Hydrastar brakes

[Mr__Bean]

G'Day all,

With the gross weight of my trailer being over the 2 ton limit, I am looking to upgrade my current cable operated disc brakes to electric/hydraulic disc brakes with breakaway protection.

Whilst there are a few options (Sensa-brake, Titan, Hydrastar) the hydrastar appear to be the most cost effective option for me, piccy below.

Does anyone have any experience with these units, good or bad? I think they are the units generally fitted to large Dunbier trailers.

Thanks,

- Darren

http://www.carlislemotion.com.au/Images/Products/Images_Product_HydrastarGen5.jpg

[propdinger]

Darren
i have one on my trailer its a great unit not cheap but makes towing alot safer and legal. they are very good at pulling up 2.5tonne in a hurry (people love to jump in front >:( ). they havent played up in any way as yet but i have only had the unit for a few months.


cheers
jeff

[Mr__Bean]

Thanks Jeff, Glad to hear you are happy with it.

I haven't had a boat trailer with this type of braking before so it's all a bit new to me.

I have towed our caravan around with its electric brakes and if they work as good as they do on the van then I will be happy.

One thing I found on the van brakes was that there was 2 different types of control unit. One type would only provide a preset amount of braking after a dwell period, the other more intelligent system provided braking that was proportinal to the braking effort of the tow vehicle.

Does the Hydrastar provide proportional braking?

That is does it brake harder when the tow vehicle brakes hard, and brake softer when the tow vehicle brakes softer?

- Darren

[propdinger]

the controller i have is a voyager it seems to make it stop faster when you stomp on the brakes. the hardest part at first was gettting it set once its set they are great. when the boat is off and you are parking it the brakes dont lock on which is good i was worried they would cause the weight wasnt on the trailer but its not locking up
the better the controller the better the braking i was told after buying it. i already had a new controller in the box waiting to be fitted for towing the caravan so i wasnt going out to buy another but luckly it works great


cheers
jeff

[Tracker]

hate to be a pia. but if you are going to rerate the trailer to over 2 ton you will also have to check(change?)bearing and maybe tyre size.Jeff and myself just went through this exercise and ended up selling old trailer and bying new one.Bloody expensive but now have 3 ton limit with boat that is 2400kg with fuel but no gear.much safer to tow and now can give scalies the one finger wave ;D ;

[Wild_cat]

Mr Bean How much is the break system going to set you back?
and Tracker same question interested to see the price difference.

[Mr__Bean]

I haven't done any shopping around, the first place I went to provided the following prices:

Hydrastar unit, including battery and breakaway switch - $1620
4 hydraulic calipers (Trigg Bros.) - $408
3500kg coupling (Trigg Bros) - $55
4 brake hoses - $48
Brake tubing $1.70 per metre
In car controller - about $150

All up guesstimate to convert - about $2500

- Darren

[troy]

Darren i have the sens a brake system and after a few teething problems they are excellent and very safe.
mine cost 3000.00 fitted.
Troy

[Mr__Bean]

Jeepers Troy, that sounds affordable.

I was thinking I was saving by doing it myself and using the cheaper system.

Did that include everything, including the tow vehicle installations?

- Darren

[Tracker]

the main reason we went hydrastar is the brake controller for our elec brakes on caravan also works boat trailer.sensabrake needed a different controller.
Our price to upgrade trailer was around 3000+ for sensa brake.heavy duty springs and tyres.+reregistering etc. came close to 4000+ and still a old trailer so just bought new dunbar(?) and had a good cry.
Dont know which system is best,tried both but less cost setting up 2 tow wagons for hydrastar.best of luck ::)

[troy]

Darren that included everything.
Troy

[Mr__Bean]

Thanks all for your inputs, they are appreciated.

Looks like I will go out and get some prices on the Sensa-brake now.

I had previously assumed they were dearer, and I am thinking that my days of towing a caravan around are behind me now that we take the boat away.

- Darren

[Wild_cat]

Let me know how you go with pricing the sesa brake sytem. Along time ago I had a all parts price of $2500 but I think that price may have risen.

[nicko233]

gday darren i have fitted the hydrostar and the sensorbrake and have found the former to be a better unit especially sevice wise,a very easy unit to fit and bleed.Also you can use with any electric brake controller,sensorbrake uses its own controller good or bad?,my prefferance would be the hydrostar.hope this helps

[Chris_Riethmuller]

Darren, give Matt at M&C sales a call , he has had extensive experience in the brake industry and deals in hydrastar, also he is a boatie so understands your needs. phone no is 0407 758 957