Fifth Wheel Brakes Kind of Not Working

Brake material wears, so does the magnets that activate the brakes..

There is no set amount. Jack up wheel, put jack stand on frame, move star wheel while spinning the wheel. Once you hear just the slightest bit of scraping sound, but the wheel still spins freely, that's usually pretty good..

But, depending on wen the last time the brakes were adjusted or even replaced for that matter, it might be that you have no brake surface left, or the magnets themselves are worn too much?

I have a 2003 Prowler and I changed out the entire brake backing plate on each wheel about 7 years ago or so.. I've owned it since new..

When I replaced them, the shoes and the magnets were worn enough that I could not adjust them enough.

Once I got the new backing plates, with the entire brake assembly already installed, it was a night and day difference..

Is that something that could have loosened up over the 4k miles I just put on it in the last two months headed to Alaska. Should I adjust each equally? Sounds like a bit above my pay grade but I'm going to give it a go, lol.

No never done that, I'll give it a go tomorrow though. How much should I adjust before I test again? Half turn, whole turn? It probably is that type, it's a 2004 Gulfstream Yellowstone...so nothing to fancy.

No, I mean jacking up the axles, crawling on the ground, pulling out the little plug on the back of the backing plate (on each wheel) and turning the adjusting star wheel to put the brake shoes closer to the drums... :)

That is how 99% of the trailer brakes work these days.. Now, you could have disk brakes and electric over hydraulic brake system, so that's possible too, but you didn't say either way..

Yes if you mean with the controller, and I could tell a big difference adjusting it with the brake controller. I usually kept it half way up and I've got it cranked all the way up and don't notice any difference when it used to make a huge difference.I also looked at the connections at the junction box and break controller connections and they seemed really well connected. However maybe I should just redo one at a time as they're not marked. I'm getting about a second or two of brakes and then I feel them cutoff and the the light on the brake controller fades out, which it never did before. It was on, or it was off.

Have you ever adjusted the brakes?

What's the receptacle on the TV? I'll check out the junction box.

Pull out the receptacle on the tv and check for a loose/corroded connection. The cord on the trailer should go to a junction box, check the connections thre as well.