Trailer Brake Stopping Distance

New trailers - brakes barely work on them. (already said a few times above)

My experiences:

I haul RVs part time from Keystone and Northwood - every trailer I hook up to, I have to set the brake controller to the max setting. As the trip progresses, the brakes start working better and better.

Try manually activating the brakes a bunch of times, and you will eventually see that they start to work better.

One example of when to try this: when exiting the freeway and pulling in to a rest area (with no traffic behind you) use the manual function of the trailer brake controller, and let the trailer do the majority of the braking.

BarneyS wrote:
Most travel trailers will not lock up the wheels when on dry pavement even if you max out the controller. The magnets and brakes are just now strong enough to overcome the friction of the tires and the weight they are carrying. They will often lock up on sand or gravel but not on dry pavement. If you are getting a very strong pullback from the trailer when you use the manual lever then I would say you are ok.
Barney

I agree.

Larry

Even on disk brakes there is some break-in required.

Think for a minute: Who is teaching you about your new car?

THE SALESMAN!

You don't trust the salesman to tell you what a truck can or can't pull, or what size trailer is good for your truck, because he doesn't know any better and is just trying to make the sale! What makes you think the salesman is any more knowledgeable about the operation of a brand new vehicle? Not to mention he's already made the sale and wants you out of his hair ASAP.

One other thing here is that most people were not around to experience all-wheel DRUM brakes on cars, or it's been so long they've forgotten. Given drum brakes' rather poor reputation for stopping power and eventual obsolescence in favor of disks, I doubt the experience with new drum brakes on a new car was much better than new drum brakes on a trailer.

You don't notice a lack of braking on a vehicle with front disks and rear drums because the front disks are doing 90-100% of the braking! The rear drums are there to keep the back end of the vehicle from floating away.

Interesting. I just looked in the owners manual of my Subaru.

Breaking-in of new brake
pads and linings
When replacing the brake pad or lining,
use only genuine SUBARU parts. After
replacement, the new parts must be
broken in as follows:
! Brake pad and lining
While maintaining a speed of 30 to 40
mph (50 to 65 km/h), step on the brake
pedal lightly. Repeat this five or more
times.


This is to wear off the high spots on the brake pads so you do not damage the rotor from a localized hot spot.

Drum brakes require more care and a longer time to wear off high spots and get the arc the same as the drum.

You can hold the break on for a short bit while driving super slow, heat them up a bit and as they get warm you should feel them grabbing. In the meantime contact the manufacture and make sure they are aware and get them fixed! The other thing is to make sure all your weight ratings are within what is required for safe proper towing. Good Luck and Be Safe ! ! !

First most of the cars today have disk brakes not drum.

But back in the day of drum brakes I am almost sure the brake shoes were ground to the same arc as the drums at the factory.

I remember when I was a teenager back in the sixties the Olds dealer ship my dad worked at had a brake service operation. When new brakes were installed they would turn the drums and then grind the shoes for a perfect fit.

I doubt that is done on trailers.

When you buy shoes for the trailer the arc most likely is no where near the drum arc. Thus the need to break them in.

I recently had some non concentric drums turned. As a result the shoe arc did not match the drum arc. It took about 500 miles of towing and then the brakes were back to 100%. Correcting concentric problem fixed a pulsing sensation I had at low speed braking.

Fixed that problem during a wheel bearing repack.

I bought a new Wildwood in June and the first time or two I pulled it I was fairly disappointed in the brakes. They worked, but were quite weak. I just got back from a 3300 mile trip and by the time I was 1/4 way through the trip, I had to turn the adjustment down on my P2 or they were way too grabby. They eventually got much better. Glad car brakes down't require that kind of break in. It would be good to make sure there is no grease on the pads and have them checked out however.

Lynnmor wrote:
Wearing the brakes in may help a little bit, but that ain't the problem. Do you think that the auto industry sends millions of cars out the door with no brakes? You need to pull the drums and take a look. While a wheel is jacked up, pull the pin and the wheel should lock.

I'm telling ya, when axles are new, if they are more than 75% loaded, they can take a while for the brakes to break in. Brand new Rockwell American was EXACTLY the same as the AL-KO that came new with our trailer. A bit of brake controller / brake shoe abuse at low speeds as a previous poster poster has remedied that.

EDIT - That being said, we did replace the old axle because the seals wouldn't last, and the brakes got contaminated with grease. That causes some weird oscillations and pulling though.

BarneyS wrote:
Most travel trailers will not lock up the wheels when on dry pavement even if you max out the controller. The magnets and brakes are just now strong enough to overcome the friction of the tires and the weight they are carrying. They will often lock up on sand or gravel but not on dry pavement. If you are getting a very strong pullback from the trailer when you use the manual lever then I would say you are ok.
Barney

I have to agree with this. I just picked up my trailer after having everything adjusted and tested and as Barney here says, if you feel deceleration when using the manual switch then things are working. I can also agree that you need to look and see if there is any grease contaminating the drums. I still can't lock the wheels up using the manual switch but am now convinced that is normal as others have said. I think you will find the same with your unit.

It could be any number of things. I would pull the drums off to see what it looks like inside. Make sure you register complaints in writing to the dealer so it's on record.

We had a TT a few years ago that had brakes that did not work from the day we got it. The dealer kept insisting it was either a faulty brake controller or the setting. We replaced the BC with a Prodigy P3 and no improvement.

After many complaints (some in writing), it took just over a year for them to finally pull the brakes apart. They found cosmoline everywhere inside. One wheel had it radiating around the rim on the outside and it looked like grease. Cosmoline is a temporary coating used on bare metal parts to prevent rusting. They said that the axle manufacturer puts it on and that the factory (TT) is normally supposed to remove this. They also found warped drums and a broken spring.