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Trailer brakes

super99

super99

Well-known Member
Went to a tractor ride yesterday about 70 miles from home. Great day, good ride and excellent lunch. Loaded up and headed home, a few miles from home, coming up to a stop sign on the blacktop I applied the trailer brakes to slow down, nothing unusual until I looked in the mirror and there was a cloud of blue smoke behind the trailer and a skid mark probably 6 or 8 feet long. I pulled over and checked the brake drums and hubs with a infra red thermometer. Right side was a little over 100 degrees, left side front wheel the brake drum was 280 degrees and hub was about 240 degrees. I'm going to pull the hubs on the right side and see what's happening tomorrow. Is the wheel bearing grease still OK or should I repack them? Not sure how much heat the grease can stand, I just repacked them about 500 miles ago Thanks, Chris
 
240 will likely liquefy the grease. I would likely change it you will have it off. If it looks unmelted I would change my mind. Jim
 
Which side was this black strip on? Working brakes and drums get hot. So if youre pulling the right at 100 degrees why are unworried about the grease ? If its only 100 degrees that brake cant be working. No clear here what your asking .
 
Front wheel on LEFT side locked up and slid tire on blacktop. That was the hot one. Not worried about the others.
 
Yes thats what I read , left got hot , but ur pulling the right side , and at 100 degrees they cant be working to good. Of course it all depends on braking time
 
As long as you used a good GC-LB wheel bearing grease and not some general purpose ball joint grease 280 degrees did nothing to the grease as all of them are rated for 300 degrees or better.

Your wording in your post seems to imply you think the 280 wheel is locking up and the 100 wheels are working properly.

While I may be wrong I think the opposite is true. The 100 wheels are doing nothing and the 280 wheel is over heating a little as it is the only one working.
 
Electric brakes, surge brakes, electric over hydraulic? Regardless of type, I am in the group thinking the hot brake is the one working, the others aren't pulling in or are way out of adjustment.
 


As others are posting the hot brake is the working one. The 100 degree brake is the one that locked up. Locked up means no friction in the drum so no heat.
 

It could be 100 degrees if the brake didn't apply at all, just rotating temperature.

Which side was the skid mark on? Flat spot on a tire?
 
Agreed. Hot brake is working. Cold brake is not.

Brakes work by turning motion into heat. On a racing car the brakes will glow red they get so hot. Yours is barely warm enough to make coffee.

The reason it locked up and skidded is because you had to have the gain on your brake controller set so high to be able to tell that the trailer brakes were doing anything.

Adjustments and wiring are the first things to check on that cold brake. Weak magnet is a possibility too.
 
Electric Brakes? You posted you applied the trailer brakes to slow down for the stop sign. Are you using a properly mounted and connected proportional brake controller in your truck for controlling the trailer brakes? Did you actually manually apply the trailer brakes alone for stopping, bypassing the use of your truck brakes? I am not saying one trailer brake should have locked up if the brakes were manually applied, but if you are always manually applying your trailer brakes to stop the wear on the trailer brakes is accelerated.
 
Just guessing like others have said. The Hot brake is the working one. It was trying to do all the work that it was suppose to do while all the other brakes were LAZY making the working brake lock up to satisfy the drivers demand of slowing down.
 
I went through my trailer this spring, new flooring, new lighting. On the way home from having the frame straightened one side was locking up. It works better when all of the hubs have wires running to them
 
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