SMP trailer bounce.

[dalt1]

Does anyone else experience this when towing your trailer empty? My SMP trailer has UFP brakes on both torsion type axles. If I have to tow trailer empty, any brake action above just barely applying them will cause the trailer brakes to lock up and bounce violently. Will not stop untill a complete stop or acceleration is applied. If I am towing it down a hill, and am braking due to need, it is hard to accelerate out of this situation. Brakes work perfectly with boat loaded. It is so bad that it actually jolted my bunk boards loose and one tried to float off when loading trailer. Lucky it was caught before rakeing boat across exposed bunk brackets. I have since replaced all lag screws in bunks with carriage bolts and lock nuts.

[wide awake]

My Boatmate trailer does the same when empty. We do an annual charity ride from St. Louis to Chillicothe, Il and the chase team drives our vehicles with the empty trailers. We noticed this the first year we did this as this is the only time our trailer is pulled empty. To overcome this, we insert a stop(supplied by the manufacturer and a poor excuse of one) into the slots of the tongue to prevent the brakes from being applied. I'm sure you have surge brakes like ours. The surge brake is acuated by the inertia of the trailer moving towards the braking vehicle which squeezes the piston in the master cylinder. The trailer brakes are not needed when it is empty as there is only the weight of the trailer(probably around 1500#), which any tow vehicle should be able to manage without assistance from the trailer brakes. You can make your own stop. I've even used coins. Just insert them into the slot and use tape(I use electrical tape) to hold them in. You should carry something to use in case your electrical override becomes disfunctional(this is the means of disabling the trailer brakes when reversing).

Good luck!

[dalt1]

I have the lockout tabs and will probably start using them for this. My last trailer was a Boatmate and this didn't happen but it was a drum setup and only 1 of 2 axles had brakes.