electric brakes rely on heat to work?

[The motor guy]

This is starting to irritate me on my trailer brakes. I run around town with my trailer making short trips, so when the brake drums cool they don't brake as well. It usually takes a good stop from about 40mph to get them to work good. They may be out of adjustment now, but it's annoying that you never know when you will have brakes and when you won't Sometimes they activate where it's almost like the trailer stops the truck and trailer and other times you have to really hit the brakes to get them to kick in. Opinions?

 

[mk378]

Remove drums and inspect for glazed shoes, worn or broken parts, etc.

Then of course adjust them.

 

[eljefino]

Do you have the panic bar in the cab? How do the brakes work with that? I suspect you need to get the drums off and clean everything up as already suggested.

 

[BrianF]

Rip them down for an inspection, check the wires/grounds as well. If all is in working order then re assemble and check for adjustment. They should be working 100% of the time.

What brake controller do you have?

If the shoes or magnets are worn, just get new backing plates, don't bother with individual parts. I did my 7k 12" (all 4) brakes for my horse trailer last year. I priced out individual parts and they came in around the same price as complete backing plates but then you would have a lot of labour to get them working. I think I paid just under 400$ all in for complete Dexter backing plates.

 

[bullwinkle]

Might be time to adjust them-I always warm them up with the manual bar on the controller (& to make sure they're plugged in a & working)-they definitely do more when they're warm.

 

[The motor guy]

Yeah it has the manual brake level. NOW THAT I think about it I actually think it's the controller more than anything. The angle it's mounted has a lot to do with how well it works and the little locking washers don't keep it tight enough.