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Old 05-27-2014, 05:06 PM   #1
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Brake adjustment

One of the things I noticed when I picked up my V3605 was I needed to set my brake controller to 10. This past weekend I installed 17.5" wheels & tires & found the brakes quite a bit out of adjustment. Having had RV's for 25+ years this is the norm for drum brakes. So if you can't lock up your wheels and you need to set your brake adjustment high your brakes need adjusting like mine did.
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Old 05-28-2014, 01:08 AM   #2
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Yeah, I need to adjust mine also. On my last camper just jacked up each axle (barely lifting tire off of ground) then popped off rubber cover and rotated adjustment knob till brakes grabbed then backed off a bit. Have not looked at the voltage to see if the same as the raptor, but as time permits will need to do this. Has anyone adjusted the brakes on the Voltage?
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Old 05-28-2014, 01:39 AM   #3
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Electric Brake Adjustment - YouTube

Click to watch video on trailer brake adjustment.
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Old 05-28-2014, 05:09 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DesertRat View Post
One of the things I noticed when I picked up my V3605 was I needed to set my brake controller to 10. This past weekend I installed 17.5" wheels & tires & found the brakes quite a bit out of adjustment. Having had RV's for 25+ years this is the norm for drum brakes. So if you can't lock up your wheels and you need to set your brake adjustment high your brakes need adjusting like mine did.
Pain in the back side, having to adjust brakes while your on the road. Had to do it twice on our last trip,

I'll be doing a brake job soon I'm going to look at the disk brake conversion, failing that I will be installing the self adjusting kits.
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Old 05-28-2014, 10:30 PM   #5
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Pain in the back side, having to adjust brakes while your on the road. Had to do it twice on our last trip,

I'll be doing a brake job soon I'm going to look at the disk brake conversion, failing that I will be installing the self adjusting kits.
Never had any good luck with the self adjusting kits on trailer drum brakes.
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Old 05-29-2014, 05:26 AM   #6
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Never had any good luck with the self adjusting kits on trailer drum brakes.
What kind of problems did you have with the self adjusters?

My preference of course would be the disks. Just did the brakes on the truck and used ceramic pads and slotted/cross drilled rotors, amazing the increased stopping power. It's a good thing the dogs wear seat belt harnesses, or the poor girls would have done face plants on the windshield, the first time I came to a stop sign.
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Old 05-29-2014, 05:33 AM   #7
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I have a feeling I'll have to adjust mine when I get new wheels. I'm running gain at 7 or 7.5 right now. Disk brake conversation would be sweet!
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Old 05-29-2014, 05:56 PM   #8
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What kind of problems did you have with the self adjusters?
As self adjusters work on drum brakes by backing up that's just something most of us towing don't do a lot of. You also need to stop quick in reverse to get them to adjust. My bet is when you back up with your trailer you are creeping slow & stopping easy.
Disc brake conversion would be nice but they are big $$.
We just ordered a new PJ flatbed trailer for work and it was a $1750 option to get electric over hyd. disc brakes. We had so much brake problem with our old trailer for us it was worth the cost. I also added (9)17.5 tires & wheels that will be well worth the cost.
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Old 05-30-2014, 01:11 AM   #9
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I have been having continual brake problems with my V3305 since I bought it. The first obvious problem was that one seal was bad and had to be taken back to the dealer for new backing plate, seals, shoes, etc. Two months later when they said it was ready I asked the people at the local CW if the brakes seemed right to them after they replaced the parts. I basically got "them thar round things there are your brakes and yeah they are on there." Infuriating to say the least. I have adjusted them repeatedly to no avail. Also (at least on mine) the LCI 7000 lb axles cannot be adjusted by backing up as they do not have the self adjuster cables, cams, and levers like your car has. The documentation says they have to be adjusted manually. Trust me, I have had lots of practice in the last ten months. I checked every electrical output with amps total, amps at each axle, volts, and everything else under the sun. Amps and voltage coming back from the truck were within tolerance. I disconnected each magnet to check ohms and while on the low side were still inside the tolerance range. Still when I try a test stop using only the trailer brakes on 10 gain it would take two to three football fields to stop from just normal driving speed. You could barely even tell when they caught. This turns into just about the stupidest fix. A couple of weeks ago I got to thinking about how small gauge the actual magnet leads are. I replaced the three way connectors that are all over both axles from the factory with one designed for a smaller gauge wire. It was of course harder to get them closed over the larger 12 ga wires coming back from the truck but doable. We left for Pigeon Forge the next morning and I could not wait to see about my latest failure. With the gain on 10 I applied full brakes to the trailer and literally threw everything in the truck into the floor, almost including my wife. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! The wife was not even a little amused since I did not inform her before hand that we were fixing to perform a panic stop but I really wasn't expecting any change. She was glad we finally had brakes at least. So I guess it has to be that the larger connectors were not piercing the insulation of the small gauge magnet leads either sufficiently or maybe some but not others. I have felt of the drums before and they would be mildly warm so i think all were working even if just barely. I hope this post helps someone else because it has been a major pain for me!
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Old 05-30-2014, 05:15 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DesertRat View Post
As self adjusters work on drum brakes by backing up that's just something most of us towing don't do a lot of. You also need to stop quick in reverse to get them to adjust. My bet is when you back up with your trailer you are creeping slow & stopping easy.
Disc brake conversion would be nice but they are big $$.
We just ordered a new PJ flatbed trailer for work and it was a $1750 option to get electric over hyd. disc brakes. We had so much brake problem with our old trailer for us it was worth the cost. I also added (9)17.5 tires & wheels that will be well worth the cost.
Dexter has a kit that supposedly adjusts in both forward and backwards braking. The backwards adjusting is supposed to be better than the forward. The Dexter system is axel specific, so they must be installed on the correct axel to work correctly.

I have found disk brake conversion kits for under $1000, worth the price to not have to adjust drum brakes while your travelling. Just try to get somebody to adjust your brakes for you when your travelling without having days of down time.
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Old 05-30-2014, 05:33 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by useless2resist View Post
I have been having continual brake problems with my V3305 since I bought it. The first obvious problem was that one seal was bad and had to be taken back to the dealer for new backing plate, seals, shoes, etc. Two months later when they said it was ready I asked the people at the local CW if the brakes seemed right to them after they replaced the parts. I basically got "them thar round things there are your brakes and yeah they are on there." Infuriating to say the least. I have adjusted them repeatedly to no avail. Also (at least on mine) the LCI 7000 lb axles cannot be adjusted by backing up as they do not have the self adjuster cables, cams, and levers like your car has. The documentation says they have to be adjusted manually. Trust me, I have had lots of practice in the last ten months. I checked every electrical output with amps total, amps at each axle, volts, and everything else under the sun. Amps and voltage coming back from the truck were within tolerance. I disconnected each magnet to check ohms and while on the low side were still inside the tolerance range. Still when I try a test stop using only the trailer brakes on 10 gain it would take two to three football fields to stop from just normal driving speed. You could barely even tell when they caught. This turns into just about the stupidest fix. A couple of weeks ago I got to thinking about how small gauge the actual magnet leads are. I replaced the three way connectors that are all over both axles from the factory with one designed for a smaller gauge wire. It was of course harder to get them closed over the larger 12 ga wires coming back from the truck but doable. We left for Pigeon Forge the next morning and I could not wait to see about my latest failure. With the gain on 10 I applied full brakes to the trailer and literally threw everything in the truck into the floor, almost including my wife. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! The wife was not even a little amused since I did not inform her before hand that we were fixing to perform a panic stop but I really wasn't expecting any change. She was glad we finally had brakes at least. So I guess it has to be that the larger connectors were not piercing the insulation of the small gauge magnet leads either sufficiently or maybe some but not others. I have felt of the drums before and they would be mildly warm so i think all were working even if just barely. I hope this post helps someone else because it has been a major pain for me!
That is exactly why I HATE quick connects, not only do you have the problem of getting a "good" connection, you also have to fight corrosion.

Once I found out the they used QC's in the manufacturing process, I went through our trailer and got rid of everyone of them.

I grew up in the 60's (mechanically wise) and learned from an old school mechanic, if you are doing electrical work on a vehicle you need to do a proper soldered splice. With all the good stuff that we have available now, like shrink tube and liquid electrical tape, there is no excuse for not doing the job right.
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Old 07-15-2014, 03:45 AM   #12
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My brakes continued to get worse. I adjusted them and with great anticipation I thought that would fix my problem. It did not. Today while getting my refrigerator fixed at CW I asked them to check my brakes. They found that they were covered with grease. On the average I have put I squirt of grease into each grease fitting on each wheel about every 5-6 weeks. I did not want to burn up a wheel bearing. We have traveled over 30,000 miles this past year. I see trailers pretty often with wheel bearing problems. I did not want to be one of them. Instead it cost me over $1300 today to fix my brakes because I put too much grease into the wheel bearing. Here is a picture showing grease everywhere. Now I don't know when to grease my wheel bearings.
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Old 07-15-2014, 03:54 AM   #13
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My brakes continued to get worse. I adjusted them and with great anticipation I thought that would fix my problem. It did not. Today while getting my refrigerator fixed at CW I asked them to check my brakes. They found that they were covered with grease. On the average I have put I squirt of grease into each grease fitting on each wheel about every 5-6 weeks. I did not want to burn up a wheel bearing. We have traveled over 30,000 miles this past year. I see trailers pretty often with wheel bearing problems. I did not want to be one of them. Instead it cost me over $1300 today to fix my brakes because I put too much grease into the wheel bearing. Here is a picture showing grease everywhere. Now I don't know when to grease my wheel bearings.
There is really only one way to service the wheel bearings and that is to remove the bearings, clean and inspect them, then repack them manually.

If you are going to use the EZ lube fittings you should only give them one shot and check that you are not pushing grease out the seal on the back side of the wheel.
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