I have a 1650 Explorer on a shorelander trailer. I would like to add brakes to my trailer. I went to a local trailer shop & they recommended electric drum brakes. Is ths OK . Should I get disk or drum, electric or surge?

get surge brakes, discs are best but drums are fine too

and take it some place else to get it done.

if they are recommending elec brakes on a boat trailer I would not trust them to do the work

Electric brakes did not sound right to me. I'll have check on the price diff between drums & disks. I'll probably do the install myself. Thanks

I put drums on my Shorelandr on my last boat. It was easy.

Championtrailers.com has good info on it

Save yourself a lot of headaches and go with kodiak surge brakes, you can install them in a few hours.

http://www.easternmarine.com/

While you're saving, do as I did and buy the parts from a mail order source like Northern Tool.
The surge coupler alone was 1/3 the price a marine dealer quoted.

I also would suggest the surge and I have done business with Champion Trailer. I like the disc rather then the drums for water.

I checked out the eastern marine & the champion web sites. I was going to install hydraulic disk brakes until I read the info on Champion which says that for a lighter trailer disks will not provide enough braking force & drums are better. I prefer disks as I thought that they would be easer to maintain & provide better corrosion resistance. I have a 1650 Explorer tiller with a 50 HP, total weight with a full tank of gas is 1400LBS + trailer approx 2100lbs. Which should I get??

I checked out the eastern marine & the champion web sites. I was going to install hydraulic disk brakes until I read the info on Champion which says that for a lighter trailer disks will not provide enough braking force & drums are better. I prefer disks as I thought that they would be easer to maintain & provide better corrosion resistance. I have a 1650 Explorer tiller with a 50 HP, total weight with a full tank of gas is 1400LBS + trailer approx 2100lbs. Which should I get??

I dont really understand why they would say that except maybe that the valving in the actuator is better with a heavier load pushing on it on the disc brake systems.

Drums are fine, I had them, just get the galvanized ones with the stainless steel wheel cylinders unless you are using this in saltwater, if thats the case you want ss everything.

Make sure they are the free backing design, then you wont have to worry about them every applying in reverse and needing a lockout solenoid or a wire from your reverse lights. Just makes things simpler.You do have to adjust them up once in a while but thats not that often once they are set.

Check out Trailer Parts Super Store, they have a sale on drum brakes thru the 27th of this month. They are great to deal with, and have everything. I only live about 25 miles from them. They also sell boating equipment and fishing gear, mostly oriented towards saltwater though.

Disc brakes require higher hydraulic pressure to operate at the same stopping power as drums. The shoes in a drum brake are operated with added leverage and require less hydraulic pressure.

I have a sub 18' boat w/ disc brakes. If I stop in a relatively slow manner, my disc brakes will not operate which happens when I know I need to stop way ahead of time (coming to a stop sign or making a turn).

I know my hull weight is 1300 lbs alone and pulling roughly 2700 max with trailer/motor/boat/equip. You are likely better off getting drum brakes as less weight will require harder stops to increase hydraulic pressure.

EDIT: Actually the best setup would be a electric/hydraulic coupler with disc brakes. But that coupler is expensive.

I have an 18 foot aluminum that came with drum brakes. After 5 seasons, this spring I replaced them with disc. The drum brakes need adjustment quite often if you are braking alot. You know you need them adjusted when you brake lightly and the boat wants to shake apart. True info from above about braking force and drums are usualy more prevelant on light loads. I have noticed no ill effects moving from drum to disc other than it's smooooooth, no more adjusting. The install is simple, for me I just need to make sure I had the correct mounting plate which if you have drums already it's there. The surge coupler needed some modifications to remove the check valve. Disc systems dont need it but drums do as some residual pressure is required to keep the drums from fully returning.

I have Tiedown components so I went with their vented discs. One note is you will want to install or have present is a backup bypass sol/valve. This is connected to your reverse light circuit. It allows the coupler to depress and have the hydraulic fluid bypass back into the master cylinder. This is how the Tiedown systems work and was very simple to install. You will need to go from a 4 wire to 5 wire plug. Not a big deal. This took me all of an afternoon to install.

Best thing I did to this rig was replace the drums to disc.

JIm

I have an 18 foot aluminum that came with drum brakes. After 5 seasons, this spring I replaced them with disc. The drum brakes need adjustment quite often if you are braking alot. You know you need them adjusted when you brake lightly and the boat wants to shake apart. True info from above about braking force and drums are usualy more prevelant on light loads. I have noticed no ill effects moving from drum to disc other than it's smooooooth, no more adjusting. The install is simple, for me I just need to make sure I had the correct mounting plate which if you have drums already it's there. The surge coupler needed some modifications to remove the check valve. Disc systems dont need it but drums do as some residual pressure is required to keep the drums from fully returning.

I have Tiedown components so I went with their vented discs. One note is you will want to install or have present is a backup bypass sol/valve. This is connected to your reverse light circuit. It allows the coupler to depress and have the hydraulic fluid bypass back into the master cylinder. This is how the Tiedown systems work and was very simple to install. You will need to go from a 4 wire to 5 wire plug. Not a big deal. This took me all of an afternoon to install.

Best thing I did to this rig was replace the drums to disc.

JIm

wow

sounds like you had a bad install with your drums. None of that should have ever happened. I had drums for 5 years on my old trailer, they worked perfectly.

glad the discs are working better for you