Well, I think a lot of people would benefit from this, so I have put this one on the Public
Forum… There are a lot of things that we "Experienced" take for granted, that "Beginners" have to learn the hard way. I am going to tell you about the hard way, so you don’t have to learn for yourself, but instead learn from the mistakes of others…
Some definitions to conditions…….
Break in on Brakes: First of all you have to adjust your brakes in the first 500 to 1000 km as they wear in… Why? In the old days it was common to use an Arc machine that ground the radius of the brake shoe lining, to fit the inside of each drum neatly…. No more, asbestos and all that stuff, means the brakes have to wear in… First 100km maybe only a few inches touch, then maybe another two inches per 100km after that of more contact as they wear in evenly… The arc of the shoes and the arc of the drum, never quite match perfectly….
Cracking on brake linings: People often get this, and it is three things: Heat first of all from having the Brake Controller wound up a little to far, or Heat from riding the brakes, or Heat from too much braking on hills instead of low gear slow speed engine braking, like trucks, which is the safe way to handle hills… But Heat, Heat, and Heat is the answer. The one other cause is still Heat, as some overly zealous mechanics might wind up the adjustment too much…. We see this once in a while. Had them adjusted a bit too far or one of the conditions above, and now the linings are cracked with heat.
Linings coming off of shoes: This is a mystery open to speculation.. The Manufacturers claim excessive moisture or submerged in water for a period of time… It may be from the other argument of poor bonding practice, but it is open to speculation. Luckily we do not see it often, maybe about six or eight times in ten years… Yes it was better in the “good ole days” when they riveted linings on, but you don’t get as much wear out of those compared to bonded linings and the rivets score the drums a bit and the linings wear out faster as some of the thickness is used by the rivet…
New linings: Most no longer supply new shoes anymore… Instead they send out the old shoes and get them “re-lined”… Most larger cities have a 24 hour turn-around on this service. This is what we suggest, or get a set from us, we usually have a half dozen sets or more in stock..
“Ounce of prevention is better than needing new shoes:”
In general, you want to have the brakes adjusted enough, but not too much.. Not enough to be contacting the drums or “dragging”…. You have to tell the Mechanic this to be sure.. Next, in general, you want to watch how much you turn up your brake controller, as you can have a tendency to lean on the caravan brakes too much in traffic, pulling up the tow vehicle a bit too much… This will save the brakes on the tow vehicle, and feel really good and comforting, but cost you shoes on the caravan.. Next, in general you want to learn how to compression brake on the hills by slowing down BEFORE you get to the hill, not over using your brakes once you are RUNNING down the hill.. You need to learn to drive the van like a truck on the hills, approach slow, and run down slow, not on the brakes; or you will be replacing them frequently… It is safer as well, so coast down slow, or pay the price of haste with money spent on new shoes..
Yes per my “ Tip #54Towing Tips Off-road” there are conditions where you want to turn up the brake controller and have the van brakes come on first in greasy, icy, muddy type conditions… And yes it is nice to have that feeling of the van starting to pull you up before the tow vehicle brakes come on… But if you run like that for a large percentage of the time, you are going to pay for it in brake shoes. They can last you 10,000km or 50,000km (or more), depending on how sensitive you are and how you use them…. OK?
A couple of other incidental problems…. People have left the hand-brake pulled on, we see that from time to time, with overheating or cracking more on the rear set of shoes….
And, one more thing: We have had two people ruin batteries by pulling the emergency brake away switch out when they parked up…. One by accident kicking the cable, one by listening to some “silly Twit” tell him it was a good idea.. This is directly wired to the batteries, no low voltage disconnect, and will definitely ruin the batteries if left that way too long with about a 10-12 amp steady drain. It will run all the way down to nothing to dead batteries!! So don’t do that, ever! OK?
Best Regards from the “Lone Ranger” … Semper Fidelis….
