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braindead0's avatar
braindead0
Explorer
Jun 28, 2016

trailer brakes 'grabby' when warm and used lightly

when coming to a stop, after we've been on the road a bit.. as the speed slows down the trailer brakes start grabbing/pulsing as if the drums were out of round.

It's only under light braking and slow speeds, faster speeds or heavier braking the brakes work fine.

Brakes are maybe a year old (long story, new axle last year), I've adjusted them and in total there's probably 1000 miles on them.

I haven't dig into these to know if they are self-energizing, maybe it's just a poor design?

Edited to add: currently using OEM RAM brake controller built into our new truck, previously had same situation with Tekonsha Prodigy P3 controller.
  • I recently flipped my axle, while doing that I checked all of the wiring and redid all of the connections. If I'm messing around there again I might wire them in parallel..
  • TRy backing off the gain - mine are grabby at slow speed if the gain is too high.

    Last year I had similar issues which drove me nuts. As others have pointed the wiring is usually daisy chained from one wheel to another. I removed the wiring and had a dedicated wire to each separate wheel. The braking is now much better and even.

    I did notice a loose ground - so I suspect that this may have been causing some issues with the "jerky" brakes.
  • The brakes are smooth when first heading out, only seem to get grabby after being warmed up. I would think grease would be an always kinda thing?

    Perhaps next time I do the bearings I'll get the drums trued up, unless dropping the gain helps.

    Thanks for the suggestions!
  • braindead0 wrote:
    Worth a try. I usually try to adjust so that I can just barely tell the trailer brakes are doing something.


    I try to adjust mine so that the TV, and TT stop as one. I don't want to feel the TT brakes come on, or go off. I want it to be seamless.
  • Another thing that may effect brake performance is the wiring. Typically, TT brake wiring is a daisy chain in parallel. Changing to a star wiring configuration may be beneficial.
  • Very good chance it is the brake drums.

    I found mine were round but not concentric with the beadings.

    Had a machine shop furn the drums and it made a world of differance partitularly at slow speed.
  • Worth a try. I usually try to adjust so that I can just barely tell the trailer brakes are doing something.

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