US1 Fountain

Acording to the travel trailer shops I questioned, they never deal with surge brakes as campers use electric. Either way, keep me posted if they find a cure.

Thanks

Nauti Affair

Im having the same problem as BN now and my trailer is only 3 months old. I picked it up in Austin and drove to Nashvlle in April and it did great, now 3 out of 5 times I get a lot of loud noise when the surge engages. Sometimes I get a bad vibration, it still stops, but something isnt right. Suggestions?

Tonto

The "dampning shocks" are like a gas filled shock for car/truck in that they should go to the full extend position when the trailer is in "idle" position. When you locked the emergency stop lever, how easy was it to push in on the ball coupler. There should be enough resistance to keep this "cycling" of the brakes from happening. That's where I would look first. I thought I was the only one that had, "Damn, we ain't never seen that before" kind'a problems.
Robert

US1 Fountain

It was fairly easy to move by hand. Not like there was nothing there, but not enough that I could see it doing any good. I'm thinking both of mine are shot. Sure would have thought that they both would have lasted longer than a few months.

Somehow I don't see Eagle Trailers stepping up to the plate now.
Thanks

Tonto

I'm not a fan of surge brakes to start with, and this has always been a problem with them. The "cycling". I personally like the vacuum over hydraulic set up with drum brakes, but it is EXPENSIVE. I've heard too many times of the pistons in the calipers seizing up for me to go to disc brakes yet, but I will always stay with the vacuum over hydraulics, they are too good.

Robert

bn

Ok, my trailer is finally fixed. Took the boat and trailer to a local place that works on 18 wheelers. (never went to the camper place)

They said that the wheel bearrings were on too tight (they had to use a breaker bar to take them off) and the wheel hubs were leaking. They think that water was getting in the wheel hubs some how.

So they replaced the wheel bearrings, wheel hubs, put new brake shoes on, and machined the drums.

Works GREAT NOW!!!


Now I am waiting to see what Rocket will do for me. I hope that they stand behind their product.

The bill was $845 and I bought the trailer new last year. This problem started last year - well before any warranties were up.

US1 Fountain

bn, glad to hear it. Sure would have thought if the bearings were that tight, you would have seen flames coming from the wheels, or at least been sitting on the side of the road.

I just replaced both of my dampner shocks other day. Haven't tried it yet. The old ones were not as stiff as the new ones when I pushed/pulled them steady. They felt preety good in that regards, but when I would pull them out and then quickly push/pull them in short quick strokes, they had no resistance and moved freely.
Crossing my fingeres.

Reed Jensen

Thanks Paul.... I work on antique cars for a living.. so I have workshop manuals dating back to early 1900's... so "self energizing brakes" were cutting edge back then... plus it helps to want to know what the parts you are changing do... rather than just replacing parts until the problem disappears.I'm one of the few people around that still know how to work on mechanical brakes.... now I really am making myself look old.....

US1 Fountain

UPDATE
Dampner shocks did not fix it. So rebleed the system......still does it.

With a brain storm of an idea, had the wife pull the trailer while watching from the side lines. It's all in the design of the spring and shackles on a tandem axle with brakes on both axles. In short, the front axle will lift up and skip on the pavement shaking the trailer to smitherings. Only cure is to: never pull empty, or lock out the coupler. Not comfortable with no brakes.

Any suggestions? Thanks

challenger454

very interesting topic. You stated that if you lock out the coupler, then you have no brakes. I dont know how long your trailer is, I imagine even if it were galvanized, a decent tow vehicle shouldnt have that much trouble stopping an empty trailer. Just my two cents. Brakes on a trailer assist due to the increased weight load of the tow vehicle itself and of course the load you are pulling. Doubling the workload of the vehicle with half the braking capacity it is originally equipped with doesnt equate well with Newtonian physics.