Preventing surge brake burn up

[mini4mw]

I use a dolly with surge disc brakes to tow the car around with us on many trips. When I'm going downhill I use engine braking as much as possible to ensure I'm not burning up the motorhome RV brakes, but the surge brakes are on all the time when the motorhome is slowing down. I read somewhere you should start off slow going downhill and on larger hills pick up speed (no engine or pedal braking) to disengage the surge to let them cool off and not burn up. Seems logical, but sometimes you are on some very, very long downhill slopes and you don't want to keep picking up speed. I suppose you could pull off for a few minutes and let them cool down as well.

I've never had an issue, but curious what others do or heard to prevent surge brakes from burning up on long downward slopes.

[craigav]

I use and recommend a thermal laser temperature gun to determine how hot the brakes are (amongst other uses). With that in mind, I pulled a Stehl dolly with hydraulic disc surge breaks over and down many high passes in Colorado such as Monarch pass, and upon checking the brakes at the bottom of the pass they were not overheated, in fact not all that hot just warm. When I go down the passes, I also use the engine brakes and rarely need the brake pedal, so my thought is that the surge brakes don't actually do a lot of braking on a steady downhill slope.

Other thoughts are that different brand dollies and heavier toads than what I had used the dolly for (2014 Chev Sonic) could have different results. ~CA

[mini4mw]

I remember them checking rotor temp at certain spots coming down Pikes Peak, but I've never done that myself. I have one of the temp sensors. I'll have to remember to bring it along next time and test after a long hill. I'm pulling ~5,000lbs.

Googling a little seems like below 300F is normal, 400F is too hot, 500F pads can begin melting. What temp did you consider too hot?

[craigav]

Originally Posted by mini4mw

I remember them checking rotor temp at certain spots coming down Pikes Peak, but I've never done that myself. I have one of the temp sensors. I'll have to remember to bring it along next time and test after a long hill. I'm pulling ~5,000lbs.

Googling a little seems like below 300F is normal, 400F is too hot, 500F pads can begin melting. What temp did you consider too hot?

I don't exactly remember what the temps were, but I seem to remember that the dolly was a little cooler than the RV, and that was around ~175 so the dolly maybe was around ~150, and that was likely due to the last half a minute of braking when I was stopping as I hadn't really used the brakes for the most part down the pass. I am not sure what the "too hot" temp would start at, but certainly 350+ would provide me with some concern. I seem to remember that brake burn (the smell of them) starts around 550 so for sure that is too hot.

One of the concerns is knowing how hot they are while going down the pass as they could get overheated and some drivers likely would never know that they were overheating. My thoughts are to attempt not use the brakes at all and instead use a low enough gear. If I find that I need to ride the brakes in order to maintain a slower speed then I always drop down another gear, which sometimes requires more braking for a few moments to be able to downshift then I am off the brakes again as they cool. ~CA