replacing brakes on 1 of 4 wheels?
Relatively new 5,400 # Dexter axles and drums on our TT, have less than 2,000 miles. I developed had a grease leak on one wheel and that brake locked up so much it ruined a tire in 350 miles. I...
Forum Discussion
TundraTower wrote:
OP here. Thanks for the input so far.
The axles are 18 month-old Dexters and I have in stock TWO complete backing plate brake assemblies, left and right, bought from Dexter. So surely the brake material would be the same.
I am not familiar with this phenomenon mentioned of the trailer pulling the truck to one side due to uneven braking. I'm not saying it isn't real, I've just never heard of it nor experienced it. This is a 8K TT being pulled by a 3/4 ton diesel chevy that weighs 10K. On the last trip, with this one tire locking up enough to ruin the tire, I never felt anything (didn't hear it either).
As far as I can tell the original seal that came with the axle failed. This axle was ordered special WITHOUT the zerk fittings, and without the auto adjust nonsense. Just a good old plain axle with electric brakes.
Doing both sides is a PITA and with the low miles I question if needed. Yes braking will be somewhat uneven until seated, but at least I'll have 75% of my brakes. If I replace both, then I'm down to 50% normal brakes until they wear in.
Thanks for your comments. I'm still deciding.
Depending on the amount of miles already driven in the 18 months you may find yourself already in the situation of the old brakes may now fell grabby compared to the new brakes.
You might get lucky to not feel it, but then again you might not be so lucky.
Your call, do one and take the risk of having to correct via steering input at every braking event or put a little bit more effort up front and fix it correctly and perhaps "suffer" a very slight loss in braking effort until both new shoes bed in.
I understand your concern about cost, time and hard work, but it IS industry standard when working on vehicle and trailer brakes to treat it as a pair by replacing both sides of an axle.
Changing the entire backing plate fully refreshes you brakes except for the drums so you get a new MAGNET along with the shoes, springs and levers.. That magnet ALSO must bed in..
Even working at a slow pace on a 30+ yr old TT I was able to change and adjust all four new backing plates in less than 2 hrs.. I was dealing with four very rusted nuts/bolts holding the backing plates on too boot.
On a 18 month old trailer you won't be dealing with 30+ yrs of rust and should be far easier to do..
