Travel trailer brakes - magnet question
No photos, sorry. Brakes are similar to those in Sticky thread here. 3 major parts - 2 shoes and magnet on some "arm", for lack of better word. Being not a mechanic, I hope my descriptions make sense....
Forum Discussion
Almot wrote:
A Question: how little drag is OK? It can spin now 3 circles on its own, but it also has a play when I apply the brake - I can move wheel a few inches back-forth, and then shoes grip tight.
You are trying to get a "light" drag when you set it up. Light meaning, if you rotate the wheel 360 degrees, it "might" have a light drag for approx 45 to 90 degrees and then spin free. Maybe more degrees if your lucky. The way they turn trailer brake drums in the RV world, they do not run dead true like an auto brake drum. So you will not feel nice even light drag the entire 360 degrees. If you do get one that is 360 degrees and a light drag, consider yourself lucky. I have seen trailer wheels run out 0.025" ( a lot on a brake drum and this is not a worn drum, just plain made wrong.)
Do not worry about the brake pedal thing you are trying to do. That is not needed in the setup. Once the brake actually engages rolling down the road the entire brake shoe setup will shift back and forth with the drum as the wheel goes through it's elliptical rotation.
The main thing to try and do, is get all 4 wheels with the same light drag as you can to so they all stop as equal as they can. If you get one wheel real aggressive over the others, it will try and stop the camper by itself as it is doing more work before the other 3 start doing work. That aggressive wheel will get hot fast. If it does, then crawl under and unscrew 2 clicks and try again.
A light drag means you can pull the wheel with a little effort by hand. You can fell a little and hear it. The drag may not be 360 degree of the wheel, then will spin free until it comes around again to start the drag and that is what trailer brakes are.
Over time that light drag will wear off and then you may not hear anything from drag. You are supposed to tweak non adjusting trailer brakes every 3,000 miles, as they wear and there is no self compensation. They do not self adjust like the older autos use to unless you buy the new self adjusting brakes which is an upgrade.
Good luck and hope this helps
