Surge Brakes

[NMace]

I am having a 20 foot concession trailer built that is estimated to weigh about 8 thousand pounds. I have purchased a Fastway 94-1000 e2 weight distribution and anti-sway hitch to pull behind my 2002 1500 HD Chevy.

Just found out the builder put surge brakes on the trailer.

Will the brakes and hitch work together?

[gijoecam]

Personally, I'd do whatever it takes to swap them out for electrics long-term. I've had surge brakes on a boat trailer, and they were miserable to work on, impossible to adjust consistently, and could not be modulated independent of the tow vehicle. Having had electrics on the last two campers we've owned, I fail to see ANY advantage to running hydraulic brakes on a trailer.

[Oldme]

My tow dolly has surge brakes built in.
They have worked well.

In using them I was reminded of what was seen
when towing boats.

Some things to remember...
Towing down hill will put pressure on the surge activator.
This will in turn activate the brakes to some degree.
Same in stop and go traffic.

This can cause them to over heat. So keep a watch
and let them cool as needed.

Also a soft start after a stop (creeping away)sometimes
causes the activator not to fully disengage.
A quicker start will make sure the activator disengages.

A search on boat trailer's with surge brakes, brought all
these items back into my memory as they are common with
surge brakes.

[camp-n-family]

Google is your friend. Search "wdh with surge brakes" and you'll get pages and pages of info. Most commonly from boat towers, but same issue.

[NMace]

Thanks so much, I don't know where you found the info, but it takes a load of my mind. Did not like thinking about the trip home of 400 miles without brakes!

[camp-n-family]

Seems to be a lot of questions online about this situation, but not many clear answers. From what I have read, hitches with built in sway like the Equil-i-zer, can be used with surge brakes.

Here is a quote directly from their website.

The Equal-i-zer hitch will work with most trailers equipped with surge brakes because the spring arms rest on rigid Sway Control Brackets, rather than being suspended by chains. The bars slide forward/backward while turning or braking, without the tendency to "spring" back into the straight position like bars hung from chains do. This allows the surge brake to be properly activated, instead of intermittently activating/deactivating the brakes, or not allowing enough compression to activate the surge brakes at all.