Disk Brakes Worth it?

[Joshua J Rowe]

Wheel bearings on one side completely failed today and I barely got stopped before the tire fell off. Fortunately was only about a mile from home and a good friend was available to go scour the earth for bearings close enough in size to get me home. The hub/drum and brake pads were damaged during this event and looking at replacements I am wondering if it would be worth upgrading to disk brakes and an electric lockout brake actuator.

It would cost me about $500 for all the brake parts which seams reasonable to me, but I would not want to do all that work and see no difference when I could replace the hub/drum and pads for around $100 and way less work.

Anyone have opinions on disk brakes versus drum? Online reviews seem to indicate it makes a pretty substantial difference.

On a side note, I think this will be the only single axle boat trailer I ever own

[Skidave]

Do it! I had the same issue 20 years ago with my first boat / trailer.

The disk kit came with all new bearings, etc. Just make sure your master cylinder Is compatible with disk brakes.

I used Tiedown Engineering kit. It was great.


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[Tom_H]

Disks definitely stop better, especially when wet, and are generally easier to service. You'll likely also need either a new surge actuator, or will need to modify/upgrade your existing one to run the disks and get the reverse lockout solenoid. They're definitely on my eventual upgrade list.

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[shag]

+1 for disc brakes. .... You could just repair what you have, save that trailer and put the money you spend for disc toward a newer trailer with disc.... Just a thought.

[Joshua J Rowe]

For now I just bought a new set of drum brakes and a new drum/hub. After looking into the various actuators the setup I wanted would have been over $1,000. It's not really worth that much to me at the moment. $300 later I have new bearings, brakes, etc.