Question about trailer brakes lock up

[DeeBee]

We are traveling with our Jayflight 24fbs. One trailer brake locked up and ruined the tire...wore much of the tread off the tire while driving into Estes Park. Tire wore unevenly...most tread wore off on inside of tire. Previous to this, drove 900 miles with no problem. Had a service man out and he adjusted all the brakes and said the one brake in question was froze up. No apparent reason. Should I be concerned about this happening again? We were heading onto mountain roads. Any insight is appreciated!

[Lake Huron]

When I HAD drum brakes, at the start of the season i greased the bearings and adjusted the brakes. I have to say I've never had one lock up. None of the internal parts were rusted and always moved freely, but I'd give them a little squirt of lubrication on the pivot points. Too much and you'll get it slung all over the brake pads, drum surfaces for the pads and magnets which is not good.
My snowmobile trailer is another story. It's used in the salt and slop and the brakes were always rusted. Those got so bad every year I replaced the entire backer assembly.

[Sundancer330]

Since he determined one brake was froze up did he repair it, replace any parts, grease the pivot points.

[RogerR]

a single complete brake replacement, backer plate, all springs, etc. installed with only 2 wires and 4 bolts to attach it to the axel for about $70 would replace every part of the brake system on that wheel.

I would do that in a heartbeat before I would ever trust the old one on the highway further than the nearest place to fix it. any brake shop can do it for you, does not have to be an RV shop.
Or watch some youtubes and order from Etrailer who made sure I got the right one, fast shipped and were reasonable priced.

[mokurt]

Originally Posted by DeeBee

Had a service man out and he adjusted all the brakes and said the one brake in question was froze up. No apparent reason.

He had to get it unstuck so he must have missed the reason.
Another look at that brake assembly is needed, it can happen again.

[DeeBee]

My husband was thinking of cutting the wire to that brake making it inoperable so we can get home (running on 3 remaining brakes)...and driving very cautiously. Do you think that will work?

[mokurt]

I would try it.
Do a couple short start and stops to see how it reacts.

Make sure the live wire is covered.

[GuanoJuano]

I've had a couple brake come apart inside. The parts were bouncing around inside. Nice idea about cutting the wire, but that might not fix the problem when something breaks. I'm surprised I didn't have anything lock up. I did have some bad grooves causing me to replace the whole thing.

[DeeBee]

Here's our update: My husband called and talked to a man at a trailer business who said it sounded to him like we had a BENT AXLE not a brake problem. He told him that if it was a true brake problem our tire would have worn differently with some flat areas. Our tire was worn very evenly all the way around but worn more on the inside of the tire than the outside. Tread worn almost completely off on the inside of the tire. We drove the trailer to him. He straightened the axle, checked the other axle. We put the new tire on...drove home...almost 1100 miles. It's fine as far as we can see!
Want to mention...the technician that came out to adjust our brakes told us it was a brake problem but saw nothing wrong with the brakes...just that the tire seemed locked up and was very worn. After all this we remembered we hit a BIG bump in a construction zone on the way here...probably the culprit!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of your advice...it was helpful... we learned things about our brakes and axles...knowledge is priceless!