Bearings Repacked - what is expected brake of life?

[FlyStar]

First ever repack on 14 month old trailer with 12000 miles on it. Project went smoothly for the newbi DIY mechanic. All 4 hubs looked like new. Smooth. Brakes looked good as well with maybe 3/16” pad thickness. and looked in good shape. One hub had a bit more dirt and maybe some grease, sprayed that one with brake cleaner.

Repacked the like new bearings with the “China” stamp on the back. Cones looked great too. A fun project and not as difficult as I expected. But a bit messy.

Thanks to the forum for all the great help.

Question

How long before new brake shoes? Based on what I’ve seen today, I’m thinking they could go 50,000 miles or so. What are your thoughts? I know it depends. But for the mostly highway miles, what can I expect?


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[huntindog]

First ever repack on 14 month old trailer with 12000 miles on it. Project went smoothly for the newbi DIY mechanic. All 4 hubs looked like new. Smooth. Brakes looked good as well with maybe 3/16” pad thickness. and looked in good shape. One hub had a bit more dirt and maybe some grease, sprayed that one with brake cleaner.

Repacked the like new bearings with the “China” stamp on the back. Cones looked great too. A fun project and not as difficult as I expected. But a bit messy.

Thanks to the forum for all the great help.

Question

How long before new brake shoes? Based on what I’ve seen today, I’m thinking they could go 50,000 miles or so. What are your thoughts? I know it depends. But for the mostly highway miles, what can I expect?


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As you already realize, the brakes don't wear much on the highway.
FWIW, I have never had to replace the brakes on any of my RVs spanning over 30 years
In fact I have rarely even adjusted them...
I will NEVER adjust the brakes on my present Momentum.

[FlyStar]

The brakes on my rig are self adjust. And it seems to work just fine. All 4 hubs just barely rubbed the pads and came off and back on easily. Seemed about right to me.


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[Steven@147]

The brakes on my rig are self adjust. And it seems to work just fine. All 4 hubs just barely rubbed the pads and came off and back on easily. Seemed about right to me.


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Good for you tackling this job, as you found its not hard and yes a little messy.
How long the shoes will last? Well IMO some of it depends on how high you have your truck brake actuator set. If you drive a lot in stop and go traffic using the brakes a lot. The quality of the brake shoe material they made them from and other factors. Brake material can be made semi-metallic or ceramic. Semi-metallic material seem to last longer but tend to squeal more, get hotter faster with a lot of brake use, contributes to more brake fade when hot and ware down the brake drums faster. In any event with an RV they should last a long, long time, many, many miles.

Now in the olden days on older cars and trucks using rear drum brakes, of course the brakes were used a lot more than on an RV, with lots of miles the drums use to ware down in the center of the drum where the shoes rubbed, but not on the outside edge of the drum, this created a lip on the outside of the drum brake surface. As this ware happens over time the auto adjusters kept adjusting the shoes wider and wider. Then when you went to inspect the brakes, in most cases you could not get the drum off unless you loosened up the adjuster to retract the shoes to clear the ware lip. The drum ware lip would get caught on the shoes preventing the drum from coming off. Boy those were the days of brake maintenance!

When I did our RV brake inspection for the first time on our new rig, I noticed there were no plugs in the adjusting holes in the back of the brake plate on any of the wheels. The idea of the plugs is to keep road water out of the brake assy. I bought some and installed the plugs. Some people don't bother with the plugs. Some believe with the plugs out it allows the brake dust to blow out of the drum keeping the inside cleaner.

Disc brakes solves a lot of these old brake maintenance issues, and they tend to last longer and brake better with little brake fade. On cars and trucks 4 wheel disc brakes is a major improvement, but on RVs a lot of owners retro-fit to disc brakes and it is also a big improvement. Its not cheap but if you tow a lot it maybe worth it. If your RV sets a lot or takes only short trips it may not be worth it as much.

Sorry to be preachy and go off on my opinions, Good for you doing the job.