hydraulic trailer brakes

Why I like Hydraulic Brakes.

Bill Barnett of Master Brake Systems explained “hot electric brake drag” to me. Since the mission of my website is to educate folks about trucks and what you use with them, I thought I’d share. Bill explained there are 3 major sources of heat from electric brakes, #1 the voltage heat to the electro magnet, #2 heat from the magnet dragging, #3 and conductive heat from the brake shoes and magnet to the drum. All this causes degrading brakes and then what do you do, coast to a stop?

Way back when, 20 years ago I was replacing magnets left and right on my electric trailer brakes, I envied the bigger hydraulic dump gooseneck trailers. A lot of them had electric over hydraulic brakes. And I had my magnets. So I gave up on trailer brakes and went to dually trucks for stopping power. Electric over hydraulic brakes seem to disappear for a while and I hadn’t heard about them for years. Then I saw Transwest’s axle display at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. They’re back! Now this isn’t the vacuum system that has a pump on your truck and the long hose to your trailer. This ElecDraulic system from Master Brake System’s is self contained with it’s own electric gear driven brake booster. Now this is advanced, it has it’s own battery and uses your trucks battery if it needs it, and charges your emergency breakaway disconnect battery. With it’s micro processor it will self diagnose, give you proportional braking, and can, as an option give you ABS on your trailer.  And I haven’t even got to the part about how much better hydraulic trailer brakes are, with less fade, reduced maintenance costs and faster brakes. There is a reason your truck has hydraulic brakes.

Way back when, 20 years ago I was replacing magnets left and right on my electric trailer brakes, I envied the bigger hydraulic dump gooseneck trailers. A lot of them had electric over hydraulic brakes. And I had my magnets. So I gave up on trailer brakes and went to dually trucks for stopping power. Electric over hydraulic brakes seem to disappear for a while and I hadn’t heard about them for years. Then I saw Transwest’s axle display at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. They’re back! Now this isn’t the vacuum system that has a pump on your truck and the long hose to your trailer.

This ElecDraulic system from Master Brake System’s is self contained with it’s own electric gear driven brake booster. Now this is advanced, it has it’s own battery and uses your trucks battery if it needs it, and charges your emergency breakaway disconnect battery. With it’s micro processor it will self diagnose, give you proportional braking, and can, as an option give you ABS on your trailer.  And I haven’t even got to the part about how much better hydraulic trailer brakes are, with less fade, reduced maintenance costs and faster brakes. There is a reason your truck has hydraulic brakes.

The Master Brake Systems, ElecDraulic unit fits snugly under your gooseneck. This is what I like, 13″ disc rotors, greaseable hubs and air ride. Big difference on what the right brake system can do for your safety and peace of mind. With the more powerful diesel pickup trucks coming out each year, I know you can pull more weight, pull it faster, and now the with all these trailer accessories, you can stop this bigger trailer, smoothly and safely!