Tow Dolly resurrection

[BrianinMichigan]

I have an old tow dolly that I want to put back into service. It does not have brakes on it. I am wondering what is a better braking setup, drum brakes or disc brakes using the surge controller. I am more concerned with towing in the mountains than on flat land.

[Bipeflier]

I have disc surge brakes on my boat trailer. They work great!

[lane_hog]

Do you want the brakes to work, or just to be there for an emergency break-away situation?

We have drums with the surge actuator on our dolly for a break-away only, and having pulled thru the mountains multiple times never really felt that we needed added braking from the dolly.

[BrianinMichigan]

I do have the flange on the spindle

[mowermech]

I was going to put brakes on an old Demco Kar Kaddy a few years ago, then I found out that the spindles had no flange to mount the backing plate on. I gave up on that idea. I quit towing the PT Cruiser instead.
You might want to check to see what is required for your dolly to install brakes. It quite possibly might be easier to find a dolly with brakes instead of trying to install them on your old dolly.
As for drums or discs, I don't know which would be "best" in the mountains. Same goes for electric or surge. I have used both on various trailers in the past. They both worked just fine for me.

[BarneyS]

Moved to Dinghy Towing forum from Towing.