Surge brake roughness..... - Diesel Forum

mannytranny · 03-05-2005, 07:53 PM

A buddy of mine bought a big a$$ mastercraft (xstar?), and he plans to tow it with his 4.8L Tahoe.........(poor guy)

Anyway, in traffic, when he stops and then takes off again, the play in the surge brakes lets loose, and it jolts pretty good. Trailer weighs something around 5000 lbs.......

Is there anything that he can do to solve this?

Trailer and boat are brand stinkin new, so I doubt theres any trouble with the trailer...........

Nick_Kent · 03-06-2005, 09:32 AM

Are the brakes disc or drum? If they are drum he may need to adjust them even though it is new. he could also try braking slower.

Foy · 03-06-2005, 09:38 AM

My money is on low fluid level in the actuator master cylinder. If fluid level checks out OK, then the brake system probably needs to be bled.

Low fluid isn't uncommon on a brand new trailer. Had the same situation upon taking delivery of a new boat in Sept 04.

Pat Dolan · 03-06-2005, 09:41 AM

There SHOULD be a damper cyclinder ("shock absorber") mounted horizontally on the hitch. That is what keeps the system from doing what you describe. Make sure it has one and it works.

Pat

mannytranny · 03-07-2005, 09:24 PM

Its got 4 wheel disc hyd. brakes.

I will reccomend to him all of the above! Thanks!!!

AZPowerStroke · 03-11-2005, 05:39 PM

I'd recommend bleeding them once more. My boat trailer does the same thing so I just creep ahead a bit after I stop to release the brakes. Then when I go to take off it is a lot smoother.

He needs to ditch the x-star and get a Tige [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]