I'd have to say it depends on how far you're going and if you're boating in
salt water or fresh. I'm thinking you're not going to be happy going any
great distance with a minivan towing. No brake system is impervious to salt
water and if you're just running a few miles to the local ramp I'd skip the
brakes. Or if you have access to a higher capacity tow vehicle that coule
be a reason to not put brakes on the trailer even if you are going farther.
Just leave extra stopping room.

"Don White" wrote in message
...
In this area, a trailer up to 2000 is not required to have brakes.
I see Chrysler is recommending trailer breaks if the load exceeds 1000
pounds.
The sailboat I will be purchasing this spring will weigh 1200 + 300 or so
for the trailer + another 100 for motor/fuel
etc. That will be slightly over the 75% of max trailer towing capacity
for
my mini-van... so I'm wondering if I should add brakes to a new galvanized
trailer.
I'm assuming surge type, stainless steel disc brakes are the way to go.