Chipper Brakes - Electric vs. Surge ???

[802climber]

I have a 20 year old chipper here that is really due for some brakes.
It weighs around 5000# and I pull it with a 1 ton truck.

Currently has hydraulic surge brakes.
Been looking at brake assemblies online & looks like surge vs. electric are around the same price.

Only thing is I would have to get off my azz and put a brake controller in my dump truck. Already have one in the pickup.
Not sure how well the old surge brake system is even working..............Plus, I am much better with wires than I am with brake lines......

Any thoughts?

 

[2dogs]

I have a 20 year old chipper here that is really due for some brakes.
It weighs around 5000# and I pull it with a 1 ton truck.

Currently has hydraulic surge brakes.
Been looking at brake assemblies online & looks like surge vs. electric are around the same price.

Only thing is I would have to get off my azz and put a brake controller in my dump truck. Already have one in the pickup.
Not sure how well the old surge brake system is even working..............Plus, I am much better with wires than I am with brake lines......

Any thoughts?

Surge brakes are fine on smooth pavement. Flat smooth pavement. If you do any off pavement work or even if you work in hilly country surge bakes are a pain. Yes you can pin them out but this means getting out of the truck for every change. Go with electric. Lots of chippers have no brakes but that can get sketchy especially in the rain.

 

[CalTreeEquip]

I prefer surge. They are simply more reliable.

 

[MSgtBob66]

I prefer electric as they are more predictable.

That being said, regular maintenance of your trailer, to include brakes, is the most important safety feature of any machine.

S/F and Good Luck!

Bob

 

[imagineero]

+1 on electric. The controller makes all the difference. I use the tekonsha p4 prodigy which is excellent. The max voltage sent is adjustable in 0.1V increments. To set it is very easy... set the voltage, then drive along and hit the manual engagement. If the trailer didn't lock up then increase the voltage, and try again. Keep increasing it till the trailer does lock up, then back it off just a little. The controller has a gyro or something, so it responds with appropriate amount of breaking which corresponds to how hard you brake. The older pendulum style controllers used to do this, but most of the modern ones don't. The tekonsha is the only one I've found that works this way and it's brilliant. Most modern controllers use a time based increase, so they start off sending very little voltage then it ramps up the longer you're on the brakes. This is completely useless if, say, you're coasting down a hill with light braking and the trailer progressively locks up. It's also useless if you slam on the brakes for an emergency stop. The sensitivity of the tekonsha is excellent, and it sends the right amount of voltage to the brakes.

It has another button for boost, which has four settings (no boost, level 1, 2 3) which is fantastic on a chip truck. I have no boost when empty, and go to level one or two when fully loaded. Has another button to temporarily disable brakes for reversing, and also a manual lever which is very easy to control precisely which is a nice backup should your truck brakes fail/overheat. It probably sounds complicated, but it's very simple and works brilliantly. Most of my buddies have the redarc unit which costs about the same but is awful. Every one of them who has driven my truck was impressed with the brakes.

Shaun

 

[Festus]

Surge brakes are only good in that you will have brakes with any tow vehicle. They can be a real pain to bleed. If you rupture a line, you lose all your brakes. They are also hard to test since you can't just squeeze a controller. They are not even legal in a commercial application. If you have flexible rubber lines from the frame to axle it's Ok, but it's surprising how many trailers have steel lines all the way to the wheel cylinders, which causes them to break very easily.

I definitely like electric brakes better, but they have their problems too. By law, they need a battery for the breakaway system which is dead in probably 9 out of 10 trailers I inspect. You need a 12 volt charge wire to keep the battery charged. To switch from surge to electric, you will need to replace the hub/drum assemblies as well as the complete backing plate/brake assemblies, not to mention running the wires and installing the breakaway kit. Might be easier to just repair the surge brakes, but if the actuator is bad, it will be very expensive. Electric brakes are more controllable, generally more easy to diagnose and repair. When it's time to replace electric brakes, you can just buy the whole new backing plate/brake assemblies, hook up the wires, and everything is new again.

 

[imagineero]

You can hook the breakaway to the chippers battery. It won't draw any current unless the breakaway is tripped, so as long as you use your chipper often enough for the battery not to be flat you're good. The brakes are obviously still driven off the trucks electrics, not the chipper. If you have a 24V truck I can give you some tips on how to go about that, it's not as hard as it might initially seem and there are a few options.

Shaun

 

[4x4American]

My vote is for the electric brakes, it's not that hard to put a brake controller in your truck. The surge brakes are a pain. What if you wanna back up? Gotta get out and go put a pin there so that the brakes dont lock up...you can adjust the power of the electric brakes...I think theyre the way to go

 

[blades]

Insurance companies prefer electric, Here you can't buy a new trailer with surge system , not allowed

 

[smus]

I have not been able to work for a few years but, in the early part of 2000, Dot pulled us over and told us that "commercial" vehicles could not legally use surge brakes. We had several trailers purchased new with surge brakes from our equipment dealer (ditch witch) . Once the DOT pulls you over, seems like they start looking for you and won't leave you alone.We had to change them out to electric as a result. A lot of money and a PITA. I liked the surge brakes better because we did a lot of off road work and that had a tendency to yank brake wires out and cause a lot of maint. issues. Did not have that issue with surge type brakes. I liked the fact that they did not have to be adjusted for load weight either.