Trailer Brake Problems and Braking Performance

[Buck50HD]

Sorry, this is a long one. Finally got the 5th out for 2 trips after buying it late last fall. One was 600 miles round trip and the other was 240 round trip. When I started down our gravel road for the 1st trip, I tried a gain of 6, no lock-up. Then tried 8, then 10... progressively better but no lock, on gravel. At this point I'm committed and no turning back. On the way, I had the opportunity to perform my first panic stop for a deer. Truck brakes were cycling on ABS and although the trailer was not at full power, hauling it down from 60 to 20 was no problem and actually fairly impressive.

Next stop was a gas station after a long hill. Felt the brakes, only 3 were hot, 4th was ice cold. Nice feature on a brand new trailer. Looked it over a little at the campground but nothing obvious and I wasn't going to pull the wheel off. Later, at home, started adjusting the brakes and I lost count at probably 4 turns on the star on the cold brake. The others were also loose but not as bad. Figured this had to be the problem.

2nd trip started down the gravel, gain of 10, no lock, same performance. Checked the drums after a stop, same one was still cool. Made the full trip of 240 miles using the brakes several times and the one drum was still cool but not ice cold.

Pulled the drum off tonight and found a little oil/grease on the magnet surface and drum but not a lot. Cleaned with brake cleaner and reassembled. Pulled the break-away cable and it would drag when I rotated it forward but would still turn by hand. Jacked up one of the 3 that work and I could not rotate it, completely locked up. Ohmed out the entire system and got 1.1, which is acceptable, as far as I know.

So, question #1, is it possible that the brake/magnet still need to wear in more? I would think that even new parts could stop me from rotating the wheel at full power.

#2: Do you think it's the magnet, even though it ohms out ok?

Finally, my concern about performance. These axles are the 4400 lb lippert/axletek which have 3500lb spindles/10"brakes and 5200 lb tube (not happy about this). The fact that I can't even lock the 3 good tires on gravel makes me furious. The equivalent braking force is less than that of tires skidding on wet pavement. In addition, one is not working at all. Luckily, my truck is able to keep all 4 on ABS on dry pavement. So, what sort of braking potential do I have? Well, if all 4 worked, assuming the effective friction coefficient would be around 0.5 (that may be optimistic) and the truck can take full potential of the 0.8 that the harder E tires provide, I’m at 82.1% of what I could have if the trailer could be near lock on pavement. With only 3 working, I’m down to 74.6%. You may be thinking I should have bought a ¾ ton. Assuming a gas ¾ ton would be 500 lb heavier than my 6100 lb F150HD, it would provide less than 1% better performance, which translates to about 2’ better in a 200’ stopping distance. That’s not going to cut it. I need better trailer brakes. First step is to get all 4 working. Then, when I get time, these inadequate 10” brakes are out of here. There’s a lot of focus on trucks but we need more on trailer brakes. How many out there take them for granted. How many adjust them to lock only on gravel and not on dry pavement? The puny brakes are fine for the guy that doesn’t want to take the time to fine-tune but I want full power.

[RoyB]

I adjust my brake shoe grab just like on my truck. I turn the adjust until the brake shoes just grab.

On mine each wheel makes a low tone noise when engaged. I can hear this real plain with my ears near the wheels.

When I first start out I will use my slider lever to stop both vehicle and trailer at a stop sign just to check out the brakes and get them warmed up somewhat.

My fifth wheel would lock up all four brakes pretty good on gravel roads using the slide lever on full with my then P2 brake controller...

Have never pulled the fifth wheel with my 2010 truck and built-in ford OEM brake controller. It slides the wheels on the off-road POPUP on gravel big time...

Roy ken

[Crabbypatty]

As long as your controller says you have a connection, the first thing to do, while parked is jack up one wheel at a time, spin it and have DW hit the brakes. If it barely brakes, but you here it, your magnet is working, but you need an adjustment. Turn the star nut located on the backer plate with a flat head screw driver until it improves. After your satisfied, take the wheel off and drum, inspect the drum for grease or scoring as you may need the drum turned and also inspect the brake shoe. Last inspect and repack your bearings. Put it back together and before letting it back down, spin the wheel again to make sure its working properly then repeat 3 more times on the other wheels. If you need shoe, spring or magnet replacement, rednecktrailersupply.com sells the entire set up, already assembeled. All you do is remove the 4 bolts holding the whole assembly onto the axle, then bolt on the new one, attach two wires, then spin and check for adjustment. Its all very easy to do and on a quiet Saturday you can have all brakes up to 100% and have you bearings packed as well in time for a beverage and game or hammock in the afternoon. Its really not hard to do.

[sk734]

I noticed one of my brakes not working once in a while then I would move the wires and it worked-poor connections. I totally rewired my brakes with heavier wire using a star pattern and then grounded each brake individually-most rigs are wired with a common ground, if you lose the common ground you will have no brakes at all. I was able to eliminate many connectors that were used at the factory and they all needed to be replaced. I used heat shrink connectors.Now their is only 2 connectors per lead that feeds one side of magnet. Brakes work much better. I use an amp meter to check the amps at the magnets. On a new trailer you can take it back, but I would have to fix it myself to be satisfied it was done right-good luck.

[mguay]

If you pulled the drum and there was oil/grease on the magnet and drum, then it was on the shoes as well. If oil/grease gets on the shoes, they are junk and Brake Cleaner will not get it off. Take the drums to your local guy and have them turned to get the glazing off them and replace the shoes and seals. Repack the bearings and you'll be good to go.
If I had to guess...I would say you have easy lube axles with the grease fitting on the hub. I personally have never had any luck with them, others have. You may get Lippert to do something for you under warranty.
And yes you should have full braking power weather you are towing with a 1/2ton or a dually.

[rjsurfer]

Get an amp-meter, each magnet should draw about 3 AMPS.

Another test is to hold a compass near the hub and have someone manually move the brake lever on the controller. You will see the compass needle swing really hard toward the drum when activated. If not your magnet is shot.

I'm not sure if yoy have many options on getting better 10" brakes, most heavy duty assemblies are for 12" ? Disc brakes for 10" ?


Ron W.

[jmtandem]

I am not sure I can help either but are all four brakes receiving the same voltage/amperage? Is the 'cold' one due to a loose connection somewhere especially where the wires go into the axle? You should be getting the same voltage approximately at all brakes. Lastly, and I know this is not fixing the brakes, but get an infrared temp sensor/gauge and take readings periodically. I usually get about a 10-15 degree reading differential comparing all four hubs when at a rest stop. I think that is very acceptable. As you fix the brake issue and the hub gets warm you will want more than a hand felt temp to ensure all four are performing approximately equally.

[Chuck_Gail]

Can't help, but have a question. How long had 5er sat unused? Every TT we've owned had crappy brakes for about 5 miles until the rust? wore off after sitting a few months. Maybe? Did you try gravel lockup on the way home?