Disc Brakes

jshupe wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
7, 8 and 9K Kodiak Calipers ALL use the same pad from the late 80's Buick Century HD. Always buy SemiMetallic pads best quality available. This is per Kevin at Kodiak.

Be sure to use blue Loctite and use the proper silicone grease on the slide bolts and all metal contact points. The allen wrench can be used to properly tighten the slide bolts just slip an open end wrench over the allen for a "cheater".

I prefer to use a torque wrench and set it to the proper spec - "Torque caliper guide bolts to 40-50 ft-lbs." in their service manual. I opted to use a 3/8" torque wrench with a shallow socket on the Titan supplied bolt. I went with Permatex Ultra and Loctite Blue.

It was a suggestion under the conditions mentioned. Turn wrenches long enough on basic items as this a torque wrench is not needed. JMHO

Cummins12V98 wrote:
7, 8 and 9K Kodiak Calipers ALL use the same pad from the late 80's Buick Century HD. Always buy SemiMetallic pads best quality available. This is per Kevin at Kodiak.

Be sure to use blue Loctite and use the proper silicone grease on the slide bolts and all metal contact points. The allen wrench can be used to properly tighten the slide bolts just slip an open end wrench over the allen for a "cheater".

I prefer to use a torque wrench and set it to the proper spec - "Torque caliper guide bolts to 40-50 ft-lbs." in their service manual. I opted to use a 3/8" torque wrench with a shallow socket on the Titan supplied bolt. I went with Permatex Ultra and Loctite Blue.

7, 8 and 9K Kodiak Calipers ALL use the same pad from the late 80's Buick Century HD. Always buy SemiMetallic pads best quality available. This is per Kevin at Kodiak.

Be sure to use blue Loctite and use the proper silicone grease on the slide bolts and all metal contact points. The allen wrench can be used to properly tighten the slide bolts just slip an open end wrench over the allen for a "cheater".

jshupe wrote:
Looked into it today and found that one of the caliper guide bolts backed itself completely out of the sleeve. Since it was the bottom caliper bolt, the bottom of the caliper was resting against the rotor. I contacted Ron at PerformanceTrailerBraking and he is sending a new bolt. He said these have a tendency to back themselves out, and to use Loctite the next go around, which I will add for all of the guide bolts. I'm not convinced it was torqued correctly to begin with, but Loctite and retorquing to the proper spec should keep it from repeating itself.

300mi home today averaged 8.1mpg, I've made the same trip many times and usually get 10mpg or so.

I found on another forum that the Kodiak 7K caliper uses the same pads as the 1990 Buick Century Limited, and somewhere else that the Titan and Kodiak calipers have interchangeable parts. So instead of waiting for the caliper guide bolt to arrive in the mail, I sourced a guide bolt for one of those Century calipers at Advance Auto Parts. It is the same length, diameter, and threading, so it worked great in the bottom hole. However, the head on the Titan bolt is machined differently to allow you to grab onto it with a socket, where you have to use an Allen on Century bolt. This turns out to be really important on my rig, because I can't get an Allen bit on a ratchet in front of the leaf to tighten the top caliper bolt, and if I tried with a key I probably couldn't get it tight enough. So the top must use the Titan bolt, while there is plenty of room to get the Century bolt sufficiently tight on the bottom.

I did this today so that I could get it back to the storage lot before the HOA started complaining, and so took it on a test drive to the storage lot approximately 12 miles away. I got 7mpg in heavy stop and go (rush hour) traffic with the trailer, which I feel is about right for a properly functioning trailer. Much better than I would expect if the issue still exists since I averaged only 6.4 and 8.1 on the last two highway trips, and the 8.1 included some unloaded driving.

Looked into it today and found that one of the caliper guide bolts backed itself completely out of the sleeve. Since it was the bottom caliper bolt, the bottom of the caliper was resting against the rotor. I contacted Ron at PerformanceTrailerBraking and he is sending a new bolt. He said these have a tendency to back themselves out, and to use Loctite the next go around, which I will add for all of the guide bolts. I'm not convinced it was torqued correctly to begin with, but Loctite and retorquing to the proper spec should keep it from repeating itself.

300mi home today averaged 8.1mpg, I've made the same trip many times and usually get 10mpg or so.

rjsurfer wrote:

time2roll wrote:
I would jack at least one wheel up and see if it spins.

I think we have a winner....

Simple test to make, don't come back till you've done that :-)

Ron W.

When we ("we" includes the installer from Performance Trailer Braking) did the install, we had to use spacers that weren't perfect to fit the calipers. A couple of them caused the inside pads to lightly interfere (not enough to lock the rotor, and not full contact, but enough to touch during each rotation) with the rotors. I suspect that the pads are still doing this and that I need to have some custom spacers made or wait for the pads to wear down further.

We're set up and I'm not messing with it right now. When I get home in a week I'll start looking into it. I was only mentioning it as an update, not looking for assistance here.

Other than that one potential issue (I'm not ruling out things other than the brakes causing the drop in MPG), the brakes are wonderful. Like many others in this forum, I will not have a trailer this large with drums again. The ability to perform emergency maneuvers and stops is excellent. Just this week, driving through traffic on 290 in Houston, someone hastily cut in front of me then had to slam on their brakes when they realized, to their bewilderment, that there was already a car in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and even with the discs, stopped only 1-2' behind them. With the drums I would have been in their cabin.

time2roll wrote:
I would jack at least one wheel up and see if it spins.

I think we have a winner....

Simple test to make, don't come back till you've done that :-)

Ron W.

I would jack at least one wheel up and see if it spins.

RustyJC wrote:

jshupe wrote:
I've noticed about a 2mpg drop over the 1000mi since adding disk brakes. I think I may have some rubbing or issue similar to yours that I need to diagnose when I get back home next week.

With all respect, if the brakes were dragging enough to drop 2 mpg, I'd expect smoke to be pouring off of them. Harbor Freight has inexpensive infrared thermometers. You might want to pick one up.

Rusty

Possibly. I'm not sure how much it would take to drop 2mpg. We usually get 10-12mpg and have been getting 6.5-8.4mpg since installing the discs. The 6.5mpg, I discounted as due to a strong headwind. But the weather was calm for the last 300 miles where we achieved 8.4mpg. I'm sure there are other things it could be, but plan to start by looking at the brakes since they were the most recent change (aside from a louvered tailgate, which I wouldn't expect to decrease mpg).

jshupe wrote:
I've noticed about a 2mpg drop over the 1000mi since adding disk brakes. I think I may have some rubbing or issue similar to yours that I need to diagnose when I get back home next week.

With all respect, if the brakes were dragging enough to drop 2 mpg, I'd expect smoke to be pouring off of them. Harbor Freight has inexpensive infrared thermometers. You might want to pick one up.

Rusty