Trailer Brakes

[salty pig]

Anyone know about trailer brakes  like those dang surge ones I have Drum on mine.?? I spin the tire i hear  a rubbing noise from the brakes. I didnt take it apart YET !

[sealife]

They rust on the inside of the drums and a lot of loose rust lies in the drums.  Also when the backing plate rusts it seems the springs can not always retract the shoes completely.  I bought a set of galvanzied shoes and they were better, not great but better.   Two years ago I changed the brakes over to discs and so far have not had any problems.  Besides changing the brakes you need to modify the master cylinder in the surge unit and put a blocking solenoid in the brake line to be abel to back up.  The discs come on much faster backing up then the shoe brakes.  Hope this helps.

[salty pig]

Not good on brakes... having enough trouble with drums god forbid i try disk lol... Think i can buy the pads but may need the entire guts whole new drum is like 200.

[sealife]

The need for new drums and a backing plate helped me decide to move to the discs.

[Duffman]

  Trailer brakes as a whole are a nightmare!!  Dunking metal parts into saltwater is never good, but a necessary evil.
  If you spin the drum you should hear some noise. You want the shoes making some contact with the drum when properly adjusted.  If you aren't in proper adjustment, the chucking feeling you get when start/stopping is annoying as hell.
  I've already replaced my shoes twice in 3 years. Its the sitting in between trips that rusts them out.
  Next year I'm going with new backing plates, hardware shoes and drums. We'll see how long that last!!!