I took my trailer to the shop because my surge brakes didn't seem to be working anymore. I want to say that I have never owned a pontoon boat with trailer brakes but I have had half a dozen Ranger Bass boats with surge brakes.. the last one had disc brakes on both axles.
Bennington Trailers (and I know they don't build them themselves but ARE made to their specs) are not only drum brakes but my big R25 only has them on the front axle. What I really wanted to say is that mine doesn't have a solenoid to release the brakes in reverse! I didn't believe the shop... I made them take the actuator out and show me. Apparently there are surge brakes like this to save money, you have to use the brake lockout tool to backup because the tow vehicle reverse lights don't do anything. I have never heard of such a ghetto setup!
On top of that, I asked them to replace the carpet on the trailer bunks since they are 4 years old and getting thin in a few areas.... They called to say the wood was split under the carpet and should be replaced or I would have to rip the new carpet off in a year and replace them. I said ok and when I picked it up, they said the manufacturer didn't even use pressure treated 2X4s!!! They were just regular lumber and if that wasn't enough... apparently they did not drill pilot holes for the lag type bolts and the boards got split immediately at installation and were just covered up by marine carpet.
The shop I used replaced all with pressure treated 2X4s, drilled pilot holes so they did not split and then covered that with my new bunk carpet.
Bennington Trailers (and I know they don't build them themselves but ARE made to their specs) are not only drum brakes but my big R25 only has them on the front axle. What I really wanted to say is that mine doesn't have a solenoid to release the brakes in reverse! I didn't believe the shop... I made them take the actuator out and show me. Apparently there are surge brakes like this to save money, you have to use the brake lockout tool to backup because the tow vehicle reverse lights don't do anything. I have never heard of such a ghetto setup!
On top of that, I asked them to replace the carpet on the trailer bunks since they are 4 years old and getting thin in a few areas.... They called to say the wood was split under the carpet and should be replaced or I would have to rip the new carpet off in a year and replace them. I said ok and when I picked it up, they said the manufacturer didn't even use pressure treated 2X4s!!! They were just regular lumber and if that wasn't enough... apparently they did not drill pilot holes for the lag type bolts and the boards got split immediately at installation and were just covered up by marine carpet.
The shop I used replaced all with pressure treated 2X4s, drilled pilot holes so they did not split and then covered that with my new bunk carpet.