New Brake Issues

[TnHiker]

Without any doubt the techs installed the new brakes kits and did not manually adjust the brakes. If they had you would have had brakes right out the door. They don't stop as well as adjusted seated in brakes but they are noticeable and by increasing the gain on your controller you would have been fine. Over time you would have had to back off the gain as the brakes seated. It is kind of a pain in the butt to adjust them when they are installed but that is the way it should have been done for your safety. When I have replaced complete kits on two different trailer I took the time to adjust them before driving. It was then very easy to seat the brakes at lower speeds using the manual application of the brakes.The techs were just LAZY. You could have adjusted them yourself in an empty parking lot by backing the trailer up and applying the brakes several times. That is how they stay adjusted for the life of the brakes. Each time you back up and apply the brakes they make a self adjustment. This is self adjust drum brake technology from the beginning. Glad you got it taken care of and I don't blame you for taking it back. Get ready camping season is almost upon us. Hallelujah!

[rkymntsno]

Originally Posted by TnHiker

Without any doubt the techs installed the new brakes kits and did not manually adjust the brakes. If they had you would have had brakes right out the door. They don't stop as well as adjusted seated in brakes but they are noticeable and by increasing the gain on your controller you would have been fine. Over time you would have had to back off the gain as the brakes seated. It is kind of a pain in the butt to adjust them when they are installed but that is the way it should have been done for your safety. When I have replaced complete kits on two different trailer I took the time to adjust them before driving. It was then very easy to seat the brakes at lower speeds using the manual application of the brakes.The techs were just LAZY. You could have adjusted them yourself in an empty parking lot by backing the trailer up and applying the brakes several times. That is how they stay adjusted for the life of the brakes. Each time you back up and apply the brakes they make a self adjustment. This is self adjust drum brake technology from the beginning. Glad you got it taken care of and I don't blame you for taking it back. Get ready camping season is almost upon us. Hallelujah!

Well all this brake stuff is new to me, thanks for the info from everyone. Now I know a little more about trailer brake replacement, lol.

[Rock]

TnHiker
Old hyd drum brakes adjust in reverse, electric ones adjust forward and reverse. When I replaced mine I went non self adjust. A drum out of round will make the shoes over adjust running hot.

[Bwanajohn]

Originally Posted by rkymntsno

I'll start off with a little background. I dropped my 355MBQS off at the dealer on New Year's Eve for a couple of warranty items, and it was time for the packing of the wheel bearings. Turns out they couldn't do the wheel bearings cuz all four wheels had blown seals, grease all over everything. Seven weeks later, I picked the unit up yesterday. The two minor warranty issues were fixed, along with four new wheel backer plates and new brakes. Was happy to finally be bringing her home again. Was heading straight to the shop to get it inspected as that is due now. When I tried the brake controller to make sure everything was working correctly, I had no trailer brakes! I could tell this every time I got to an intersection to stop. All on the truck, no trailer brakes. Headed straight to the dealer to raise hell. They've had the truck overnight last night. They're telling me Dexter is telling them they have to burnish the brakes, drive it around to break in the brakes. I've never heard of this. To drive it around with no brakes until you get brakes??? And why would they have to check with Dexter on this? Shouldn't they already know this? Does anyone have any insight on this?

RKYMNTSNO. I just read your post about all your seals were blown. I have a 381dlqs and pulled 1st hub off to repack bearings. Pulled hub, brakes covered in grease. Have about 6k on this RV. Didn’t have new brake kit so pulled 2nd hub and same thing. So I pulled the other 2 and the same thing. WTH! Did factory put wrong seals in or what. No, called Lippert and they are right, Lippert sending 8 seals. Why did the seals leak? We drove 75-80 MPH in 115 degree temp, in Texas several hours last summer. Recon that’s what caused the seal to leak thin grease? Factory grease! Anyway. Repacking bearing with Red and Tacky #2 grease with of course new seals. Just wondering if the heat and mph and length of driving caused the problems. Any input would be appreciated!!!

[Bwanajohn]

Tnhiker: Ijust bought front self setting brakes. You pull forward putting on brakes and they adjust like the back up ones, I hope! Anybody with 2017 North Point with weak brakes might aught to check your seals!!

[rkymntsno]

Originally Posted by Bwanajohn

RKYMNTSNO. I just read your post about all your seals were blown. I have a 381dlqs and pulled 1st hub off to repack bearings. Pulled hub, brakes covered in grease. Have about 6k on this RV. Didn’t have new brake kit so pulled 2nd hub and same thing. So I pulled the other 2 and the same thing. WTH! Did factory put wrong seals in or what. No, called Lippert and they are right, Lippert sending 8 seals. Why did the seals leak? We drove 75-80 MPH in 115 degree temp, in Texas several hours last summer. Recon that’s what caused the seal to leak thin grease? Factory grease! Anyway. Repacking bearing with Red and Tacky #2 grease with of course new seals. Just wondering if the heat and mph and length of driving caused the problems. Any input would be appreciated!!!

I was wondering that too, if the Texas heat had done that, only about 7000 miles on the axles? I don't think so. Otherwise it would blow every seal of everyone traveling through Texas, lol. I learned something. I'll check my hubs myself from now on. Probably should've been doing that all along, even though still under warranty. I put too much faith in a new unit.

[TnHiker]

Originally Posted by rkymntsno

I was wondering that too, if the Texas heat had done that, only about 7000 miles on the axles? I don't think so. Otherwise it would blow every seal of everyone traveling through Texas, lol. I learned something. I'll check my hubs myself from now on. Probably should've been doing that all along, even though still under warranty. I put too much faith in a new unit.

Glad you have your trailer ready to go again. Makes you wonder if the dealer pumped grease in the EZ Lube hubs on their prep before pickup and compromised your seals. Sometimes I feel some of the dealerships have techs that do some of the prep work that are not trained very well and may not understand how easy it is to push the grease thru a seal. A high-pressure grease gun delivers pressure up to 15,000 psi. Most bearing seals will rarely handle more than 500 psi. A grease gun in the hands of an untrained technician can compromise the bearing's seal and lead to early failure. I have never had a seal fail on any of my trailers but I do my own wheel bearing maintenance. I must be doing alright because I have never had a bearing fail either. Got my first trailer in 1971. Happy camping and have a great summer.

[Mopar_Earl]

FYI, it's been a common issue for Lippert to over grease at the factory and/or have seals fail. It's been talked about on here and many other forums. It's nothing new. My 2017 Eagle 293RKDS did it on all 4 wheels, covered under warranty. High ambient temperatures doesn't cause it either. Lippert even installed an automatic greasing machine to take the human out of the greasing at the factory. Not sure if this has helped the issue or not. They use low grade China seals as well. Always replace with high grade double lip spring loaded seals. I don't recommend ever using the ez lube either. If you must, only use a manual grease gun and pump slowly. You must always turn the while as you grease it through the ez lube. When using the ez lube, the grease goes against the seal and then into the bearing. It causes a lot of pressure on the seal and always packs grease against it. So if the seal isn't up to par or fails, lots of grease right at the seal just waiting. If it doesn't fail from the grease pressure first.



Earl

[rkymntsno]

Well, now that I know it's been done correctly (hopefully), I will be checking periodically and when it's time for the bearings to be greased again, probably at the end of this year, I will once again pay to have the dealer pack the bearings since it will still be under warranty. This forces me to learn a little more about axle maintenance. I've stayed away from it in the past, lol.

[OTTERCOMET]

Our Eagle 24.5 CKTS was returned to Lippert for warranty issues. Part of the repair included replacing the dual axles. The first few times out on short trips (less than 4 hours), I was concerned that even though I had jacked the brake controller (the Ford version) up to 8 the trailer braking seemed very light. Approaching Wilmington NY on 431, which is a long rather steep down grade, was when I discovered that the only brakes I had were the truck's. That long grade ends at a stop light intersection and I was barely able to get stopped at the red (sweating bullets)

Back home from that trip, I jacked the unit up and did a manual brake adjustment and there was a lot of slack in the adjusters that had to be taken up before the shoes started to drag on the drums.

Lesson learned - if anyone works on your brakes for any reason, take the time to do your own adjustment. Having adjusted mine myself, the brake controller is back at 5.5 and I can feel the drag when the tuck brakes are applied. If I move the controller up to 7 or 8 and use the manual slide on the truck to activate the 5th wheel brakes I can stop the 5th and the truck (the way it should be).

[Mopar_Earl]

Originally Posted by OTTERCOMET

Our Eagle 24.5 CKTS was returned to Lippert for warranty issues. Part of the repair included replacing the dual axles. The first few times out on short trips (less than 4 hours), I was concerned that even though I had jacked the brake controller (the Ford version) up to 8 the trailer braking seemed very light. Approaching Wilmington NY on 431, which is a long rather steep down grade, was when I discovered that the only brakes I had were the truck's. That long grade ends at a stop light intersection and I was barely able to get stopped at the red (sweating bullets)

Back home from that trip, I jacked the unit up and did a manual brake adjustment and there was a lot of slack in the adjusters that had to be taken up before the shoes started to drag on the drums.

Lesson learned - if anyone works on your brakes for any reason, take the time to do your own adjustment. Having adjusted mine myself, the brake controller is back at 5.5 and I can feel the drag when the tuck brakes are applied. If I move the controller up to 7 or 8 and use the manual slide on the truck to activate the 5th wheel brakes I can stop the 5th and the truck (the way it should be).

Automatic adjusters have to be manually adjusted after taken apart or replaced. They won't self adjust otherwise.


Earl