Brake Conversion

[BalouSC]

Hello;
I have a 2000 Tricker Trailer outfitted with 4 wheel drum surge brakes. How hard is the conversion to electric disc brakes? How much am I looking at money wise? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Balou.

[troybuz]

BalouSC,
I just swapped my drums for discs and could not be happier. I did not go to electric, but I did switch out my surge coupler.
Century Wheel and Rim in Wilsonville is where I picked up the parts. They were great to work with.
Sorry about the underline...for some odd reason thats how it's typing???
Good Luck

[BalouSC]

Could you tell me what it cost you approximately? PM's are fine also. Thanks! Balou

[Orca]

Around $550 - $600 for 4 - silver-cad disks and calipers. More for stainless calipers. Call Rodrigo at Century in Wilsonville. Another $120 for a new actuator if needed. If your actuator has a removeable orifice at the outlet, you can remove the orifice and use the existing actuator.

It is a DIY project if you can use a jack, lug wrench, socket set, and can seat races and seals in hubs. Not difficult, just takes a while building each hub, greasing hubs, and bleeding brake lines.

You may need a brake line upgrade since you will need soft lines to each caliper to allow them to float. Drums have hard lines to each caliper, but for discs you want a soft line. You could upgrade to all soft lines - another $100 or so - http://www.tiedown.com/abline.html . But, you can also just add 4 flexible lines from an auto store.

[BalouSC]

So this would be just converting to discs. What about switching over to electric? Would it be worth my time? And money for that matter?

Originally Posted by Orca

Around $550 - $600 for 4 - silver-cad disks and calipers. More for stainless calipers. Call Rodrigo at Century in Wilsonville. Another $120 for a new actuator if needed. If your actuator has a removeable orifice at the outlet, you can remove the orifice and use the existing actuator.

It is a DIY project if you can use a jack, lug wrench, socket set, and can seat races and seals in hubs. Not difficult, just takes a while building each hub, greasing hubs, and bleeding brake lines.

You may need a brake line upgrade since you will need soft lines to each caliper to allow them to float. Drums have hard lines to each caliper, but for discs you want a soft line. You could upgrade to all soft lines - another $100 or so - http://www.tiedown.com/abline.html . But, you can also just add 4 flexible lines from an auto store.

[WaterDog]

I converted my Tricker to Elec/hyd and it was $800 for parts for the Hydrastar system. $100 for the controller. My trailer already had disks so it was fairly simple. Tossed the surge coupler and welded on a new coupler.

It is worth it? Absolutely! So much more control, having brakes while backing up, smooth stops, less wear, no more clunking. I will never ever have surge again.

[BalouSC]

Thanks for the replys!