2018 Wilderness 2850 weak braking issue

[rossir77]

Good morning everyone!!! I'm hoping to get some ideals on this issue I'm having with our new Travel Trailer. I'd prefer to figure it out without dealing with my dealer.....great prices but HORRIBLE Service Dept.

When I first got the trailer when you manually activate the brakes barely tugged on the truck....2016 F250 gain set at 10....

1st thing I did was adjust all four brakes. This seemed to help a little.

I pulled the emergency brake away cable and could move thetrailer fairly easily. My truck simply idlingcan pull it forward. Seems like thewheels should lock up…I know my past trailers would.

So I’ll take all the advice I can get from this fine crowdbefore I crawl under and try to figure out why my brakes are so weak….and thatI do in fact have current at all four wheels.

 

[danemayer]

Hi rossir77,

Congratulations on the new Wilderness.

New brakes sometimes need a "burnishing" break-in so the shoes get seated to the drums. Dexter says:

... your trailer brakes should be burnished-in by applying the brakes 20-30times with approximately a 20 m.p.h. decrease in speed, e.g. 40 m.p.h. to 20 m.p.h. Allow ample time for brakes to cool between application. This allows the brake shoes and magnets to slightly “wear-in” to the drum surfaces.

Transport of the trailer to your local dealer often takes care of this, but maybe not on yours.

 

[Roller4tan]

I agree with not wanting to go to the dealer. So I would get my hands dirty and pull the drums and take a look in there. By some off chance the grease seals might not be doing their job and smeared the drums or perhaps some over zealous grease jockey pumped in to much grease into the zerk fittings.

 

[Terryd91]

Good morning everyone!!! I'm hoping to get some ideals on this issue I'm having with our new Travel Trailer. I'd prefer to figure it out without dealing with my dealer.....great prices but HORRIBLE Service Dept.

When I first got the trailer when you manually activate the brakes barely tugged on the truck....2016 F250 gain set at 10....

1st thing I did was adjust all four brakes. This seemed to help a little.

I pulled the emergency brake away cable and could move thetrailer fairly easily. My truck simply idlingcan pull it forward.Seems like thewheels should lock up…I know my past trailers would.

So I’ll take all the advice I can get from this fine crowdbefore I crawl under and try to figure out why my brakes are so weak….and thatI do in fact have current at all four wheels.

I have the same issue with an '18 heartland sundance xlt 283rb and my 2017 f150. With the controller maxed out it barely slows down. Picking mine up this saturday from the dealer who says everything if fine and that's how it should act, going to tear into it and see if something is wrong or the brakes are just undersized for the camper. What axles does your camper have?

 

[roundabout]

Id suggest checking further into why your not getting as much braking as you think you should

It could be anything from a bad ground wire or dirty connectors. To something more serious

i learned something this year myself. I noticed my braking ability was slowly fading on a little never trip. I had my wife listen to each wheel for the distinctive buzzing sound of the electric brakes. The front axle brakes where working but not the rear axle brakes. Fortunately I was able to find to mobile rv repair available to check things out right away. I thought maybe I had a disconnected wire to the front axle. It turned out the grease seal had failed and just enough grease had entered the brake drums and coated the front of the drum that the brake magnet rides on. The magnet didn't buzz anymore because the grease was breaking the electric contact apparently. fortunately a quick cleaning and new seal got me back on the road with brakes again

seems the e z lube feature might be problematic from what I read. I thought I did everything right. Spinning the wheel while adding grease slowly.

Its kinda strange that only the rear axle brakes where effected. And that this isn't the first e z lube axle trailer I've had. I think maybe a combination that the axles are almost at their rated capacity. And I rarely need to adjust the axle nut but maybe I should from now on. But I'm also beginning to think maybe having a hub full of grease isn't a good idea and just repack the bearing as required might be the best solution

Again. I'd check your connections first including any damage to your tow harness. And listen to the brakes for the buzz when someone applies the brakes

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