trailer jolt
 

I noticed when I'm pulling my boat from a dead stop to acceleration it feels like a jolt. Almost like when you bring a slack line under pressure and it tightens. As if there was slack in my hitch and when I hit the gas it catches. It doesn't do it if I accelerate reaaaaaallly slow, by slow i mean holding the brake while letting it come to idle very slowly.

Anyone else had this happen?

Also on a side note my dhm trailer has some rust under the diamond step plates. Any recommendations?

Most boat trailers have surge brakes, they work by compressing the tongue when you stop, so when you accelerate there is about 3/4" of "slack" in the tongue. Nothing to worry about, its normal.

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they have a small reservoir for brake fluid to go in them.. there is a little black cap you pop off and pour the brake fluid in. That will help soften the jolt you are feeling some

Mine did the same. It was about half full when I checked it. It'll still slack some, but def. less than before.

This might be a case of a problem similar to the other poster. There is a shock absorber in the actuator that I believe helps dampen the sudden changes whether going forward or backward. Check the fluid level and this shock.

Mine did the same thing, nothing to worry about but it's deff annoying. I ended up bleeding all the brakes, which in turn tightened up the mastercyclinder to trailer. It made it grab alot quicker and tighter. I have next to no jolt now. I would recommend you start with this...just take your time and bleed, bleed, bleed to get all the air out of the lines and fresh fluid through...If you decide to do it a good trick is to disconnect your wench strap (the one you use to pull the boat onto the trailer) then go over the tongue of the trailer and connect it underneath. You can then use it to compress the mastercyclinder. Also start with the brakes closest to the front, then work back (so front left, front right, back left, and finally back right). It's a pretty easy process and took me about 45 minutes to do...

Brett is always on point!

I bet that shock in the tongue is totally cashed out. been having the same issue with my trailer (2002 Extreme) pulled the shock out and replaced it, problem solved. The old shock literally provide no damping force, I could actuate it through its whole stroke by hand very easily

I had the exact same issue with my 2010 MB B-52. Turns out that one of the brake lines had a leak so 70% of the fluid was gone. I'd re-fill the fluid, however after about 3 or 4 stops the clunk would return. I ended up replacing the the brake line fitting at the brakes and all is good. Something to check for :-)

-Phillip

This is incorrect information. Start by bleeding the wheel furthest away from the master cyclinder, and work your way towards the closest distance to the master cylinder.

A trick to be sure you don't suck air back into the lines is to put a bleed hose on the nipple of the bleed valve and submerge it into a clear bottle half full with brake fluid. Corona bottles work really well. This way when you push the air out of the lines, it goes into the bottle and rises out of the fluid, and when you decompress the master cyclinder, only brake fluid will be sucked back in. It makes bleeding the brakes a much easier 1 man job.

You also shouldn't need to use the winch on your trailer. A 2x4 to get leverage should be sufficient. If you look under the actuator, some will have a small hold to insert a screwdriver into, which you can also use to activate the master cylinder and simulate a "stop" that would occur under driving conditions.

There's a few really good youtube videos (one in particular with an Asian guy bleeding the brakes on his bass boat) which can lend some helpful advice. It's not a hard thing to do, it just takes patience.

All sounds good, is this a saftey issue?
Now I've got to figure out where all this is, and how to bleed.

my ***** trailer has been doing it since day 1. So enoying and my local dealer said they fixed it 3 times, still the same.

It's normal for you to feel a jolt when pulling away with surge brakes. It's NOT normal for it to give you that same jolt feeling when you slow down.