Hot Wheel Issue Solved
I recently up graded from a Coleman Santa Fe to a used 2012 Keystone Cougar 29BHS. I am a technical guy and during our first trip made regular checks of the wheels for heat. I noted 2 were warm. one cold and one almost too hot to touch. The heat levels varied but one was always hot and one always cold. I went through a bunch of issues to solve and wanted to post here for others to hopefully help.
Trailer was used and 4yrs old I knew bearings had never been repacked. I got hung up on this fact and was focused on bearings as reason for hot Hub wheel. I knew brakes heat up wheel as expected. therefore I first followed instructions in axle manual. AlKo 3500lb axles. and set up brakes. Electric trailer brakes have to be adjusted manually. they do not self adjust when backing up like car drum brakes. This solved the cold wheel issue. I now had 3 warmish wheels and one very hot. I removed hub from hot wheel and found bearing nut very tight and outer bearing race grooved a bit. Immediately thought right on problem found. Replaced Bearings Races seal and repacked in hot hub. set up all 4 brakes again to make sure equal. Then to my disappointment very hot gain. But noted not always hot some time warm sometime very hot. Luckily my neighbor who is an auto mechanic agreed to help me out. He was not experienced with electric trailer brakes but is a great problem solver. Discovered brake was not fully releasing. Jacked wheel and spun while applying brakes. when released found brake dragging. If spun back and forth brake would release. Disassembled and found no obvious issues. He simply cleaned up points where brakes shoes contact against back plate and applied small amount of grease. Success. Now the previous hot wheel is the coldest of the 4 with the same brake set up. I will now be checking the other 3 and cleaning and greasing backing plate touch points. I have read many forums with hot wheel issues but never came across anything with brake shoe releasing issue. I spent a few weeks figuring this out during different camping trips. Concerned I would was going to be stranded somewhere with a bad wheeling bearing. When brakes disconnected wheels were cold. All the heat appears to be from the brakes. Dont be like me and get hung up on the bearings. check out the proper set up and releasing of the brake shoes first.
Trailer was used and 4yrs old I knew bearings had never been repacked. I got hung up on this fact and was focused on bearings as reason for hot Hub wheel. I knew brakes heat up wheel as expected. therefore I first followed instructions in axle manual. AlKo 3500lb axles. and set up brakes. Electric trailer brakes have to be adjusted manually. they do not self adjust when backing up like car drum brakes. This solved the cold wheel issue. I now had 3 warmish wheels and one very hot. I removed hub from hot wheel and found bearing nut very tight and outer bearing race grooved a bit. Immediately thought right on problem found. Replaced Bearings Races seal and repacked in hot hub. set up all 4 brakes again to make sure equal. Then to my disappointment very hot gain. But noted not always hot some time warm sometime very hot. Luckily my neighbor who is an auto mechanic agreed to help me out. He was not experienced with electric trailer brakes but is a great problem solver. Discovered brake was not fully releasing. Jacked wheel and spun while applying brakes. when released found brake dragging. If spun back and forth brake would release. Disassembled and found no obvious issues. He simply cleaned up points where brakes shoes contact against back plate and applied small amount of grease. Success. Now the previous hot wheel is the coldest of the 4 with the same brake set up. I will now be checking the other 3 and cleaning and greasing backing plate touch points. I have read many forums with hot wheel issues but never came across anything with brake shoe releasing issue. I spent a few weeks figuring this out during different camping trips. Concerned I would was going to be stranded somewhere with a bad wheeling bearing. When brakes disconnected wheels were cold. All the heat appears to be from the brakes. Dont be like me and get hung up on the bearings. check out the proper set up and releasing of the brake shoes first.
