fmartinmn
Senior Member
This is the second Dexter drum brake failure experience for me. The first was on my Imagine 2970RL, a magnet broke loose and wedged itself under the front shoe. The friction between the shoe and the drum created enough heat to ignite the shoe material, resulting in fire in the drum. When the dealer pulled the opposite side of the same axle, that side had to be replaced as well. This time on our Solitude 3350RL, one of the brake assemblies "grenaded". My BIL alerted me to a grinding noise when we were both stopping for a red light while enroute to the Black Hills. We had just about completed the 400 mile tow when he noticed the grinding noise. I nursed the trailer into our campground using the truck's diesel brake heavily to avoid any heavy braking of the trailer. When we we pulled the drum, parts just cascaded. Totally shot, including the drum. After two personal experiences with 3 Dexter drum brake failures, I am convinced Dexter drum brakes are not a good match for these trailers. Disc brake conversion just became #1 priority for us. On our return trip home we happened to get assigned a site next to a fellow Solitude owner (2930RL). We chatted about the upcoming rally and he told me about his experience enroute to his first rally, no brakes at all, due to a short in one of the magnets. He managed to figure out which one it was and limped in on 3 brakes working. He had a disc brake conversion done before leaving Indiana. Done with Dexter.









