Tow vehicle brake life

[Cosmik Debris]

I noticed that the front disc brake rotors on my 2013 F350 were extremely hot when fueling on my last outing. Braking has been great, no reduction, noise or any issue. This was just after pulling off flat section of freeway and pulling right into a truck stop.
Had Ford look at them and they say that the rotors are blue, but still plenty of pad, that rotor shouldn't be resurfaced, but replaced.
Now, this truck has 45k miles on it, original owner. It also reports that my Eagle 5er has been towed 29k miles.
Should I be surprised? This diesel has exhaust brake, so coming down from a pass and it usually requires no braking. I've had the trailer brake set at 7.5, based on feel, as there isn't a better way to determine gain. Maybe it should be higher.
What has been your experiences with brake life?

[JeremiahM]

29k towing 11-13k is a lot, however I still feel it's a little soon to have new rotors. I personally always like my trailer to slightly lead the truck with breaking. I have no exhaust brake but do use tow/haul which down shifts on my 06 250, and have my gain set at 8.0

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[bansai]

FWIW, my gain is set at 9. At 25mph driving straight, you should be able to manually trigger your trailer brakes and if the tires don't lock up, increase the gain until they do - then back off one notch on the brake controller. See if you end up with a higher gain setting after taking that approach. I was surprised how high I had to turn my gain to pass that test.

[eng45ine]

Originally Posted by bansai

FWIW, my gain is set at 9

Holy Cow, when the dealer set my controller gain, they said "4" was good, I'll have to check how much trailer brake influence I am getting once I pick the TT up from storage.

[bansai]

Originally Posted by eng45ine

Holy Cow, when the dealer set my controller gain, they said "4" was good, I'll have to check how much trailer brake influence I am getting once I pick the TT up from storage.

I don't like doing that test, but it's what was in the manual for the 150.

The first time I locked up the wheels on the trailer, I thought it was going to rip itself off my truck. It's not a 'fun' test if you aren't used to doing it, but it's really the only way to get your gain setup properly. I assume it's the same process on the 250 and 350 as the brake controllers are basically the same between the 3 models. Looks like we're all Ford guys on this thread so far, might be a different approach for other makes.

[JeremiahM]

Does anybody make a truck other than ford 😂

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[eng45ine]

I'm going to try it at a reasonable speed, not sure if my intent will be to lock the TT brakes, but I do need to have a confidence that my TT brakes are doing their part to stop our rig.

[bansai]

Originally Posted by eng45ine

I'm going to try it at a reasonable speed, not sure if my intent will be to lock the TT brakes, but I do need to have a confidence that my TT brakes are doing their part to stop our rig.

When you manually trigger your trailer brakes with the brake controller, it simulates what would happen if you stomped on the brakes in the truck. It's supposed to get within a fractional amount of locking up the tires, so really the only way you'll be able to set it up that way is to actually lock up the tires.

Anyway, thought it might be semi-helpful to bring up the setup protocol that Ford recommends. My dealer didn't touch my brake controller, I had to do the initial 'guestimation' in the parking lot at the dealership. I started with 6 gain, and that was nowhere close to what I needed.

[goducks]

Read any of the after market brake controller manuals and thats what they say to do.
Drive 25 mph, squeeze the brake controllers manual override lever. If the brakes lock up then reduce gain. If they don't raise then the gain till they do. Then back off till they don't.

[eng45ine]

Originally Posted by bansai

When you manually trigger your trailer brakes with the brake controller, it simulates what would happen if you stomped on the brakes in the truck. It's supposed to get within a fractional amount of locking up the tires, so really the only way you'll be able to set it up that way is to actually lock up the tires.

Anyway, thought it might be semi-helpful to bring up the setup protocol that Ford recommends. My dealer didn't touch my brake controller, I had to do the initial 'guestimation' in the parking lot at the dealership. I started with 6 gain, and that was nowhere close to what I needed.

This makes plenty of sense, the TT brakes are either "on" or "off", so they should be set to do something positive to stop everything.

[eng45ine]

Originally Posted by goducks

Read any of the after market brake controller manuals and thats what they say to do.
Drive 25 mph, squeeze the brake controllers manual override lever. If the brakes lock up then reduce gain. If they don't raise then the gain till they do. Then back off till they don't.

Thank you!

[Marcm157]

I still can't get my brakes to lock up. When I first towed my trailer last season I barely felt any trailer braking at all. After thoroughly testing and evaluating both the brake controller, and trailer brakes including wiring I found no faults. Jayco said the brakes need several hundred activations to properly "seat" themselves.

Over the course of the season this proved true as I did develop considerably more braking over roughly 2,000 miles towed. I still cannot lock my trailer brakes manually though. Pulling the breakaway does lock them up immediately though...

[Cosmik Debris]

Thanks for all of the conversation.
I've had my gain set at 7.5, but only based on the feel. Tried to tell if trailer was pushing truck at stops or if it felt like I had thrown out an anchor.
I was calling to price out brake work and since Les Schwab does brake inspections for free they convinced me to let them take a look. They agreed that 45k was early for new rotors on this truck. I told him that my other worry is trailer's brakes not doing their share and he told me to bring it in as well and they'd check them too.
When I just had bearings repacked and asked to also check out the brakes, the dealer said "oh, we do that every time". When I picked it up and asked about the brakes the shop said "he didn't say anything so they must be alright".
I always to a tug test after hooking up, but next time I'll have my DW watch and see if both axles brake.

[Dustdevil]

Adjust gain all the way to lockup, then back off a notch, is how I always learned to set them up. Sometimes, especially with new brakes, they won't lock up even if gain is all the way up tight. After some time, one or two of the wheels will begin to lock. That's when you want to start backing off. I would also check it with a panic stop in a parking lot, as the dynamics are different with a truck also slowing the load.

Hot front rotors sounds like the trailer brakes aren't handling their share, I agree. If the brakes are new, give them a little time. If not, maybe roughing up the surface a bit will help. Ensuring you have no grease or oil on them would be a wise move also. The electric actuators for the brakes (usually magnetic), isn't the real force behind the braking action. That comes from the forward momentum transformed mechanically into a lever that assists the brake shoes as they contact the rotating drum. Sometimes, this mechanism isn't working as it should. That would make one or more brakes very weak. But it won't typically be an issue with all of them at the same time. Also, check your wiring. I've had poor connections cause some intermittent braking issues on our old toy hauler. Re-doing some of the wire splices fixed all that.

[Cosmik Debris]

Braking is fine. They were just visually inspected during bearing repack, so I doubt grease is affecting them.
And, as far as break in, this 5er has been towed 29,000 miles.
What I expect to find is:
1) all is fine, stop worrying,
2) RV brakes are out of adjustment and not fully contributing to braking,
3) trailer braking system isn't adjusted to high enough gain,
4) only one axle is getting power.
Should know more after Les Schwab has a look.

[Cranetech]

Just throwing it out there but I wonder if buying an inexpensive laser heat gun and comparing tow and towed vehicle brake Temps would be a good idea may help to equalize things a bit

[Dustdevil]

Originally Posted by Cosmik Debris

Braking is fine. They were just visually inspected during bearing repack, so I doubt grease is affecting them.
And, as far as break in, this 5er has been towed 29,000 miles.
What I expect to find is:
1) all is fine, stop worrying,
2) RV brakes are out of adjustment and not fully contributing to braking,
3) trailer braking system isn't adjusted to high enough gain,
4) only one axle is getting power.
Should know more after Les Schwab has a look.

Right, but had you changed the brake shoes recently, they would be "new" brakes again, despite the 29k miles on the rig. Don't know how long you've been experiencing the hot brakes on the TV, but if it's recent, then something changed. If not, perhaps it was never set up right to begin with. They should not get hot if the trailer system is doing its job, and on regular stops (regular meaning routine stops from surface street or highway speeds, not long endless steep descents of thousands of feet). We don't know your circumstances, so troubleshooting is difficult without the full story. But it doesn't sound normal Just throwing out ideas and possible reasons. Hot front discs aren't "fine". They are abnormal, and should be checked. Good you have it in for a look by people who have some experience.

[herewego]

One of the reasons we like our Ram 3500 the Engine brake ! I get 50K miles from my Brakes that's just the fronts, the backs are still good ..

[JeremiahM]

50k is only 5k more than OP, that's still too soon to be changing em

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[Cosmik Debris]

Originally Posted by herewego

One of the reasons we like our Ram 3500 the Engine brake ! I get 50K miles from my Brakes that's just the fronts, the backs are still good ..

My F350 has the exhaust brake, so coming down hill, touch brake pedal and it downshifts and engine does the work.