MacGregorSailors.com

Hey Seahouse - I know what Matt is talking about - he means that when your moving at 20 or 50 mph and need to stop for a traffic light or stop sign and after you come to a complete dead stop the trailer makes a thump as you pull forward - that's the surge coupler sliding forward. Mine does the same thing - if your starting from a full stop after being under travel the brakes are ALWAYS going to bee ALL ON because they are supposed to be all the way on when you make a full dead stop. You stop - the trailer stops too - that's how it works.

Matt - our surge couplers are made right here in San Marcos - the company that makes it (trailer buddy too) are right next door - you can pull in there and have them look you over but really I think your brakes are fine.

I will get the number for the trailer man for you.

When I bought my 26X used,I was towing it back to Ohio from Alabama. I borrowed my sons 1/2 ton pickup up to tow it home. We were traveling down a grade, centered on a three lane at about 60mph. I was leaving plenty of clearance ahead, however there was a large SUV mobile home slowing down fast and he had no brake lights. Traffic was heavy, I could not change lanes, when I hit the brakes it was obvious to me in the first few seconds that we were going to smash into the rear of that vehicle. All I could do was tell my wife to hold on, that is when the surge brakes finally came in and saved us from what I thought was inevitable. Just FYI

Mastreb, take a look under your trailer's brake cylinder and see if you have a small gas shock absorber. If it is like the system on my trailer this shock prevents sudden movement when braking or accelerating which causes that "knock". I just ordered a replacement for mine because it is doing the same thing. I just need the temps to climb out of single digits before I install it. Its supposed to take about 5 minutes to replace... We'll see.

I got mine from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006UH ... UTF8&psc=1

If towing with a vehicle able to adequately pull a near or over 2000kg boat and trailer you'd have to be looking at 4000kgs all up minimum....so relying on just the tow vehicle brakes could be asking for trouble.....a lot of tow vehicles around here are small trucks/utilities etc which are notoriously light in the back end further adding to braking problems ie jack knifing....and as with our tow vehicle at about 2500kgs c/w ABS and traction control (Ford Transit tray LWB) it appears that stopping with modern aids is not that hard....until an emergency....which we have not had...BUT I don't know about US road manners but here in Oz if its long or big or slow other motorists have to overtake and slot in front of you and slam on the brakes so they don't get booked by the boys in blue.....room to brake rapidly disappears.......I really feel for our BIG truck drivers 45-50 plus tons 20 metres long B doubles
We run a number of trailers other than our Mac and have had electric,vacuum and override systems all of which present maintenance problems but ultimately no brakes present a danger you'd only risk for short trips....having been presented with no brakes 1000km from home does play with your confidence!!!Add to it now we have loaded our Mac with the things we need....2000kg has gone well and truly so we have to step up to a break away system (read $2000-$3000) ah the joys of boat ownership

Yeah Bartmac a bloke rang up the other day and seemed to believe what he had been told that the trailer was adequate as standard for our roads fully loaded I tried to explain but don't think he was listening so he will probably turn up on here one day wanting to know how to upgrade a new tattoo trailer to 2.8- 3 t not sure how you would do that really being aluminium?
He seemed to have plenty of money so he will find someone to take it off him.
As for the brakes once we go over 2t we need all axles with electric initiated brakes, I put hydraulic discs with an electric initiator it was much dearer but much better for salt water applications esp as the disc bodies are gal too with stanless cylinders.
Personally I liked the surge setup better just not the mongrel original ones which I was happy to see go, these electric ones are annoying when you take off and they have a delay coming off.