After burning in new brakes do i need to readjust?

BeerBrewer-MGRV

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After burning in new electric drum brakes do they need to be readjusted again?

I'm having problems getting my brakes to work properly on our new 2670MK (we purchased 02/2023). Frankly they have NEVER worked properly. Now we are out on our first 3 week trip with this trailer and it might not be coming with us! Before we left home I adjusted the brakes after having to replace ALL the drums (long story, please don't ask) and ran through the burn in process. I thought that I did it properly, but now I'm not so sure. When we left home we had adequate braking, but not great braking. I thought as I drove it would improve....how wrong I was. Now after driving 430 miles the trailer has virtually no braking power at all and I've got the gain set to 10.

Before I left home I verified that all of the brakes had power and were being activated when the brakes are pressed. This is not my first trailer, nor is it my time adjusting trailer brakes, but this one has me really stumped. We love the layout of this trailer, but with all of the mechanical issues that we've had with this trailer my opinion of it is very very low. If I can't get this resolved within the next few days I will NOT be taking the trailer home with us and it will be off to the used trailer lot.
 
Well if you have no brakes I would readjust them

Btw I never did any “burn in” process with my trailer and my brakes have always worked fine
 
The term "Burn In" the brakes sounds horrible. I'm thinking that what you really mean is "bedding" the brakes in. It serves two purposes...1. It helps to insure that the brake shoe surface is even throughout the entire surface of it, provided that the drum itself is not damaged. 2 Usually, an adjustment is required after a proper bedding in of the brakes because of the removal of any slight irregularities of the shoe surface. I will add that IF the drums were rough/uneven/pitted/ect, no amount of bedding in and adjusting will provide a proper brake setup to give you maximum braking capability.....hopefully you checked that out before installing the new brake shoes
 
We also never adjusted our electric drum brakes either. However, we do have our brakes checked out (annually) when we ever go in for any maintenance that I dont want to do - like bearing repacks ?...

Of course, now that we have IS/Disk, alot easier to check brake operation!
 
After burning in new electric drum brakes do they need to be readjusted again?

I'm having problems getting my brakes to work properly on our new 2670MK (we purchased 02/2023). Frankly they have NEVER worked properly. Now we are out on our first 3 week trip with this trailer and it might not be coming with us! Before we left home I adjusted the brakes after having to replace ALL the drums (long story, please don't ask) and ran through the burn in process. I thought that I did it properly, but now I'm not so sure. When we left home we had adequate braking, but not great braking. I thought as I drove it would improve....how wrong I was. Now after driving 430 miles the trailer has virtually no braking power at all and I've got the gain set to 10.

Before I left home I verified that all of the brakes had power and were being activated when the brakes are pressed. This is not my first trailer, nor is it my time adjusting trailer brakes, but this one has me really stumped. We love the layout of this trailer, but with all of the mechanical issues that we've had with this trailer my opinion of it is very very low. If I can't get this resolved within the next few days I will NOT be taking the trailer home with us and it will be off to the used trailer lot.

Do you have self adjusting or manual adjusting. Information will be on the axle tag (sticker on back side of axle if you can post a picture of it. If self adjusting (Dexter Nevr-a-just) then no, If manual adjusting Yes ,you will need to re adjust after burnishing. Did you drive to 40 mph and just used the trailer brakes to slow to 20, then replete about 20 to 40 times with time between each stop for drums to cool.. If not you may have glazed the shoes which will give you the results you have. Also as you don't say what TV you have. Some have an initial brake setting and then the gain setting, For Ford this is the case, so be sure you controller settings are correct. even the brake type selection.
 
Do you have self adjusting or manual adjusting. Information will be on the axle tag (sticker on back side of axle if you can post a picture of it. If self adjusting (Dexter Nevr-a-just) then no, If manual adjusting Yes ,you will need to re adjust after burnishing. Did you drive to 40 mph and just used the trailer brakes to slow to 20, then replete about 20 to 40 times with time between each stop for drums to cool.. If not you may have glazed the shoes which will give you the results you have. Also as you don't say what TV you have. Some have an initial brake setting and then the gain setting, For Ford this is the case, so be sure you controller settings are correct. even the brake type selection.

You read my mind. May be magnets themselves, OR. the self adjusters are not working properly OR, you are not getting the right power levels through the magnets.

I would verify one at a time until it becomes evident. To me it sounds like a magnet or self adjuster. It could be glazed brake shoes that is easy enough to verify visually.

Bill
 
After burning in new electric drum brakes do they need to be readjusted again?

I'm having problems getting my brakes to work properly on our new 2670MK (we purchased 02/2023). Frankly they have NEVER worked properly. Now we are out on our first 3 week trip with this trailer and it might not be coming with us! Before we left home I adjusted the brakes after having to replace ALL the drums (long story, please don't ask) and ran through the burn in process. I thought that I did it properly, but now I'm not so sure. When we left home we had adequate braking, but not great braking. I thought as I drove it would improve....how wrong I was. Now after driving 430 miles the trailer has virtually no braking power at all and I've got the gain set to 10.

Before I left home I verified that all of the brakes had power and were being activated when the brakes are pressed. This is not my first trailer, nor is it my time adjusting trailer brakes, but this one has me really stumped. We love the layout of this trailer, but with all of the mechanical issues that we've had with this trailer my opinion of it is very very low. If I can't get this resolved within the next few days I will NOT be taking the trailer home with us and it will be off to the used trailer lot.

What was your burn in process ? Maybe you burned up the brake shoes
 
As per the posts above, seems like a logical first step would be to pull the hubs and take a look at the brake assemblies for any abnormalities.
 
As per the posts above, seems like a logical first step would be to pull the hubs and take a look at the brake assemblies for any abnormalities.

I checked out the brake assemblies when i replaced the hubs. I verified that they were getting electricity and that they all worked.

After posting this I decided to call Lippert directly for advice. I spoke with a tech who was very helpful and he felt that my issue was improper burn in. He explained to me why it needs to be done and how he'd do it. I followed his directions and I now have brakes!
 
I checked out the brake assemblies when i replaced the hubs. I verified that they were getting electricity and that they all worked.

After posting this I decided to call Lippert directly for advice. I spoke with a tech who was very helpful and he felt that my issue was improper burn in. He explained to me why it needs to be done and how he'd do it. I followed his directions and I now have brakes!

Hey, that's great and hope it's the end of your problems. I wish I'd know about the proper break in when I got my trailer. Like other trailers I've owned, I just put about 1K miles on it and the brake shoes started to seat. The right procedure would have given me better stopping a lot sooner.

Do keep an eye on the brakes and check them periodically. I somehow had a magnet get hung up in the wrong position, permanently applying the brake, and ruined the brake assembly and hub.
 
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I checked out the brake assemblies when i replaced the hubs. I verified that they were getting electricity and that they all worked.

After posting this I decided to call Lippert directly for advice. I spoke with a tech who was very helpful and he felt that my issue was improper burn in. He explained to me why it needs to be done and how he'd do it. I followed his directions and I now have brakes!
Could you pass along his suggestions and how you did it? It might help others who have similar issues, and save them trying to contact and get help from Lippert.
 
So, this all makes sense to me, and also tells me that none of our RVs have properly run in brakes when we buy them. I highly doubt that the Hotshot drivers are following any procedure when bringing the rigs from Indiana to the dealer. I follow the run in procedure for the pads on my car.

I will have to make sure properly run them in when I replace my brake shoes at some point.

Brian
 
I went through this when my 2022 was new. Followed the burnishing process from the Dexter youtube channel and all better.
 
Could you pass along his suggestions and how you did it? It might help others who have similar issues, and save them trying to contact and get help from Lippert.

The Lippert technician technian said that I really need to get the brakes really hot....smoking hot! He said to first check to make sure my brakes were adjusted properly. If the brakes are adjusted properly he said to take the trailer out for a ride and set the gain on the brake contoller to 10. He said to get the trailer up to 40 mph then only using the brake controller slow the trailer down to like 10 mph. Then he said to repeat this over and over untill the brakes are smoking hot. He said it could take as many as 50 times to get them hot enough to burn them in. It didn't take me near that long. He said that I need to get the brakes that hot to burn off the "film". I'm not sure what the "film" is, but I assumed it was the result of the manufacturing process. Then he said that it may be necessay, but not always to readjust the brakes afterwards. The only issue that I had was finding a road empty enouigh so I could go through the process.
 

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