Brake Drum Temperature during burnishing and normal use

[DuaneG]

Finally got around to checking bearings, replacing seals and installing new drums on our 5th wheel.

Thanks for all the previous posts on part numbers, double vs single lip seals, and other related topics that helped me feel confident enough to give it a try.

Through all your posts I learned about the burnishing of the brakes after changing out the pads.

I took the fifth wheel out for a stroll and began the burnishing procedure. I knew I was going to have to manually adjust the pads later as they were not super tight against the drum when I left. I made several stops and checked the rim and drum temperatures at several locations and wasn’t sure what the max temp should be based on a laser temp gauge.

I think I still need to do another round of burnishing but want to know what max temp reading I should get to between cooling off.

I am still smelling the brakes so hopefully that reduces over the next couple trips.

 

[Gary521]

I hope you put on the self adjusting variety of brakes when you did the work. You only need to burnish brakes once. Maybe the brakes are adjusted a bit tight when the job was done.
I have a race car. I have never heard of adjusting brakes by temperature. With drum brakes, you will always have a tiny, tiny bit of drag. You can hear it when the adjusting process is taking place. However, not enough to cause brake smell.
If everything is adjusted properly, the smell will go away.

I can see where temperature checking can show variations between drums but not an ideal temperature to set them up.

 

[DuaneG]

I just bought the same old manual electric brakes that came on it. Just wanted to go a cheaper route while I learned what to do in case I broke something.

A couple of the seals were leaking or the factory just pumped way to much grease in there.

Next time definitely going to upgrade the brakes to a whole new system or just replace the entire brake assembly.

I know I read somewhere about the normal temp range so I can keep an eye on things while traveling. I also heard about the burnishing temps so I would make sure they set properly and would stop better after the process. I just can’t seem to find where I previously saw the info.

 

[Gary521]

The cheapest place that I found for the assembly ( shelf adjusting brakes and shoes ) is Eastern Marine. I did this on my former trailer. I did not want to keep adjusting the brakes myself. On my current trailer, I went the route of disk brakes (which I did myself ).
Brakes work by converting mechanical energy to heat and then dissipating that heat. While I have never heard of adjusting drum brakes by temperature, it does not mean that it can't be done. Just my lack of knowledge.

 

[Miller0758]

I just bought the same old manual electric brakes that came on it. Just wanted to go a cheaper route while I learned what to do in case I broke something.

A couple of the seals were leaking or the factory just pumped way to much grease in there.

Next time definitely going to upgrade the brakes to a whole new system or just replace the entire brake assembly.

I know I read somewhere about the normal temp range so I can keep an eye on things while traveling. I also heard about the burnishing temps so I would make sure they set properly and would stop better after the process. I just can’t seem to find where I previously saw the info.

The seals were leaking because the brakes get really hot. This was one of our drivers for converting to disc's

 

[DuaneG]

Thanks for the input. I just wanted to know normal temp range and what was expected during burnishing period.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk