Travel Trailer brakes seem weak

Mine never made any noise and they are working fine. It sounds like you need to adjust the shoes.

There is an adjustment wheel inside just like the old drum brakes. I still have an adjustment tool form bygone days but a conventional screwdriver will work. Get the wheel off the ground and adjust till the brakes drag than back off till they do not.

I would adjust the brakes. Jack up one wheel and give it a spin, as hard as you can. Count the revolutions. Anything over 2 revs is too much in my opinion.

jimw606 wrote:
I would adjust the brakes. Jack up one wheel and give it a spin, as hard as you can. Count the revolutions. Anything over 2 revs is too much in my opinion.

That seems a little tight. If the brakes are dragging all the time, they will heat up, glaze over, and become totally useless when you need them.

Adjust the brakes until you can not rotate the wheel. Then back them off until they rotate freely with faint scraping sound. Also, if the bearings have been greased through the bearing cap, the wheel seal may have failed and you have your brakes full of grease. The clicking sound is normal and is part of the normal operation of the brakes.

The click was probably the magnet contacting the drum. The fact that you do not hear it now may not mean anything.

Adjust as noted above.

If you cannot adjust them and accomplish correct operation they may have replaced them on the incorrect sides.

Most people (even many shops) adjust them too loose. They should drag all the way around and when you give the wheel a spin it should only rotate *.75 to 1 full turn before stopping.


*From Alko manual.

The noise is the energized magnet being pulled over until it hits the armature… no noise might be poor electrical connections to the brake magnets…
(hearing it is normal… you might not hear it a second time without moving the wheel some, this to is normal)

Test the amp load of the brakes, it should be at least 3 to 4 amps per wheel… that would definitely cause poor brake performance…

ScottG wrote:
Most people (even many shops) adjust them too loose. They should drag all the way around and when you give the wheel a spin it should only rotate *.75 to 1 full turn before stopping.


*From Alko manual.

Hi,

Your post seems to indcate what you said came from the Alko manual. Did we understand that correctly? Alko has changed things from time to time so just asking as your reponse is different than I have seen.

Page 14 of the Alko manual does not say the same thing as you where describing.

http://al-kousa.com/download/ALKO_2kto7k_OwnerManual.pdf

Alko wrote:
3. While spinning the wheel, use a standard brake adjusting tool or the blade of a screw driver to rotate the star wheel until there is a heavy brake drag.

4. Loosen until the wheel turns freely about 3/4 to one full turn.

They are now stating the wheel should spin free for 3/4 to 1 full turn of the wheel. Did not notice they referring to spinning the wheel and it stop in 3/4 to 1 rev. That is a difference as spin free for 1 whole turn is no drag.

It is hard to decribe in words sometime the right amount of light drag that is acceptable and how much around the drum.

While not impossible, having even drag 360 degrees is sometimes hard to come by on trailer wheels. The spec for trailer drums is the drum face can have run out of 0.015" TIR and be considered in spec. Which I feel is totally wrong, but that is what Dexter told me is spec. No one rides in the trailer like in a car so they do not feel the vibration. My Alko drums ran out 0.020"... You have got to be kidding, they can't machine it better???? On drum brakes that much runout can create a skip. You drag on the low spot and spin free on the high spot. Sad too as automotive did this back in the 50's a whole lot better. Getting a brake drum to spin wihtin 0.005" TIR or less is not that hard. Takes more skill and a little more time.

John

Don't make it so complicated.....they are simple drum brakes with shoes

Just like 'eHoefler' suggested
"Adjust the brakes until you can not rotate the wheel. Then back them off until they rotate freely with faint scraping sound. Also, if the bearings have been greased through the bearing cap, the wheel seal may have failed and you have your brakes full of grease"

The magnet provides friction that engages the shoes. The shoes will seat in as they are used.
The magnets need good clean tight electrical connections and a clean smooth contact face on drum to provide the necessary friction.

If bearings have been greased via a zerk fitting and grease gun then grease could have blown past seals and gotten into drum and on brake shoes.

Only way to know for sure is to remove and inspect brake assembly.

A quick check of magnets is to hold a hand-held compass down low center of wheel while some one applies brakes via manual lever OR by pulling Emergency Brake Switch pin out to apply brakes.
If compass needle defects towards wheel magnet is getting voltage.
Checking each magnet amp draw is a better method.