redoing trailer brake questions

johndeeregreg · Apr 18, 2018

since there is to much snow to plant corn l'm working on the brakes on my tandem dually gooseneck. both axles are 10K one is a Quality and the other
is an Al-Ko.

1st question: both of the magnet arms were seized up and not moving on the Quality axle, i got them off with a little hammering and a pry bar, what
should i use to lubricate these once i get them all cleaned up?

2nd question: how do you know if the magnets need to be replaced? one of the quality magnets is wore down and can start to see the winding so that
one obviously needs to be replaced but what about the other 3?

3rd question: one of the quality brake drums has a low area right in the center of where the shoes run and the shoes have a high spot that matches
the drum is that anything to warrant replacing the drum and shoes now or can they run like that till the shoes are wore down more?

4th question: how far down can the shoes get before they need to be replaced? and is it necessary to do both sides of the axle at the same time if
only one side is bad?

showcrop · Apr 18, 2018

I have never bought magnets but drums and shoes seem pretty cheap to me.

Welding man · Apr 19, 2018

We work on trailers on a daily basis,Electric Brakes-hydraulic brakes and air brakes. You can buy the whole backing plate assemblies cheaper than you can buy the components. We always replace the complete assembly. The drums need to be checked where the magnets run inside the face of the drum. If that surface is not flat,if it is grooved or worn uneven the magnet cannot attach itself with enough force to apply the brakes.I can machine that surface on the 10 and 12K axles which saves some cost. Those drums are not cheap.My two cents is If you want good brakes replace it all or forget about it.

johndeeregreg · Apr 19, 2018

will a quality backing plate assembly bolt up and work properly on a Al-Ko axle and drum? the whole quality back plate assembly can be found for not much more than just the Al-Ko shoes.

jon f mn · Apr 19, 2018

I agree, replace the entire backing plate. There are specs on drum wear that will tell if it's worn too much. You get rid of the edge by turning the drum. You most always get uneven brake wear on electric brakes because tjhe brake wired closest to the plug gets the most power so most wear. That's why I wire from the center of the trailer with equal tails to each brake. Some drums have replaceable plates for the magnet surface on tj at so as axle, so check for that.

jon f mn · Apr 19, 2018

Any magnet that has worn out a set of shoes is close to failure, if not from wear then from bad wires. Shoes can wear down to the rivits and start at about 3/8-1/2" thick depending on the brakes. According to quality trailer the alco and quality brakes are different. The alco the same as dexter, the quality is the same as rockwell. But even that can change depending on year of manufacture.

MSD · Apr 19, 2018

We went through brakes on a real regular basis on the tractor pulling trailer. Finally got fed up with the un reliability of drum brakes and went to disc brakes. What an improvement. They always work and can stop you on a dime if turned up to tight. Pickup brakes barely come on now so we have a lot more control. Wasn't cheap but worth every penny that they did cost. We went with the Kodiak brand ones.

redoing trailer brake questions

johndeeregreg

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showcrop

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Welding man

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johndeeregreg

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jon f mn

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jon f mn

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MSD

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