Trailer Brake Quesion
 

What could cause a trailer to lock up its breaks. The system is Hydrolic, but controled by electric. It seems to not release the brakes to well. I took the controler and turned everything off and it seems to work better but still they drag. Any ideas?

Jon

You might want to look for corrosion inside the brake drum assembly. It can prevent the shoes from releasing completely or from operating at all.

If the trailer has ever seen saltwater without a thorough rinsing they can corrode fast. We've had the same problem with snowmobile trailers. They were shot after two trips on salted roads in one season.

Audio... I had this problem last weekend on my aluminum tri axle South Florida trailer. One tire lockied up, smoke and all, when I hit the (surge) brakes. Turns out the tire in question had low tire pressure due to an undetected leak. Probably not you case, but I never considered this problem before. Took it all apart like a moron before I figure out I had like 9psi in it. It was the center one and didn't look low at all.

BT :cool:

Audio, Do you have the Ausco Products Trail'r Brak'r unit? They have a recall on them. Not for locking up but for not working at all. My new trailer had the same problem you describe. Was about five miles out from picking up the new boat and trailer. Stopped just fine but brakes held when pedal was released. The old Power Stroke had to work to get it going (47 Fountain). This problem persisted for a while (Illinois to Minnesota and then for a couple weeks)and then they started working OK. A friend had the same problem, same brake unit. Then a while later, no brakes at all. The unit was pumping, could hear it run, but couldn't apply the proper pressure to stop the boat. Got a new unit and no problems. They recalled them all but I'm still in storage. Just a thought. Seems these electric/hydraulic units are trouble. Anybody else experience this problem?

Jon, this very same thing happened to me early last year
I have full surge breaks.
Seemed everytime the truck would stop they would not release all the way. They would just drag enough to get hot :(
I went and release the actuators and it still did it.
One day along side the road I tore into the surge cylinder. When I would manually activate the hitch I would not see the piston in the bottom of the master Cy move. :(
There was either one or two little holes. Not sure on this. ONe for sure. I remember being able to see this move in prior checks.
I took a small, very small nail point and pushed at the hole.
SQUIRT out comes a crap load of fluid in my face. :( Come to find out that a month prior ot all this when taking it out of storage and noticing that I had no, none, notta an once of fluid I had the brakes power bleed and reset. What had happened was the hole rusted over. the nail head cleared the rusted over hole and everything has been working like a charm :)
Check it out.
One other thing happened on my old v-drive trailer was that I lost the shock absober for the surge actuator. This would not push everyhting back out.

Operator error?

This is an Electric over Hydrolic system with disk brakes. They already replaced the controller on the trailer for the recall. It's worked AWESOME until just the other day, we noticed it was harder to pull off from a start, and when at a stop light, if you let off the brake, the rig does not move...like they're on slightly still. It's less noticealbe if you have the "kick-start" turned OFF. Gonna have to have it checked tomorrow.

Nort possible that that controller is a recal one as well?

Jon

JON,

mine did the smae thing last summer,,,,, my slave cly was all corroded ( only 4 years old,, fresh water ) and wouldnt release the brake.... only thing it hurt was my brake shoes ,,, cyls were very cheap,,, and I must have had a small problem for a while because it stops ALOT better,,, worth looking at anyway,,, good luck,

Dennis

I had a problem like that with full surge brakes . I could push i tbackwards put I could hardly move it forward . What happened was there was crap in the line . (Old rusted lines ) WHen you stop ,it pumps up pressure in the line .When you go to pull out , it releases pressure to return into mater cylinder . The crap plugged up the little tiny hole in which it has to return. The dirt worked like a check valve and stopped the fluid from returning and releasing the brakes . With the trailer sitting unhooked ,I remove the line from the back of the coupler and it blew fluid about 25 ' in every direction !:eek: It was pressurized .

Take it apart and clean it reel good . See if that works .It may or may not be in the master cylinder it could be on one of the wheel cylinders . Try jacking up the trailer and turn each wheel . Good luck .! ;)