Defective brakes on 7 month old TT

JBarca wrote:
Hi Red,

This does not add up. Trailer brakes are a sad enough situation, however all 4 blowing seals in this short of a time is not normal. There are only so many things that add up. Some are:

- The seals where nicked when installed. All 4, I doubt it.
This is actually very possible. I read some where (here?) About the Easy Lubes having a sharp lip on the grease hole right next to the seal. It needs to be chamfered to prevent nicking of the seal when installing the drum. I suppose that it could even be possible that a burr is being left on this hole by the drlling machine at the factory. This would ensure that all seals installed are nicked.

- There was no coating on the outside of the seal cartridge sealing it to the drum. Possible they missed it.

- Some one used a high volume greaser and blew them out. Very likely.

- Totally defective seals. With all the offshore junk now a days in bearings and seals, this is not beyond possible.

- Someone put single lip seals in, in place of double and messed up. Yes, believe it or not on a non Ultra lube axle they put single seals in. Ridiculous for sure, but I have seen it on my prior Alko brakes and the Alko part numbers call it out that way.

As a general rule, axle manufactures put only a light coating on the bearing when shipping. This is usually the situation of burning up a bearing.

The comment about the delivery guy greasing the heck out of the bearings, well I never thought of that but it could be as like I said, the factory barely puts anything in them and he got burnt once.

A question to ask of the dealer, do they do axle maintenance prep as part of your per delivery work? If your camper was towed to the dealership, within the 1st 200 miles the shoes need to be adjusted and they need grease very soon after delivery. If the dealership does this type of work, well then they are suspect. A rambunctious RV tech with an air greaser can get carried away.

In my case, if this happened to me, after they gave me that $1,000 it will cost to fix this after buying a new camper from them, after a few clarification conversations and they stuck to it, that would be the end of that dealer for me. I would contact the manufacture and respectfully and firmly plead my case. If they give me the, it's a maintenance issue, or take it up with the axle manf., I would take the camper home, do the brake job myself and inspect the brake drums seals. A complete photo document of the situation and find the root cause of the seal blow out. Then start back at the manufacturer again. I still may hit a brick wall, but that just drug their name in the mud. While it may not be their fault directly, that can help service you to who can help correct it. How that camper made it from the their dock to you, they are part of.

This is not rocket science. Any mechanic who has a few years of experience in brakes can figure this out as long as they have an open mind and trouble shooting knack. The dealer can do this too. Why can't they say, we need to investigate to find the root cause of this and help the customer get it sorted out. Somebody screwed up.

If your camper has 3,500# axles, odds are high they are 10 x 2 1/4" brakes. Here are Dexter genuine parts on sale.
10 x 2 1/4" complete brake plates at Eastern Marine. And they are still making money on this.

I know you may not have the place or ability to do this brake inspect yourself, if you have an auto buddy or even hire an auto mechanic, this is 1950 drum brake technology we are talking about.

Like I said, this is not rocket science. Someone along the way messed up.

Hope this helps

John