as a fun project. Here is the wiring diagram I made and a quick picture of the trailer. If you want more information I can share the rest of my documentation from the project.