2014 Dutchmen Travel Trailer Brake Adjustment
Hi. I performed a search of the forum but couldn't find anything that spoke directly to this question so I hope you don't mind my posting it. My intent is to do full-time RVing when I retire in ...
Forum Discussion
What an adventure and learning experience!
Based on what you folks taught me, I determined to track down whether or not my rig had electric brakes and where the star wheel would be on those brakes.
Dutchmen's customer service didn't know much about the trailer at all but I finally found out the three axle manufacturers that might have provided the axles for my trailer.
Since almost everything else on the trailer is Lippert Components so I tried contacting them directly. They needed the serial number on the axle (didn't even know they had such a thing) which I went home to get and then called them back with and, after some intense cross-referencing, they were able to tell me what axle type my specific, individual trailer had. Whahoo!
10" electric brakes, self-adjusting, with star wheels offset so far on the images provided that no wonder I couldn't see them through the adjustment holes on the drum.
They were forward-adjusting but no one even knew what that meant. However, I did download the manual for the axles and, while that didn't tell me what forward-adjusting meant (I assume it's supposed to adjust as you drive forward), I did read that, BEFORE adjusting the brakes, I needed to "seat" them by performing 20 fast brake applications in which I'd slow down 20mph each time.
For good measure, I took the rig to a church parking lot near home and backed it up several times in case forward-self-adjusting brakes are still adjusted by backing up) and then towed the rig to a long stretch of highway and performed many seating brake sequences and, by the time I had the trailer back home, I had brakes sufficient to be able to reduce my truck's gain to the default 6 setting.
So I'm good, but I've still purchased an offset brake adjustment tool (what the manual said I'd need to reach the star wheel) and will adjust the brakes manually just to be sure they're all set properly when I'm winterizing the rig.
Oh, and the manual indicated that, to adjust the brakes, I'd have to use two tools or two screwdrivers or a combo of each to lift the self-adjuster off of the star wheel.
Amazing what you can learn when you actually find the manufacturer and download the actual user manual where everything is explained in detail!
While I was on the Lippert Components site I also downloaded manuals for the electric stabilizing jacks and the power tongue jack.
So, thank again to all of you as the combination of your helpful suggestions and graphics and links resulted in my being able to know enough to dig deep enough to find the resource I needed.
Appreciatecha!
Based on what you folks taught me, I determined to track down whether or not my rig had electric brakes and where the star wheel would be on those brakes.
Dutchmen's customer service didn't know much about the trailer at all but I finally found out the three axle manufacturers that might have provided the axles for my trailer.
Since almost everything else on the trailer is Lippert Components so I tried contacting them directly. They needed the serial number on the axle (didn't even know they had such a thing) which I went home to get and then called them back with and, after some intense cross-referencing, they were able to tell me what axle type my specific, individual trailer had. Whahoo!
10" electric brakes, self-adjusting, with star wheels offset so far on the images provided that no wonder I couldn't see them through the adjustment holes on the drum.
They were forward-adjusting but no one even knew what that meant. However, I did download the manual for the axles and, while that didn't tell me what forward-adjusting meant (I assume it's supposed to adjust as you drive forward), I did read that, BEFORE adjusting the brakes, I needed to "seat" them by performing 20 fast brake applications in which I'd slow down 20mph each time.
For good measure, I took the rig to a church parking lot near home and backed it up several times in case forward-self-adjusting brakes are still adjusted by backing up) and then towed the rig to a long stretch of highway and performed many seating brake sequences and, by the time I had the trailer back home, I had brakes sufficient to be able to reduce my truck's gain to the default 6 setting.
So I'm good, but I've still purchased an offset brake adjustment tool (what the manual said I'd need to reach the star wheel) and will adjust the brakes manually just to be sure they're all set properly when I'm winterizing the rig.
Oh, and the manual indicated that, to adjust the brakes, I'd have to use two tools or two screwdrivers or a combo of each to lift the self-adjuster off of the star wheel.
Amazing what you can learn when you actually find the manufacturer and download the actual user manual where everything is explained in detail!
While I was on the Lippert Components site I also downloaded manuals for the electric stabilizing jacks and the power tongue jack.
So, thank again to all of you as the combination of your helpful suggestions and graphics and links resulted in my being able to know enough to dig deep enough to find the resource I needed.
Appreciatecha!
