Tandem axle trailer set up
Im rebuilding my dads trailer for his boat. I bought a tandem axle kit complete from the frame down to the rubber. only 1 axle has brakes. do I put the axle with the brakes toward the front or rear? does it matter? the trailer originally had both axles with hydraulic surge brakes which never worked anyway. any opinions? thanks
I'm not sure why but most all tandem setups with single brakes are mounted up front
I do agree with Raceman and Barry, but there is also another option. Add brakes to the other axle. Generally you just need two more drums and the loaded backing plates. I have converted trailers from hydraulic surge to electric brakes a few times, and I always do both axles. My current trailer has hydraulic surge brakes, and it will get dual electric brakes when I get around to it. :cool:
Due to the equalizers between the front and rear springs....
....a front braked axle will tend to lift the front of the rear axle spring, and rear braked axle will tend to lift the rear of the front axle spring. :cool:
OK, I finally took a look at mine..
C-Hawk out of Bucyrus Ohio builds many (most?) of Checkmate's trailers. I have a 'Pulsare 2100' model trailer with twin axels and surge brakes. They put the braked axel on the REAR on this rig. Leaf springs, tied together like Raceman said.
As a side note, the C-Hawk is a well designed trailer, custom built to properly support Checkmate's hulls. It tows great, and is basically over built for this load. Trailer itself measured 980 pounds on my local truck scales, and that's just to haul a 2000 boat/motor combo. BUT the paint job on these are second rate. I've looked at a lot of C-Hawk trailers from the early to mid '90's and every one of them is rusting. I'm not talking going down the road all year either. Most of us Michiganders put our boats away before the salt hits the streets and don't get them out until the salt's long washed away into our lakes and streams. It looks to me that they just paint over bare metal with no primer. Pretty sad isn't it?