Brake magnet wearing faster than shoes

[Italian Tow]

Yea sorry I misspoke win I said hydraulic was a little cheaper. I did not account for the master cylinder. and they are about 6 or $700 alone..

[Iowa Dave]

I’ve driven machinery with mechanical brakes, they worked for the speeds we operated at. I had surge brakes on a tent trailer camper, they worked fine for the 22 years I owned it. I’ve had no serious problems with electric brakes on many trailers I’ve towed including two Escapes. If there’s a problem with a worn out magnet and the drum and shoes are still good, a new magnet can be purchased at a dexter dealer and installed with minimal effort. Keep your brakes adjusted, mind your setting on your controller, drive reasonable speeds and keep an eye on traffic ahead and behind you and the electric brakes will do their job. On steep downhill grades the transmission needs to be used to assist braking and control descent.
YMMV
Iowa “easy does it” Dave

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

I’ve driven machinery with mechanical brakes, they worked for the speeds we operated at.

European light trailer "overrun" (surge) brakes are entirely mechanical, and are used in highway service. Not ideal, but yes, mechanical brakes can work.

[War Eagle]

Random side comment - I was visiting with our rural mail carrier the other day, and she has to put new brake pads on her personal Honda CR-V, that she uses to deliver mail, about every three months. A new set doesn't last long enough to need adjusting....

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by War Eagle

Random side comment - I was visiting with our rural mail carrier the other day, and she has to put new brake pads on her personal Honda CR-V, that she uses to deliver mail, about every three months. A new set doesn't last long enough to need adjusting....

disk brakes don't have any adjustments. the downside is, they need a lot more activation force, hence pretty much have to be power boosted.

[Italian Tow]

I agree Dave I'm sure win you take care of it, it will take care of you! I ran a landscape operation with more then one driver and probably not enough supervision...

[Italian Tow]

Taxi miles...

[Italian Tow]

That's what I like best about them! Kind of idiot proof! No not you, just in general! I had a lot of things on my plate to have to worry about adjustments.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

disk brakes don't have any adjustments. the downside is, they need a lot more activation force, hence pretty much have to be power boosted.

Drum brakes are typically "self-energizing" which means that the shoes jam into the drum with more force than the hydraulic cylinder or magnet and lever system which is activating them. Disk brakes can't do this, and so they need more hydraulic force (and a simple electric coil at reasonable current wouldn't be effective). To some extent that can be addressed with large piston area, but with reasonably sized pistons they still require more hydraulic pressure. That's why both surge brake actuators and electric-over-hydraulic units come in separate drum and disk versions.

In cars, disk brakes have typically meant power assist, but many racing cars and some particularly light production cars have disk brakes without assist. Our Triumph Spitfire is a production example... but its almost 40 years old.

For the technically curious, there is an electric disk brake design which works very well. It uses motors to turn screws which push wedges to apply the pads, so it is called the Electronic Wedge Brake. It was well-developed (and demonstrated to work better than hydraulic brakes in actual cars) over a decade ago, but has not found a production application yet. If trailer owners were willing to pay for this level of technology (and clearly we are not ) it would be a great design for a trailer: no hydraulics, effective disk brakes, compatible with any hub design, parking feature, moderate power requirement, easy integration with ABS and sway control systems...

[Italian Tow]

Wow, you sound versed in breaks! My experience is only modifying one trailer from electrical to hydraulic and having been around more then a few units with many drivers, I will not go back to electric breaks.