Trailer Breaks Maintenance Advice

[Goldfinch]

Hoping some of you wise folks can help me with some trailer breaks advice.

I have a Marlin dual axle traler with electric breakaway, hydraulic, disc brakes. A couple of months ago I had all four discs machined, the pads replaced and all serviced and running nicely. Already I am starting to get that burning break smell after I tow to and from the boat ramp. I don't have the brakes set to hard on the electric sender unit in the Navara and I always wash the wheels and axle down with fresh water after each trip to the boat ramp.

Can anyone please give me some basic home maintenance tips so I don't have to take my trailer to the mechanic every fews months to get a service. Don't mind once a year but quarterly ?????

Much appreciated.
Dave

[tenzing]

Hey Dave, I have the same setup. There is always the potential for drama, but take some advice from Leo at united brake & clutch. Drown them in fresh water then drown them in INOX. Then ignore the people as they tell you your trailer wheels are on fire. The smoking stops fairly quickly.
Cheers ,Brendan

[backlash08]

a tight caliper would be worth looking at, jack up on side of trailer with tow vehicle connected, apply the brakes and see if any brakes remain tight once brakes pedal released, at least then you've isolated the wheel where the issue is. There are a number of reasons why a brake will 'drag' but if you identify if it is one wheel or all the wheels (and then let us know) we can help resolve
cheers - Craig

[Spaniard_King]

Dave.. the problem lies with the calipers and disks being exposed to saltwater and fresh water.. best idea is to wash thoroughly.. then actuate the brakes.. several times to remove as much water as possible.. then coate with inox or something similar.. cans of inox are way cheaper than brake overhauls.

[tenzing]

Dave.. the problem lies with the calipers and disks being exposed to saltwater and fresh water.. best idea is to wash thoroughly.. then actuate the brakes.. several times to remove as much water as possible.. then coate with inox or something similar.. cans of inox are way cheaper than brake overhauls.

The INOX should also displace any residual fresh water.
Buy your INOX by tyhe 5l bottle. I empty a refillable spray bottle between the outboard , the reels and (mostly) the brakes after every trip. I"ve had two brake jobs in a year on my one year old trailer, and perfect so far with the new routine.

[bigfella23]

Dave/
If you have Tregg or similar calipers with no rubber boots protecting the pistons , there is a modification where the galvanised area between the O ring and the outside of the caliper is machined out (I used a die grinder) anot 1/16" . It stops the build up of salt in an area where it is impossible to get Inox onto the caliper.
Has stopped all problems.

[two up]

I've had the same problem for the past 12 months, finally got sick of it and replaced the whole braking system. The new calipers have the rubber boots so hopefully brake probs should be a thing of the past, big fellas suggestion sounds good though

[Goldfinch]

Thanks heaps guys. Plenty of ideas there to try. Will use more inox than I have been using.

[ozbee]

is it the sensa brake system make sure you have the setting on 0 gain on start up otherwise like me i kept burning out brake pads but what gave me the shhht is as soon as you stop the wheels would rotate easily they would just run hot enough to smoke but no more to cause problems in braking the only problem i found was they sometimes got hot enough to make the pad fall off the housing.

sent email s to sensa brake but they cant be bothered to reply so i just leave them set on zero and change the pads twice a year.