Heavy Duty Brakes on 2007 4x4 SR5 DC

I bought an Airstream 25' and wanted to upgrade my brakes to something "heavy duty."

The brakes needed replacing anyway.

My local shop did the work, replacing rotors, calipers, and pads to NAPA Eclipse.

Some noise while turning, which my mechanic said was due to rusty backing plates.

Picked up the trailer a couple of weeks ago, towed about 200 miles home, mostly highway, but a good 20 miles of stop and go in NJ into NY between the GSP and getting onto I-87. Felt fine.

No issues until the last part of the drive, about 25 miles from I-87 to home.

Coming around a corner, lots of noise from the brakes, then about 5 miles later (mostly climbing), down the hill to where my driveway meets the road, I lose some pressure at the pedal. Truck does stop when needed, but smoke coming from the right front wheel. Definitely a bit freaked out by this.

Truck has a Prodigy P2 brake controller, and I am assuming, but have not verified, that the double axle trailer brakes are working properly. At no time driving home did I feel like the trailer was pushing the truck when slowing down.

After getting the trailer tucked away in the driveway, drove the truck the next day and it felt fine.

Brought it in to the shop to have it checked out. they tell me there was air in the lines on two of the wheels, bled the brakes, and said it is fixed.

I've driven the truck a few hundred miles since then. Brakes feel fine, although the squeal consistently when stopping.

I'm not going to be towing again until Spring, probably early May, and the truck will not get used much between now and then. I will likely figure out a way to test the trailer brakes before taking a trip, either by figuring out how to use a multi meter, or bringing it somewhere to verify that I am getting stopping power from the trailer.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for reading through and as always your experience and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

SPP

 

Napa generally carries or can at least order Akebono pads, which are Toyota OE pads. I wouldn't recommend using anything other than these. I actually have a set to install on my truck since I made the same mistake and my brakes got noisy after about 2000 miles.

 

Not familiar with Prodigy P2 but there should be a means to engage the trailer brakes manually, independent of the truck brakes. If you do this while moving @ 20 MPH and feel the trailer tugging, your trailer brakes are working

Go to a gravel road or area, engage the trailer brakes in the same way and look for skid marks. That should give you a rough idea if both sides are working.

You can check each wheel by jacking up the trailer, have one person rotate a tire while another manually engages the trailer brakes.

READ THE TRAILER MANUAL ON HOW TO SAFELY JACK THE TRAILER!

You would need a clamp-on inductive ammeter to check each brake circuit to make sure each one is getting power and there are no broken wires.


Greg

 

That's good to know Paul, thanks. My Mechanic tells me I'll see 100,000 miles from my original brakes,so I can't see putting anything else on when the time comes.

 

Definitely good info, especially like the idea of jacking up the trailer to test the brakes in the method described.

Still curious regarding the truck brakes, though...

* would air in the system cause the loss of pedal (I think so) AND the smoking from the wheel (this is the part I wonder about)

* what would cause the air to get into the lines?

* do you think the squealing is normal? I have never experienced this before, and this brake job was not inexpensive, so if I need to follow up with my mechanic I want to do so.

Thanks...

SPP

 

Air in the line would definitely cause a soft or loss of pedal. Smoking would probably be from something dragging.

The only way for air to be in the system would be the lines weren’t bled properly or the reservoir ran dry.

Squealing is not normal. I would definitely take it back to your mechanic.

 

15 year old truck in NY? Could be lots of things wrong. Seizing caliper or collapsed brake hose are two.

 

Yup...but rotors, calipers, and pads are all new.

SPP

 

You also need to make sure the new pads are bedded in properly. If not, it could give you the feeling of a soft pedal. The most concerning part is the smoking. Does it smoke all the time or just right after the brake job was done?

 

That just happened once, and not since.

But it was coming down the hill in front of my house with the trailer in tow and stopping in front of my driveway in preparation for backing in.

SPP

 

I would still take it back to the mechanic just for piece of mind. If he replaced the calipers, there is a chance they weren’t bled properly. Better safe than sorry

 

I actually did bring in back and he re-bled the system, said there was air in two of the lines.

Will follow up regarding the squealing.

SPP

 

That would definitely explain a soft pedal. Make sure you follow the brake manf procedure for correctly beddin your brakes

 

Hmmm...have done nothing in particular to "bed" in the brakes.

I've looked at the manufacturers info, and see nothing there either.

Having not done this, however, is definitely making me think this is what the "squeal" is when I stop.

So...pretty sure this is done by 60 mph to 10 mph "heavy on the brakes" stops, repeated 8-10 times?

SPP

 

Re checking trailer brakes........ using a length heater hose, a mechanics stethoscope, or (if you have "keen" hearing), hook truck to trailer, have a helper activate the brake controller "override" lever while you listen, at each wheel, for the the electro magnet to energize - it makes a high pitched "squeal" and will activate each time the override lever is activated. (quick and easy check, no need to jack up each wheel) If the magnets don't energize, you will need to begin troubleshooting the electrical circuit to each backing plate etc etc

 

So I went out today and did a bunch of 60-15 mph stops.

This seems to have stopped the squealing.

But...it did heat up the brakes enough to get them smoking again.

I stopped by auto mechanics shop...he said they were spinning fine when he checked and re-bled them, and to "run 'em" that maybe it is the coating burning off.

He said if he has to he'll "replace 'em."

Brakes have about a thousand miles on them at this point.

Very nervous about being able to heat these things up to smoking so easily with intentions of towing a 7,000 pound trailer in May.

What you all think?

SPP

 

There shouldn't be anymore "coating" to burn off. You are only going to find out if the brakes are properly bedded and able to stop the combined truck and trailer safely, by hooking up and going for a drive. Insure the brake controller is adjusted properly and make some stops. Under repeated severe braking applications you might see "smoke", but, if smoking continues under other than "repeated severe" applications, you have other problems ie collapsed brake hose(s), sticky calipers, etc etc