How do you bleed surge brakes?

[wa500]

My single-axle surge break trailer has no brake fluid in it. I added some, but there's no obvious way to actuate and bleed the brakes (even though I see a bleeder valve). How do I bleed them and hopefully get this working again?

Did I mention I hate surge brakes? Half tempted to replace them to electric over hydraulic. Can't be that hard?

[WCF]

Typically there is a plate that you remove (often the same plate as the one that holds the emergency lever in place) or a slot that you can use a screwdriver in to actuate the master cylinder in a lever motion. On some actuators no screwdriver is required and you can actuate the master cylinder with the emergency lever after removing the plate. The master cylinder inside the actuator is the same as on any other vehicle, you are just actuating the rod end with a lever, one way or another.

I've had the unfortunate luck of having to replace a lot of brake components on different trailers over the years, and the bleeding is pretty fast and easy.

Just FYI, replacing with EoH does not get rid of the requirement for bleeding.

[ssobol]

You can also actuate the brakes using the safety chains and a length of 2x4 to simply push on the coupler. Using one-way bleeder valves is also very handy if you are doing this job by yourself.

Read the directions for your actuator.

[Robert H. Wilkinson]

I use a come along to pull the coupler back and hold it until you close the bleeder and repeat.

[T.R. Bauer]

Take the ball and stinger off your truck, install the ball into your trailer coupler and lock it like you would for regular towing, and pump the trailer brakes with it. It will give you the lever you need. After that, it is the same process as bleeding any hydraulic brake system. I would inspect everything and find out where the heck that brake fluid went because they don't just go dry.