Trailer Brakes: You may want to check the innards

[HomeBrew2]

I bought a new 5' x 10' 7K GVW dump trailer last year, primarily for off road use on my 5 acres. Never had it on the road except to drag it home ... till this weekend. Need to haul a load of gravel to my neighbor. When I brought it home the brakes "clacked" when energized but didn't seem to grab much. Note to self: adjust brakes before hauling on road. Did that this morning but, couldn't get them to grab after a lot of turning of the adjustment wheel.

Long story short:
I pulled the drums.
Oh, boy, skinny cotter pin which seemed almost driven into the hole and the axle nut needed a wrench to remove. Bad start.
For crying out loud, leading and trailing shoes are reversed. Not getting better.
Jimminy christmas, the adjustment wheel/screw is in cock-eyed, not seated in the relief in the web of the shoes. Second beer, trying to calm down.

So, just a post to suggest one never knows what kind of a monkey puts our stuff together

 

[MarEng]

Not sure the original, from the dealer, condition of my trailer brakes but it didn't take long to notice the end of the retraction spring hanging out the star wheel hole. Star wheel and shaft were ground down and required replacement. Spring was toast.

I guess this is why I find myself doing more and more things at home, even when they make no sense from a time/money perspective.

 

[Stimw]

I worked on semi trailers for most of 30 years and I can tell you stories that will scare the h--- out of you! There is only one requirement to work on semi brakes, you need to be breathing!
It's common for mechanics (?) to put the axle nuts back on with an impact. Clean and inspect the wheel bearings? That's too much work! Drop the bearing in the sand, wipe it off it'll be OK. (I've seen it)
Worked on one that they put the wrong shoes on it. The drum didn't want to go back on so the manager told the mechanic to grind the linings until it fit! The brakes still locked up.
Then there is the driver who drug a loaded trailer 3 miles from the terminal. I got there looked at things and then ask him " shouldn't you try hooking up the air lines to the trailer? And don't get me started on air system repairs!
I have a 7 X 12 trailer and it will slide the tires when I apply full power to the electric controler.

 

[bx23barry]

come on guys! Brakes just slow ya down. Full Speed ahead!

 

[Ford960]

I was pulling a gross weight load of minerals in a 48' trailer to Springfield, Mass back in 1994 and in the Pa mountains up I-81 I stopped to adjust the brakes on the trailer. This trailer just had a new set of brakes put on it before I left and after stopping for the second time to adjust them I started to look for a problem. When I pushed on one of the linings with the wrench I found that it was loose on the shoe. All the others were loose too.
This was on a Sunday and I called the owner and he agreed that I would have to find a place to get the shoes replaced. I found a truck stop and paid for a new brake job out of my pocket. The owner wanted me to bring the shoes back but the core charge was more than they were worth to return. When they were pulled off you could shake the linings on the shoes, the rivets were that loose. I learned a long time ago that the rivets have a torque spec and these sure didn't meet it.
The owner went to the supplier and they checked the rivets on several shoes and found all of them were loose. They refunded his money and of course he passed it on to me with interest. I also got an ATTA boy for finding this and taking corrective action before the brakes could have failed in the mountains.

 

[gotrocks]

Bought my NEW 16ft dual axle and hauled a couple of loads of rocks. Then the lights on the brake controller indicated "error". After checking several things I finally found the wires had been run across the top of the axle and when the load is heavy enough the frame would "(pinch") cut the brake wires. Just glad we weren't going down hill "too" fast when this happened.
Stay Safe.

 

[Syncro]

I worked on semi trailers for most of 30 years and I can tell you stories that will scare the h--- out of you! There is only one requirement to work on semi brakes, you need to be breathing!
It's common for mechanics (?) to put the axle nuts back on with an impact. Clean and inspect the wheel bearings? That's too much work! Drop the bearing in the sand, wipe it off it'll be OK. (I've seen it)
Worked on one that they put the wrong shoes on it. The drum didn't want to go back on so the manager told the mechanic to grind the linings until it fit! The brakes still locked up.
Then there is the driver who drug a loaded trailer 3 miles from the terminal. I got there looked at things and then ask him " shouldn't you try hooking up the air lines to the trailer? And don't get me started on air system repairs!
I have a 7 X 12 trailer and it will slide the tires when I apply full power to the electric controler.

Hey thats quit a post, boy I sure can relate to that kind of slip shod 'work' and is all the more reason no one touches anything mechanical that I own!

 

[czechsonofagun]

One of the best thing I have seen was a tank without a wheel bearing

Russian tank T55 and one of the caterpillar wheels in the middle when we took it off had just the spindle and no bearings on it. Now the spindle was about 6 inches diameter and from the wheel it was half way grinded off

The technical officer almost got an heart attack when he saw it