Air brakes
We are in our 3rd year of ownership and traveling in our 2006 Itasca Horizon. Retired last year and now have the time for the longer trips. I always like to have a lot of stopping room so everythi...
Forum Discussion
Here in Ontario Canada we must have an Air Brake Endorsement on our license to drive an air brake vehicle.
The first and foremost part of the questioning part of the test is what do you do if you discover something wrong which you have. There is only one answer and that is take it out of service and call a certified mobile mechanic. I'm 1600 miles from you but based on the information you supplied you have told me much more than you realize. Motorholmes historically travel 6000 miles a year. Yours is 9 years old with 36000 miles divided by 9 equals 4000 per year.
You're in your 3rd year of ownwership and your brakes are way out of adjustment. That tells me you haven't had it in for proper service or the service tech is not a certified truck mechanic or these brakes would have been manually adjusted by him.
With the type of driving you do with wheel chokes in place and parking or spring brake released and full air pressure you then do 6 or 8 full brake application until air is depleted and then let it build back up. This should be done each time you strike out. The other thing I will mention and this is backed up in some motorholme manuals is if it is equipped with Meritor slacks and you have had them greased with EP2 grease they will most likely not adjust themselves as the grease is too heavy . You need EP1 which is not that easy to find.
As far as adjusting them manually it is important to understand that every individual brake chamber has it's own individual allowable stroke travel and that information is available in air brake manuals from the States that require the brake endorsement and probably on line if you wanted to research it.
The Air gauge on your dash is a tool to be used to determine the following
Low pressure cut in and out
Build up time
Governor cut out and cut in pressures
Air loss over 3 minutes
Engine off and key on at 90 to 100 psi ,full brake application with stick between steering wheel and brake peddle and go around and measure the stroke travel at each brake chamber.
Quite frankly none of this means anything unless you know the values and the procedure for doing this.
Most people are too large or too old to be crawling around under a motorholme and it is far to dangerous in case an air bag decided to blow. That is why a shop with a drive over pit and a certified Truck and Coach licensed mechanic should be going over your coach properly at least once a year.
The first and foremost part of the questioning part of the test is what do you do if you discover something wrong which you have. There is only one answer and that is take it out of service and call a certified mobile mechanic. I'm 1600 miles from you but based on the information you supplied you have told me much more than you realize. Motorholmes historically travel 6000 miles a year. Yours is 9 years old with 36000 miles divided by 9 equals 4000 per year.
You're in your 3rd year of ownwership and your brakes are way out of adjustment. That tells me you haven't had it in for proper service or the service tech is not a certified truck mechanic or these brakes would have been manually adjusted by him.
With the type of driving you do with wheel chokes in place and parking or spring brake released and full air pressure you then do 6 or 8 full brake application until air is depleted and then let it build back up. This should be done each time you strike out. The other thing I will mention and this is backed up in some motorholme manuals is if it is equipped with Meritor slacks and you have had them greased with EP2 grease they will most likely not adjust themselves as the grease is too heavy . You need EP1 which is not that easy to find.
As far as adjusting them manually it is important to understand that every individual brake chamber has it's own individual allowable stroke travel and that information is available in air brake manuals from the States that require the brake endorsement and probably on line if you wanted to research it.
The Air gauge on your dash is a tool to be used to determine the following
Low pressure cut in and out
Build up time
Governor cut out and cut in pressures
Air loss over 3 minutes
Engine off and key on at 90 to 100 psi ,full brake application with stick between steering wheel and brake peddle and go around and measure the stroke travel at each brake chamber.
Quite frankly none of this means anything unless you know the values and the procedure for doing this.
Most people are too large or too old to be crawling around under a motorholme and it is far to dangerous in case an air bag decided to blow. That is why a shop with a drive over pit and a certified Truck and Coach licensed mechanic should be going over your coach properly at least once a year.
