prstlk wrote:
07 HR Ambassador, 40k miles.
Starting get some squeel when stopping normally, and a shudder when stopping hard. What does a brake job run for a DP? Any national chains you would suggest?
Thanks in advance.
JW
JW,
Hang on there Partner, before you go digging out the wallet and, prying it open, with only 40K on the clock, unless someone's been running that coach in the Indy 500 and or any of those dumb a$$ Nascar races, you should have a minimum of triple that mileage left on the brakes. If a DP is driven correctly, as in proper use of auxiliary braking, as in Exhaust Brake or, Jake (compression brake), that allows for some serious extended service life of the service brakes.
The fact that you have some "Squealing" and or, chattering is "somewhat" normal for many coaches. Some will never develop those symptoms and some, get them often.
In any case, the very first thing that should be done is, a quality inspection of all your brakes. Not the kind from laying under the coach, I'm talking the removal of the wheels and tires and, the drums or, discs, depending on which you have. You want to get a close up look at everything. Squealing happens because of various issues. Sometimes the brakes get "glazed over" and when that happens, they "Chatter" at a very ultra high frequency and that's the squealing you hear.
You also may have some out of round drums or discs that cause shuttering. There may be contaminates (axle oil w/brake dust etc.) that are in there causing issues when the brakes are applied.
So this is why I say to get a good inspection of them before you decide to shell out what ever someone wants to do a brake job for you. The pictures you see below are of our brakes on our '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT. They were take very recently with coach having 62,000, miles on it. As you can see, they are in outstanding shape and will go at a minimum, another 62,000 miles if not a lot more.
Scott
