Thinking of converting from Surge to EOH

[AsLan7]

A warning about EOH brakes that I have learned...

Drums or surge brakes lag behind tow vehicle application, and you can feel them apply. Regular electric brake application is easily felt and adjusted.
EOH brakes are a different animal. They apply so smooth, and apply so seamlessly perfect with your tow vehicle, that you can not feel the difference. It’s very easy to set your trailer brake setting too aggressive.
The result will be worn out trailer tires.

4,000 miles on my trailer, and the tires were just replaced. Totally worn out.

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Boy that’s a great point T. Something you really don’t think about. Appreciate the info for folks.

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[DEcosse]

4,000 miles on my trailer, and the tires were just replaced. Totally worn out.

Good advice on ensuring the brake controller not set up too aggressively. I'd be more concerned about the risk of delamination because of that, than necessarily reducing the tread wear on them.
But I wouldn't say 4000 miles is horrendous as far as Trailer Tires go, and especially if these were original (?) on your 2017 Boat/Trailer probably good to be replaced regardless of miles but due to age. That is not meant to be argumentative, perhaps your tires were not that old. But also important would be the consideration of brand/model tire and particularly the load rating factor in the achievable mileage. My trailer just sat all winter, outside, loaded with the boat (wrapped) and not moving at all over about 6 months; so that is definitely a consideration in flat-spotting and sidewall deterioration. (Maybe I should get in habit of just moving it slightly every month! )
For my use, age limitation is certainly going to happen well in advance of miles. But your advice on avoiding overly aggressive setting is well heeded.

[Tuscany]

The tires I replaced were a typical E rated Chinese brand.
They were aged out, but the tread wear was substantial.
I realized the brake controller was the problem when I hooked to a different trailer with drums.
EOH has a totally different feel.

[Tuscany]

All trailer tires seem to be built similar. Kind of weakened to absorb shock, shallow tread, and sidewall construction designed to bend sideways while turning. IMO, untrustworthy and prone to delamination.
I know there are a few that are at the top, like the GY Endurance, but I'm still not trusting a ST tire.
I chose what was a truck tire now offered as a G rated 16" ST found on equipment trailers.. with twice the tread of a run of the mill ST..
First tow was as smooth as silk.


https://sailuntire.ca/en/mrt/tires/S637/

[mdadgar]

I know there are a few that are at the top, like the GY Endurance, but I'm still not trusting a ST tire.

My experience with the GY Endurance is excellent so far. The current set has about 7K miles on them and they tow great. It's very telling that they are speed-rated to 87 mph.

I feel your pain given all the crappy ST tires floating around, though. The GY are a class above for sure - I have them on my race trailer as well.

- Mark

[Tuscany]

They're going on everything I own.
It's the collateral damage potential on a boat trailer that I'm not going to chance. Lots can get messed up with rubber hitting fenders hitting the boat... in a hurry.
Looking at the build and weight of these things, I don't see that as a problem

Let’s talk yesterday…
I own a 2001 26' Classic race car trailer that I bought new. It has some miles towing a lot of weight. It came with Canadian made Good Year Marathon tires.
They are still on that trailer today. Granted, if I ever tow with it on another long mile run, I'll be mounting 16" Gs on it. Today, they still look great, with most of the tread and no sidewall checking. I hardly use the trailer now other than storing patio furniture for the winter,. That was a different breed of trailer tire.
GY decided to change the tire from Canadian built to Asian, and the outcome was an easy guess.
The Endurance is a repair to that old reputation.

[mdadgar]

Let’s talk yesterday…
I own a 2001 26' Classic race car trailer that I bought new. It has some miles towing a lot of weight. It came with Canadian made Good Year Marathon tires.
They are still on that trailer today. Granted, if I ever tow with it on another long mile run, I'll be mounting 16" Gs on it. Today, they still look great, with most of the tread and no sidewall checking. I hardly use the trailer now other than storing patio furniture for the winter,. That was a different breed of trailer tire.
GY decided to change the tire from Canadian built to Asian, and the outcome was an easy guess.
The Endurance is a repair to that old reputation.

Agree - the Marathon reputation hangover in the racing community is BAD. The only people who seem to like them are towing open trailers with not much weight. The rest of us know better.

I agree with you on the potential for expensive damage on boat trailer. I finally put a TPS on my trailers and it caught a slow leak in one of the Endurances on my tow out to Table Rock a few weeks back. So I had a 15 minute tire change in a Starbucks parking lot outside of Oklahoma City instead of thousands of dollars of gelcoat repair on my A25. The TPS totally paid for itself.

- Mark

[dustinm]

Let’s talk yesterday…
I own a 2001 26' Classic race car trailer that I bought new. It has some miles towing a lot of weight. It came with Canadian made Good Year Marathon tires.
They are still on that trailer today. Granted, if I ever tow with it on another long mile run, I'll be mounting 16" Gs on it. Today, they still look great, with most of the tread and no sidewall checking. I hardly use the trailer now other than storing patio furniture for the winter,. That was a different breed of trailer tire.
GY decided to change the tire from Canadian built to Asian, and the outcome was an easy guess.
The Endurance is a repair to that old reputation.

Agree - the Marathon reputation hangover in the racing community is BAD. The only people who seem to like them are towing open trailers with not much weight. The rest of us know better.

I agree with you on the potential for expensive damage on boat trailer. I finally put a TPS on my trailers and it caught a slow leak in one of the Endurances on my tow out to Table Rock a few weeks back. So I had a 15 minute tire change in a Starbucks parking lot outside of Oklahoma City instead of thousands of dollars of gelcoat repair on my A25. The TPS totally paid for itself.

- Mark

Dang... thats a real eye opener and a great save. My pickup has that ability - I should use it.

[Stonehauler]

I converted my old trailer to EOH and I loved it. When I got my new trailer, I specified EOH and still love it. I highly recommend EOH, especially if you plan on any kind of long tow.

Now, the one thing you need to be sure of is that your system will be compatible with your brake controller in your truck. If you plan on changing manufacturers anytime soon (say Ford to Dodge), be sure that you can use both on your system.

[Jdflyer]

Hi everyone. I really am learning about boats, looking to purchase our first one, but I do have a rudimentary understanding of electricity. BSEE from ASU though I haven’t used it in 20 years.

When looking at wire size I don’t think you really want to see more than a 10% drop in voltage to ensure your device is working properly, here’s why

Power (watts) = Current (A) * Voltage

So for a EOH that has a 30a draw it would be expecting 360w of power. 360 = 30*12

A 16g wire that is 10’ long will see a voltage dropper just over 20% (~2.4V). So now your brake controller is only going to see 288w = 30 * (12-2.4).

If you pull a 12g power wire over the same distance is an 8% drop. 331w = 30 * (12 - 0.95). Now is 43w of power going to make a difference? I don’t know.

Ref:

https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/wire/v ... lator.html

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbo ... ions-laws/

IMG_2292.png

IMG_2293.png

[bruceb58]

A 16g wire that is 10’ long will see a voltage dropper just over 20% (~2.4V). So now your brake controller is only going to see 288w = 30 * (12-2.4).

Its even worse since the wire is probably close to 20' one way or 40' if the ground is coming from the front of the truck. When I had my EOH getting powered by my F150 7 way connector, I was seeing around 9V after drop. Considering that the alternator was putting out 14V at the time, that's a lot of drop.

[Jdflyer]

A 16g wire that is 10’ long will see a voltage dropper just over 20% (~2.4V). So now your brake controller is only going to see 288w = 30 * (12-2.4).

Its even worse since the wire is probably close to 20' one way or 40' if the ground is coming from the front of the truck. When I had my EOH getting powered by my F150 7 way connector, I was seeing around 9V after drop. Considering that the alternator was putting out 14V at the time, that's a lot of drop.

Yep. Go to 20’ at 14v and it’s a 36% drop (4.8v). That’s about 9.2 v on paper. Makes sense

[bruceb58]

Yep. Go to 20’ at 14v and it’s a 36% drop (4.8v). That’s about 9.2 v on paper. Makes sense

You just do what I do...run 6 AWG through an Anderson connector. I use the same connector for my travel trailer to power it's 30A DC to DC converter. Easy peasy.

[Jdflyer]

Yep. Go to 20’ at 14v and it’s a 36% drop (4.8v). That’s about 9.2 v on paper. Makes sense

You just do what I do...run 6 AWG through an Anderson connector. I use the same connector for my travel trailer to power it's 30A DC to DC converter. Easy peasy.

That’s a great way to do it.

My question is how long is the run from the plug to trailer junction box? If you ran 6ga to just behind the pin and then 16g wire from that point forward with a 30a inline fuse it would be just shy of 10% voltage drop. I understand 3% is a whole lot better. Trying to keep it simple.

Thoughts

[Jimmy Buoy]

Delete - didn't want to hijack the thread!