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.....................................--- Coupler for Surge Disc Brakes ---
After towing our overloaded Mac for a while it soon became evident that a second axle with disc brakes would improve the towing and vastly improve the safety factor.
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A new coupler was required for the surge disc brakes. During the winter we are storing the boat in the storage bay I have just north of my work shop in the same building. It isn't as long as the shop and I wanted to be able to store the boat on the trailer there. To do that I couldn't extend the tongue, which would of been nice. I drew a cut line (left bottom arrow) where I wanted to cut the tongue off for the new coupler. I had another problem and that is that the ladder at the front of the trailer (two right arrows) was going to be in the way of the new coupler.
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I cut the bottom of the ladder loose and bent it back and welded it to the channel upright (top left arrow). You can also see that the old coupler has been cut off and 3 holes drilled for the new one.
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Here is a closer view of the mod to the ladder and the holes for the new coupler.
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Here the coupler is bolted in place with 3 #5 grade bolts. The instructions said that for this coupler only 2 holes (top 2) were required, but the other hole was in the coupler, so I put the third hole in that is required for the 8000 lb. version of the coupler.
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I had to cut a window in the upright channel in order to get to.....
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...the port on the back of the master cylinder where the brake lines have to attach. Actually the arrow points to the port on the lockout solenoid that the blue wire goes through. You can connect it to your backup lights if you want so that the brakes don't engage while backing up. There is also a pin that you can put into the coupler while backing that stops it from surging back and applying the brakes.
I took the time and hooked the lockout solenoid up. It wasn't that hard and it has worked like a charm. You would be surprised how often you do need to back up some and not having to get out and pin the coupler is nice. At the ramp we do pull the trailer electrical plug out before backing down into the water and we then manually pin the coupler to keep the brakes from activating while backing.
