What is brake glazing? How do you prevent it?
In a recent thread, we were discussing brake glazing and I was surprised to see that the term was not widely understood or defined so I looked it up. Here's what I found: What causes brake pad gla...
Forum Discussion
Busskipper wrote:Yes, it does. I'm beginning to believe that the best way to approach mountain driving is to minimize the overheating of the brakes. I'm projecting that the two best ways to do this would be 1) use the Jake Brake wherever heaving braking is needed and, frankly, use it everywhere. No reason not to. and 2) If you have to use the service brakes, use them for short bursts while allowing the brakes to cool between uses.
In my experience - owning a company with a large number (50-100) of trucks on the road - Glazing as I define it was caused from driving with an excess of usage of the brakes for extended periods. Like, putting your foot on the brake as you descend from Eisenhower tunnel into Denver, never giving the brakes a chance to cool, never taking your foot off he brake. The brakes and the Rotor/drum will overheat and "glaze" become shiny and have a reduced ability to brake - so the Glazing comes from continuous overuse and overheating the brakes. Again from my experience, I have replaced many a Drum or Rotor that is just not functioning correctly because of the heat apparently glazing the surface of the metal and not being able to stop, properly. Hence the reason most larger trucks have engine or transmission braking.
IMHO most DP have more than enough braking to stop the coach, so the manufacturer has done his part now the RV driver, if he is having an "Issue" with driving then I usually suggest that they just Slow Down, and avoid the roads that provide the Issue, they feel better and I feel better.
So for me the question is not glazing, but does the Coach feel safe and stop when it should?
If not, then we need to check the brakes and maybe the driver.
Hope this helps,
Would you agree with this? It's the exact opposite response from what Formerboater wrote above. But I think formerboater is reflecting the commonly held beliefs of our RV community.
BTW, my brakes are great. I love the way my coach stops with six large disc brakes. The mechanic who inspected it said they were in great shape.
