Weak brakes?

[Kyle_119]

Brand new 2025 Jayco Jay Feather with electric breaks. No real breaking power. Cannot even skid on gravel. Adjusted brakes without improvement. Pull the safety cord and my truck can pull it like the brakes are hardly applied.

Anyone else have this issue on their brand new RV? If so what did they find was the issue. I have done the brake break-in procedure per Lippert guidelines.

 

[JFlightRisk]

Welcome to the Forum from Western NY State!

Perhaps the brake controller gain needs to be dialed up some or the brakes need adjusting up a touch. There are rubber plugs at the lower inside of the backing plate to get to the star adjusters. There's a simple procedure to get the shoes to just barely touch the drums. Maybe your dealer will do it for you under warranty if you're not comfortable with it.

 

[Kyle_119]

Welcome to the Forum from Western NY State!

Perhaps the brake controller gain needs to be dialed up some or the brakes need adjusting up a touch. There are rubber plugs at the lower inside of the backing plate to get to the star adjusters. There's a simple procedure to get the shoes to just barely touch the drums. Maybe your dealer will do it for you under warranty if you're not comfortable with it.

They are weak even when the cord is pulled. I was initially concerned the control suddenly failed. If the cord is pulled they are 100% and still weak.

 

[Grumpy]

Check the wiring connections at each backing plate. Won't be the first time they've been reported disconnected.

 

[Kyle_119]

Check the wiring connections at each backing plate. Won't be the first time they've been reported disconnected.

I adjusted all four brakes. They all grab when spinning by hand.

 

[Radar57]

See if new brakes need to be burnished to seat them to the drums. Determine who manufactured the brakes and follow their procedure.

 

[AZDIESELPIG]

The actual breakaway switch could be bad if there is not a wiring issue. Depending on your availability and patience I would have it looked at under warranty if possible.

The breakaway switch should be powered directly to your RV battery, but as a side note, I had a 2025 Chevy DRW and my current 2024 Ram DRW where I had to turn the gain up quit(7-8.5) a bit to get the brakes on the trailer to work well.

I have since installed a Flatbed, the 7 PIN that came with the flat bed at the gooseneck only requires the gain to be at 4.5 for the same braking affect.

Something about these OEM 7 pins where the power is not all that "clean".

 

[Travln2]

It is likely grease on the brake pads, if anyone used the easylube on them. I learned about easy lube the expensive way. After I stopped using it, I made the mistake of taking it to the dealership for warranty work, and they "topped off" one of my brakes. It was ruined.

 

[1kpender]

Being new it is under warranty if you can't figure out the quick fix.

 

[AZMarine-JAY]

If the brakes are properly adjusted, as you stated , & it seems no electrical pwr is getting to them then check the electrical connections around the drums as stated earlier.
Just a note of caution, when you pull the safety cord, you create a short from a "+" line from your house battery to the neg ground through the brakes. In essence you put full brake "on". The box where the emergency brake cord is attached will start to get hot. I accidently popped out the one on my trailer while I was cleaning the tongue area. Didn't think much of it, until a minute or so later I smelled something burning & looked down to find the breakaway box starting to melt. Had to replace the box & learned my lesson.

 

[lowrider1995]

I had a similar problem with our last Jay Feather TT. The only difference was my brakes worked intermittently, so a real bear to troubleshoot. After checking a lot of what has been mentioned above and changing my tow vehicle controller to an aftermarket one, still no good. Turned out to be a loose ground in the junction box on the underside of the tongue. Jayco connected way too many grounds in a single huge wire nut. I pulled the one for the brakes and connected it directly to a good ground and they never failed to work properly afterwards. Hope this helps and safe travels.

 

[Isaacs]

Brand new 2025 Jayco Jay Feather with electric breaks. No real breaking power. Cannot even skid on gravel. Adjusted brakes without improvement. Pull the safety cord and my truck can pull it like the brakes are hardly applied.

Anyone else have this issue on their brand new RV? If so what did they find was the issue. I have done the brake break-in procedure per Lippert guidelines.

I've heard of people's trailers that had the axles installed backwards. These things don't stop well in reverse!