Brake trouble?

[commandeaux]

My trailer has surge brakes.Something is happening to cause my wheels to heat up and sling the grease out of the hubs.Mechanic says the brakes are not staying engaged. Has anyone encountered a problem like this?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Brake trouble?

Get a new mechanic. Are you certain the hubs are getting hot? Only and IR heat gun can prove that. Bad wheel seals can sling grease, coat the brake shoes, causing them to stick or drag which increases heat. A master cylinder in the coupler may not be releasing which can cause the brakes to drag.

 

[burp]

Re: Brake trouble?

"Not staying engaged" ??? Sounds like just the opposite to me.

Disc or drum brakes? If the wheels are heating up, I'd be looking to see if the brakes are constantly dragging, generating the heat or if the wheel bearings are tightened down too much. Jack up a wheel, spin it and listen if the brakes are dragging. It could be something as simple as backing off the star adjustment if drum brakes. Another possibility, if drum brakes would be corroded wheel cylinders, not allowing the brake shoes to fully retract. If disc brakes, corroded pucks in the calipers can cause the brakes to drag.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Re: Brake trouble?

are the brakes getting warm or hot.

 

[T_Herrod]

Re: Brake trouble?

I'm going to assume that you have regular greaseable bearings and not oil bath bearings. The seals in regular bearings are simply dust seals and can be pushed out of place by to much grease. I would check to be sure that the seals are in place the check the brake adjustment and the master cylinder/wheel cylinders. If you come up with nothing there check the bearing adjustment. But you will have to remove the outer bearing to check the wheel cylinder so that is a mute point.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Brake trouble?

You have a problem that can be caused a couple of ways, either the brakes are dragging or the bearings are done, either way you have some work to do, the first thing I would do is get the trailer up on stands and start spinning tires, see if any of them are not spinning freely, if not then check the wheels for play laterally, if there is more then a little play you need to rebuild the bearings with new seals and grease, take the wheels off and see if the brakes are dragging you can hear them drag but to be honest I would just go ahead and rebuild the hubs anyway its sounds like the rear seals are toast, and if the brakes are hanging up then they could very well need a rebuild as well, good time to do it.

Heat in the hubs is somewhat natural but to much heat is not good, bearings will generate a small amount of heat if they are in good condition but a large amount of heat if they are done meanwhile a certain amount of heat will be transferred from the brakes to the hubs, drums and discs transfer different amounts of heat to the hubs due in part to they generate different amounts of heat within themselves as well as having more or less surface area to bleed off heat. Without having the trailer in front of us though its tough to say which scenario you are dealing with specifically, but to have a mechanic tell me the heat is generated by the brakes not engaging will tell me to find another mechanic.

So first step is to get your trailer into the air and spin them tires!