Well, lots of folks absolutely hate electric brakes on boat trailers, especially in salt water. They feel the mechanisms corrode and fail quickly. However today's assemblies are often coated to reduce corrosion, which helps. You should have no problem reusing your old drums if they are in decent shape. I have electric brakes on a tri-axle trailer that is used only twice a year. So far so good. I do check them every couple of years and I spray the assembles with fluid film. The electric brakes work fine and are much less expensive than the others. Make sure your electrical connections are sealed in adhesive shrink tube.So if I do change from surge to electric, can I reuse the drums? Or are they specific fit for electric and hydraulic?
mine seem to last for years, i do run marine backing platesI think he’s referring to switching to an electric over hydraulic actuator, not electric brakes like you would find on a travel trailer, those wouldn’t last a month in the salt.
To answer your question, yes you can reuse your existing drums, but if you want to eventually switch over to disk brakes then it would require a 1600psi actuator vs a 1000psi actuator. The disk setups are substantially more corrosion resistant and offer superior braking performance, I would never go back to a drum brake setup, especially in the salt water conditions.
Either way they’ll never offer the performance, reliability, or corrosion resistance that EOH with stainless discs offer. Do you trailer your boat regularly or do you moor your boat? I can’t see them lasting for “years” when every brake related thread on this site and the hull truth has everyone complaining that their hydraulic drum brakes don’t last more than a season or two with even occasional use and religious fresh water rinsing.mine seem to last for years, i do run marine backing plates
Actually I just bought a pair of drum assemblies and many parts are stainless. And the backing plate is coated.hydraulic drum brakes don not have stainless components, the electric drum brakes i use do