I had surge brakes on both mine and my father's Ranger bass boat trailers. Ranger boats are always heavy due to the thick construction and lots of closed cell foam.
Behind my 3/4 ton truck, my 17 footer was not a real problem. But my father often hauled his 18.5 footer behind his small SUV, and braking was iffy.
So we made sure that the brakes were working well.
Since they were used in fresh water, we did not have any real corrosion issues. We just watched the pads on the disk brakes and made sure the master cylinder was full.
When they were working correctly, you literally could not even tell the boat was back there when stopping.
I had a lever made up that I could work the master with to bleed them when I flushed the lines or something leaked.
The only problem I had was with the back up system. The system had a small solenoid mounted behind the master on a "T" in the output line with a rubber hose going back into the top of the master.
I made sure that the 7 pin Bargman connection on all my vehicles had the reverse light pin hooked up and the backup light switches on the transmissions all worked.
When you shifted into reverse, the solenoid fired and bypassed the master's output back into the master.
That was the only weak point in the system. Sometimes the solenoid would fail to fire, or be stopped up and the brakes would try to lock backing into a ramp to launch.
Other times it would not seal, and I had no brakes.
Then one day I saw the place I stored our boats moving one of them around with a trailer ball on the end of a forklift fork. He had no problem backing it into a hole despite no power being hooked to the trailer.
I discovered that there were two arms that went from the trailer to the master to push it when the coupler slid back. If you put a rod or a large bolt in a slot between the trailer and the master, it could not slide back and the master did not see any motion.
I made sure that the solenoids on both trailers were closed and not leaking, then cut the wire going to them.
Went to the hardware store and bought about a half dozen 1/2 inch by 4 inch cheap bolts. Made a bracket on both trailers to hold one, put one in the tool box of both trucks, and one in the glove box of both cars.
When you were getting ready to launch, you would simply slide a bolt into the slot as you walked by to get the boat ready. After you put it back on the trailer, you just slid the bolt out and put it back. If you forgot, you would be reminded the first time you stopped.
With a really light boat and and a heavy truck, welding might be OK. But if it anything much bigger than an aluminum Jon boat, I wouldn't.
Towing is just so much nicer when the brakes are working right. And the first time some fool pulls out in front of you, you will be glad they are there.
The systems are not hard to maintain or repair, and are actually simpler than the ones on your Blazer. Well worth it in my opinion.
I have since seen some trailers with lockouts built in, but I suspect that liability issues keep more companies from doing that.
If someone had a wreck because the trailer brakes were locked out, there might be a problem. But if there just happened to be a hole or slot in the coupler and the owner put something in there that interfered with the braking action, that was not the manufacture's fault...................
