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Trailer brake maintenance

Discussion in 'Towing & Hauling' started by ColoradoTJ, Aug 28, 2017.

  1. Aug 28, 2017 at 8:57 PM
    #1
    ColoradoTJ

    ColoradoTJ [OP] Certified tow LEO Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2016
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    #2766
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    35,622
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    Male
    Colorado
    Vehicle:
    LML 3500HD
    Calibrated Power 5 Tune pack, Allison 1000 tune, PPE deep trans pan, Cold/Hot CAC pipes, Banks CAI, PCV reroute, resonator delete, S&B 62 gal fuel tank, B&W GN hitch
    Lately I have been having intermittent brake issues with my flatbed trailer. For me, that is a no go. Plenty of advice stating it is the IBC, but I discarded that advice since my camper brakes work great.

    So today one of my little helpers and I started looking for the problem, and was kinda shocked at what I found.

    I figured this was going to be a wiring issue, but after inspecting how Load Trail hangs the wire harness, I could probably rule this out, but inspected anyway.

    We pulled all four brake drum assemblies, checked wiring inside the drum brakes for the magnet and they were good to go. It is common to have a magnet fail, but that was not the case.

    One thing that was common on all these brake assemblies was how dirty they were inside. Now I realize I tow a lot down muddy & dusty roads a lot, but have never seen it this bad on the many trailers I have owned before. So curiosity got the best of me and I looked behind the backing plate, and sure as hell, all the covers for brake shoe adjustment (2 per brake assembly, 8 total) were missing. So that was probably the culprit for being so dirty. Either the factory left all 8 covers off or they were removed for me. I'm going with the later. So I cleaned all the surface area up, did some wiring mods for future troubleshooting, but it all together and sure as hell, that was my poor/intermittent brake issue. Wheel bearing looked good, brake linings probably have two more towing seasons on them. Not bad for around 14k miles on this trailer.

    Just wanted to share what I found, and how easy of a fix it was. I will be looking into replacing the brake adjustment covers soon.
     
  2. Aug 28, 2017 at 9:15 PM
    #2
    landphil

    landphil Fish are food, not friends!

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    Phil
    BC, Canada
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    ‘08 TRD doublecab
    Good call. Trailer electric brake maintenance isn't high on the priority list for far too many people, even as simple as keeping them adjusted. I've seen a lot of scary ones.

    Chris, do your brake backing plates cover the whole drum? Some have the front and back "cut off" so you can see the lining thickness without disassembling, but they are terrible if you run off pavement.
     
    ColoradoTJ[OP] likes this.
  3. Aug 28, 2017 at 9:29 PM
    #3
    ColoradoTJ

    ColoradoTJ [OP] Certified tow LEO Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2016
    Member:
    #2766
    Messages:
    35,622
    Gender:
    Male
    Colorado
    Vehicle:
    LML 3500HD
    Calibrated Power 5 Tune pack, Allison 1000 tune, PPE deep trans pan, Cold/Hot CAC pipes, Banks CAI, PCV reroute, resonator delete, S&B 62 gal fuel tank, B&W GN hitch
    I used to disassemble my brakes every year on my old trailers due to not having the ez lube spindles, so sometimes people let things slide. I got lazy, and busted...lol.

    My backing plates are totally covering the brake assembly. With the Dexter auto adjust brakes, I never need to get into the adjustment windows (which is rather nice these days). I have seen the backing plates you are describing, and agree they would be a maintenance nightmare for anything that went off pavement.
     
    landphil[QUOTED] likes this.

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