Going through brakes - maybe even a world record

[pharmafrog]

All,

I am ripping through some brakes on my '14 F350. I am towing a Cyclone 4100 and am easily having to replace my brakes and rotors yearly. Is this normal? The fronts are going fast, and the rears are not long after.

Here is my real question. Is my brake controller really doing its job? I have the gain maxed out at 10, but have never had to do this before on my 2008 F250 KR. On that previous truck, I could feel the trailer slowing me down a bit and never went through brakes.

I would rather replace cheap drum brakes that i can do myself vice the 1000.00 nut roll I have to eat every year.

When I do squeeze the trigger on the controller to test and ensure I am fully hitched up I can feel it lock and pull my truck down, but I am not getting any braking feeling when using the foot brake pedal. I do see the gain rising, but it does not seem to relate correctly to braking applied from the trailer.

Thoughts? Help? Thanks.

Bruce

 

[cookie]

Have you ever adjusted the brakes on your trailer or pulled the drums and inspected the shoes?
Maybe it's time to consider disc brakes.

Peace
Dave

 

[mrcomer]

It sounds like maybe your drum brakes on your Cyclone are not adjusted properly. You may need to pull the hubs and have a look. There also could be grease on the brake pads. Could also be many other things.

 

[Tool958]

That is not normal. Both of my two different Chevy HD’s truck brakes lasted well over 100,000 miles. The 2007.5 had 140,000 miles on them when I changed them. Haven’t changed them yet on the 2015 dually with 108,000 miles. The 2007.5 had several miles left on them. It pulled a 3010 Cyclone with two Harley’s all over the US, through several grades out west. That was before we converted over to disc brakes on the Cyclone. I would highly recommend the disc brake conversion, if you have to do brake work on the camper. Best investment we’ve made on the Cyclone. I would say, like the rest, that the trailer brakes are not working at all due to wiring problems or are grease covered from bad seals, etc. Very dangerous pulling with out trailer brakes and relying on truck brakes to stop. Good luck with the repairs.


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[MCTalley]

Definitely sounds like trailer brake adjustments/check. We do a pull test every hitch-up with our Big Country (15.5K weight) on the back of our 2016 F350 (DRW). Our trailer brakes will prevent/arrest forward motion (typically) during that test. I run our built-in brake controller at 9.5.

At 90,000 miles and four years, our truck is still on its factory rear brakes and the fronts were replaced at around 60,000 miles/3 years.

 

[pharmafrog]

Just a little clarification. I do conduct a pull test after every hitch up.

When I squeeze the trigger on the controller I can feel the brakes work on the trailer and pull the back of my truck down.

Even at the game set to 10, I do not feel the brakes engaging when using the brake pedal.

 

[Niles]

You might want to check your brake controller. On ours using the thumb control when I hooked up it worked fine, however the brake pedal didn't. Ours was a prodigy, called them they replaced it, lifetime warranty Who knew, now everything is fine. Good luck,

 

[Gary521]

Maybe the manual part of the controller is working but nothing else is. There is an inertia switch in that thing that can probably fail. ( assuming that you have an after market controller ).

 

[LBR]

What kind of controller does your truck have?

Did Ford provide the truck with a built-in?

Aftermarket? (if so, brand and model number)

 

[Lynn1130]

Something is not right. I don't know if you have tested the controller under motion but at 10 it should be locking the brakes on the trailer. One problem is the drum brakes because after the first year or so I could not get the trailer brakes to lock using the controller. Once I went to disc brakes it made a big difference in trailer braking. My controller is set at 7. Any higher and the brakes lock up.

The normal test and setting, as you probably know, is running at about 25 mph and touching the brakes with it set at a high setting. If it locks them up, back off until it stops locking them. If you cannot lock them, something is wrong. Grease on the brakes, which happens, the brake controller is bad or some electrical issue.

 

[MCTalley]

Just a little clarification. I do conduct a pull test after every hitch up.

When I squeeze the trigger on the controller I can feel the brakes work on the trailer and pull the back of my truck down.

Even at the game set to 10, I do not feel the brakes engaging when using the brake pedal.

Understood. Same here.

Our first truck had an aftermarket trailer brake controller. I could often feel the brakes on the trailer being applied, especially at lower speeds. With our 2013 Ford and now with our 2016, I don't get that feeling at any speed. However, it is obvious that it is not just the truck slowing down the whole rig. I had understood the better feel as being part of the truck's braking control software not as a lack of trailer braking via the brake pedal.

 

[2psnapod2]

Maybe disc brakes is what you need. Just to be upfront, we own Performance Trailer Brakes. But your truck is not suppose to stop your trailer. Your trailer should be stopping your trailer.

Even if your drum brakes we're working perfect, disc brakes can stop you in half the distance and time.

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[danemayer]

I don't have a Ford, so I don't know how the built in controller is set up. But you might check the settings. Our RAM has several choices. Maybe yours is configured wrong. And on another thought, if the trailer brakes seem to work when using the manual control, perhaps something between brake pedal and controller is out of adjustment or damaged.

 

[david-steph2018]

On our other camper we lost our brakes going to Horseshoe Lakes in Ind. one time. The problem was road salt had destroyed the wiring to the 7 pin plug in the bumper. Got it repaired in Ind. to continue the trip.
On our current RV we had disc brakes along with the new wet bolt kit installed during the National Rally in Goshen this year

 

[pharmafrog]

Thanks guys for all the info. It is the integrated brake controller on a 2014 F350. Looks like I have a little digging to do. I absolutely do not get lock up. Something fishy. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

[NP_Chief]

It could be something simple like a dirty pin on your connector... might be worth giving both ends a good cleaning and try it again.

 

[vpnman]

Thanks guys for all the info. It is the integrated brake controller on a 2014 F350. Looks like I have a little digging to do. I absolutely do not get lock up. Something fishy. I'll let you know what I find out.

I had a similar issue with my 2016 F250 when towing my travel trailer. Turns out there was something to do with the integrated brake controller, but I don't remember what the issue was. I found the issue on one of the powerstroke forums where others had similar issues. It has something to do with how the brakes are energized using the pedal vs. the slider.

FWIW I never felt the integrated controller on my '16 was worth a crap. The difference was night and day when I traded to a '18 F250 (new body style), which just further confirmed my suspicion that the issue was something with the factory controller.

Hope that helps, if I can find anything online I'll post up here. Bottom line, if you're at 10 and you're not able to stop the truck on a level grade going <10 mph using the brake controller slider, you have a prob.