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Some days start out bad and go downhill.


Bud

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We were making a flying (on the ground) trip to pick up the boat and fly (on the ground) back home. 14 hours one way. Now I'm in a Holiday Inn Express N of Birmingham,AL.

 

The PO had the drum brake system "fixed" before we picked it up. New drums, shoes and hubs, as well as new brake lines.

 

Well we weren't very far down the road before it became obvious that the right side brake was hot, very, very, very hot!

 

I've never had drum brakes on a trailer, always had disc before.

 

SO that, in addition to weird tire wear on the outside of the left front and the inside of the right rear tires ate up a lot of daylight.

 

In frustration, I finally disconnected the brake line at the actuator. But the right one was still dragging.

 

Swapped the two tires so they will wear the other edges out and inflated all of them to the max cold pressure after they sat for an hour.

 

 

Grrrrrrr..........

 

In daylight tomorrow morning I will figure out how to loosen the shoes enough that they will no longer drag.

 

We have trailered 10's of thousands of miles with our boats with disc brakes without any single problem. I'm old, tired and grouchy.

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But when you wake up, it'll be your birthday, so you've got that to look forward to! :thumbsup:

 

Best of luck dealing with the problem, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

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You say the owner had new brake lines installed. Did they do an adequate job of bleeding them. I know you're old(happy birthday) enough and experienced enough to think of it but sometimes frustration makes us blind to the "simple" solution. If there is a HF near by you might grab one of those hand held laser thermometers for about $28.00 to monitor the drums and tires.

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You've swapped tires, so I guess you have a jack.

Hopefully you have a couple screwdrivers.

This should show you the rest of what you need to adjust the brake:

No need to remove the drum, just work through the adjustment slot. (If the brake is really tight, you can't pull off the drum anyway.) A flashlight might be handy to spot the star wheel adjuster.

 

I'm thinking you can't be too terribly old, or you'd already be familiar with drum brakes. ;)

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Not a very thorough brake job there.

 

The shoes were improperly adjusted. Do what Larry said. Jack up each wheel, use a long screwdriver through the slot on the backing plate bottom. The star wheel will adjust the shoes so they don't drag. It may be a tedious slow process. If you spin the drum and still hear noise, you haven't gone far enough.

 

Get some cardboard or a blanket to lay on. Hopefully it won't be raining. :dopeslap:

 

MB>

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You've swapped tires, so I guess you have a jack.

Hopefully you have a couple screwdrivers.

This should show you the rest of what you need to adjust the brake:

No need to remove the drum, just work through the adjustment slot. (If the brake is really tight, you can't pull off the drum anyway.) A flashlight might be handy to spot the star wheel adjuster.

 

I'm thinking you can't be too terribly old, or you'd already be familiar with drum brakes. ;)

 

Thanks. I got up yesterday morning, went to Lowe's and bought a cheap screw driver so I could back off the adjustment wheel. That adjustment kept the brake from dragging and heating up the hub.

 

Got home late last night and will have time to get this all figured out before our next trip in Nov.

 

I'm old enough to remember drum brakes (69) :grin: , just never had them on a boat trailer and never will again. :dopeslap:

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Are you sure it's the brakes and not the wheel bearings?

 

Hi Bill,

 

Thanks for asking. Yes, fortunately the person who worked on the traile had re-packed all 4 wheels and did a good job of that.

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You say the owner had new brake lines installed. Did they do an adequate job of bleeding them. I know you're old(happy birthday) enough and experienced enough to think of it but sometimes frustration makes us blind to the "simple" solution. If there is a HF near by you might grab one of those hand held laser thermometers for about $28.00 to monitor the drums and tires.

 

:grin: Been there before, have many T shirts to prove it! :dopeslap:

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After looking at the tires again yesterday, I realized they were the wrong load rating. So even when I inflated them to max pressure, which was molded in the sidewall (Load range C) they still were overload which cause the wear on the edges of the tires. By the time we got home, all 4 tires were severely worn on both edges.

 

 

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They did a crappy job on the brakes, mounted under-rated tires - you've really got to wonder what else the previous owners has done half-baked, huh?

 

I sincerely hope your boat is in better shape than this POS trailer!

 

(By the way - never forget to put in the drain plug...)

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