wmtire

I think I am following your question, which is do magnetic/electric DRUM brakes get hotter than other trailer brake systems ( which are hydraulic, hydraulic/electric, and air)?

We can leave air brakes out of this, as not being feasible for the vehicles with which we pull our campers with. You need to think the big trucks, which have air compressors on them to run the air brake system.

Brakes get hot when applied. The more you apply them, the more heat they will generate. When they are not applied, the air circulating around them, helps cool them off. DRUM brakes don't get as much airflow to help cool them off as do DISC brakes, so in a since DISC brakes are capable of cooling themselves off quicker if they can get the airflow.

Now to trailer brakes. Magnetic/electric brakes are drum brakes.

To have disc brakes on a trailer, you need to have a hydraulic system in place. However, even then, a vast majority of the hydraulic systems still use drum brakes. Many U-Haul trailers use hydraulic drum brakes.

Hydraulic brakes can then be broken down into 2 systems. A surge brake system and a electric over hydraulic system. U-Haul uses this surge brake system, because it requires no brake controller in the tow vehicle. It's almost a plug and play thing. A surge brake system has all the hydraulic system mounted on the trailer, and when you brake, inertia pushes an actuator rod which applies pressure to the brakes (like your pushing a brake pedal on your vehicle). My manager, who used to work on trailer brakes, personally hates a surge brake system. He said what they don't tell you, is that on light trailers (which Trailmanors are) with a surge brake system ,if you get on bumpy roads and it starts doing much bouncing/movement, the surge brakes will start intermittently grabbing just on the trailer each time it pushes against the tow vehicle....and will start jerking you all over the place.

An electric over hydraulic system, uses an electric brake controller, that when you apply your vehicle brakes, it then sends al electric signal back to the trailer's hydraulic system, making it apply the hydraulic brakes. On this system, it requires battery power on the trailer to the electro controller there that actuates the hydraulics, as well as all the hydraulic components.

A hydraulic brake system (whether disc or drum) on a trailer is initially more costly, more difficult to service for the average person, and not necessarily better. The main benefit of hydraulics brakes vs electric brakes is on boat trailers, that are being submerged underwater to launch/retrieve boats. Saltwater especially, will eat up magnetic drum brakes fairly quickly. They are making some magnetic brakes now with stainless steel components, etc just for this reason.

Personally, I don't think the added cost, weight, or serviciblity of a hydraulic brake system on a TrailManor is feasible.

If you have a good electric brake controller, set it properly EACH time you use it, and don't just stay on the brakes when up in the mountains......a magnetic DRUM brake system is just a good as the hydraulic one. You do need to manually adjust your trailer brakes from time to time. There are other forum post that will guide you on that.

We use magnetic brakes on our tire trailers that haul #12000 + without any problems.

I may get a difference of opinion on this, and welcome more comments on this great question.