Forum Discussion

Jerrys5thWheel's avatar
Sep 24, 2016

Failed Inspection

Hello all. I live in Delaware and recently took my 2006 Keystone Outback in to renew the registration for the year. In DE we are required to have an inspection performed on all road worthy vehicles. Last year everything checked out fine but this year when I brought it through the inspection pit, it failed due to the brakes being unbalanced. According to the printout that the technician gave me, the left side brakes were supplying 300 lbs of stopping power while the right side was only supplying around 65 lbs. He told me that they typically like to see the brakes a little more balanced than this.

Prior to this happening, the right side brakes did have a high pitched squeal whenever I tried to brake at slow speeds, typically less that 25 mph. This is something I was going to get looked at next spring. My questions are, could this be due to the brake controller in the truck not supplying the same power to each brake? If I were to adjust the brake controller could this fix the balancing problem or could the problem actually be in the electric drum brakes themselves? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. --Jerry

22 Replies

  • Your brake controller sends 1 signal to all trailer brakes.

    Most likely causes are the right side brakes need adjusting, the right side has grease on the pads or a poor connection on the 5er in the right side wiring.

    Guessing the test was done by applying brakes then testing to see how much force was needed to turn the wheel?
  • Jerrys5thWheel wrote:
    My questions are, could this be due to the brake controller in the truck not supplying the same power to each brake? If I were to adjust the brake controller could this fix the balancing problem or could the problem actually be in the electric drum brakes themselves? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. --Jerry


    No, the brake controller supplies the same power to all of the trailer brakes.

    1. Take hubs off and inspect brakes and repack bearings

    2. Adjust brakes

    3. Check wiring and all connections under trailer