Trailers and Surge Brakes

[bdfanatic]

Hi

I hope to buy my first boat soon and have a bunch of questions. I'm planning on buying a <20' jet boat as an entry level boat (once I can find one at a good price) and unfortunately, will need to tow it with a 2000 Toyota Sienna. According to the van's manual, when using a trailer over 1000#'s, it is recommended that the trailer has brakes.

Is "Karavan" the trailer that comes with most sea-doo boats? Do the boats <20' commonly come with surge brakes? How expensive it is to add surge brakes?

The boat I've most recently looked at will weigh about 2100# with trailer, gear, etc. And my van already seems to have weak brakes, not to mention perhaps a legal problem (negligence) if I ever get into an accident.

Am I out of luck finding a smaller boat with a trailer equipped with surge brakes?

Thanks for the help.

 

[RFoster130]

Most of these smaller boats dont have any brakes. I think you can retrofit the trailers though. search the net.

 

[timhood]

I was thinking about putting brakes on my trailer as well. I went to the Karavan web site and saw they offered brake kits, including surge brakes. However, I opted not to because of the cost, and in my case I don't really need them. In your case, if you don't feel comfortable with your vehicles braking ability with a trailer, you may need to. Go to karavantrailers.com and on the left side there is a button for the online parts store. Click that and in the search options, type "surge" in the description field. You'll probably have to call to determine which is the correct part for your trailer, but the options listed there range from $290 - $800. I think the trailers we have with the 14" wheels (single axle) would use either the 320-01061-BL-F BRAKE KIT 10" SURGE-BLK BACKING-SINGLE if your trailer is black, or 320-01061-GL-J BRAKE KIT 10" SURGE-GALV BACKING-SINGLE if your trailer is galvanized. Appx. $510 or $570 plus installation.

My Ford F-150 can actually stop from 60mph in a shorter distance with 1,000 pounds in the bed than when empty. When towing my '08 180 Challenger SE, total braking distance is not much different than when empty, even though the trailer has no brakes.

BTW, Karavan also offers standard brake kits. Those are better than surge brakes, so if there's any possibility of putting those on, I'd recommend those instead.