BluegrassMan
Well-known member
Guy's n' Gal's:
Thought I'd pass this along as a FYI. 2 weeks ago I did a long weekend at a bluegrass festival, coming home on Sunday. I felt that I could use a little more brake, so I rolled the knob up a touch. I'm not a hard user of brakes, I slow down a good bit first. I told you that to tell you this.
On Monday I took my truck and trailer in for PA inspection. My mechanic pulled the breakaway cable and told me to pull forward. Well, the trailer rolled along with me. I told him "go ahead and adjust the brakes up, as I have never did that yet". (I probably only have 2000 mi or so towed on it since new). He starts to adjust,and adjust,and adjust.......
He said somethings goofy, they should be tight by now. I said let's pull the wheel and drum and take a look see. He did and we BOTH were shocked !!! there was NO lining on the shoes !!! Just the shoes wearing against the drum !!! There was no pieces of lining inside the drum rolling around, no amount of dust than normal. The lining was gone. My mechanic said " I HAVE NEVER SEEN THAT"!
He then told me he was taking off the rest of the wheels for an inspection, 2 of the 3 left were the SAME WAY. I actually had ONE wheel with brakes !!! Seeing that the trailer could NOT be taken to the dealer to be fixed under warranty or not, it had to be fixed right there.
We called around to get parts, GUESS WHAT, Heartland uses AL-KO, all the phone calls to RV dealers,RVparts places,etc. said about everyone used Dexter, JUST MY LUCK....
A large trailer parts supplier warehouse told a local dealer that the axles are 5 bolt that holds on the backing plates, Dexters will be a direct fit. So as of now I have their brakes on my 5ver, I can get parts locally at about 5 different places,I bought complete assemblies, already assembled ready to bolt on the axles. I figured I'd save labor there.
So long story short, I bought 4 complete brakes, 3 new drums, repacked the bearings, and adjusted everything and out the door. It came to almost $700(w/10% discount on parts) in parts and $701.39 in labor. I sent the parts back to AL-KO for inspection @ $85 via FedEx Ground. The lining looked real flaky (somethings wrong).
Now, I trust AL-KO will reimburse me. Just imagine if I was at interstate speeds and needed brakes. It could have been real bad for me. It wouldn't hurt to pull a drum and look, if your brakes don't feel just right.
Thought I'd pass this along as a FYI. 2 weeks ago I did a long weekend at a bluegrass festival, coming home on Sunday. I felt that I could use a little more brake, so I rolled the knob up a touch. I'm not a hard user of brakes, I slow down a good bit first. I told you that to tell you this.
On Monday I took my truck and trailer in for PA inspection. My mechanic pulled the breakaway cable and told me to pull forward. Well, the trailer rolled along with me. I told him "go ahead and adjust the brakes up, as I have never did that yet". (I probably only have 2000 mi or so towed on it since new). He starts to adjust,and adjust,and adjust.......
He said somethings goofy, they should be tight by now. I said let's pull the wheel and drum and take a look see. He did and we BOTH were shocked !!! there was NO lining on the shoes !!! Just the shoes wearing against the drum !!! There was no pieces of lining inside the drum rolling around, no amount of dust than normal. The lining was gone. My mechanic said " I HAVE NEVER SEEN THAT"!
He then told me he was taking off the rest of the wheels for an inspection, 2 of the 3 left were the SAME WAY. I actually had ONE wheel with brakes !!! Seeing that the trailer could NOT be taken to the dealer to be fixed under warranty or not, it had to be fixed right there.
We called around to get parts, GUESS WHAT, Heartland uses AL-KO, all the phone calls to RV dealers,RVparts places,etc. said about everyone used Dexter, JUST MY LUCK....
A large trailer parts supplier warehouse told a local dealer that the axles are 5 bolt that holds on the backing plates, Dexters will be a direct fit. So as of now I have their brakes on my 5ver, I can get parts locally at about 5 different places,I bought complete assemblies, already assembled ready to bolt on the axles. I figured I'd save labor there.
So long story short, I bought 4 complete brakes, 3 new drums, repacked the bearings, and adjusted everything and out the door. It came to almost $700(w/10% discount on parts) in parts and $701.39 in labor. I sent the parts back to AL-KO for inspection @ $85 via FedEx Ground. The lining looked real flaky (somethings wrong).
Now, I trust AL-KO will reimburse me. Just imagine if I was at interstate speeds and needed brakes. It could have been real bad for me. It wouldn't hurt to pull a drum and look, if your brakes don't feel just right.