Had a nasty experience yesterday. All four disk brakes on the trailer refused to release after a sudden brake application, when turning off the highway. Ended up chugging about half a km to find a decent area to pull over. The trailer wheels were smoking and the whole rig was difficult to move. Ended up removing each wheel and tapping (belting) each piston until it backed off, allowing the pads to retract.
Trailer is one year old, never drowned at launch or retrieval, always well flushed with fresh water after use. Brake system is electric hydraulic with alloy Alko calipers.
I assume that the pistons became caught on some corrosion in the calipers. Surely boat trailer brakes last longer than one year with regular fresh flushing?
When I recondition the calipers, what can I do to prevent this happening again?
thanks in advance
yep, the joys of brakes in salt water, welcome to the " I might get stainless brakes but they are too expensive" club bloody brakes on boat trailers are a JOKE to say the least, even if they are only 1 year old (some kind of warranty maybe) but if not, just grin and bare it, you will be forever fixing/maintaining them, but on the bright side, you will get good at fixing them in a few years!
Did you try to unlock them by going backwards a bit??
If they got jammed going forwards maybe they'd come loose going backwards??
Works for drum brakes. Don't know about disc.
Bit of a bugger though
Last edited by finga; 20-03-2007 at 09:35 AM.
Yes, Noelm, I think you might be right.
Finga, I did try rocking bwd and fwd. Doesn't work on discs. If you can get her rolling, usually the pistons will work their way back in, but the landcruiser had four wheels spinning, trying to move the trailer on the gravel at roadside.
Maybe I need to carry a sledge hammer, air compressor, rattle gun and trolley jack for next time. Better still turn the trailer brakes off!!
Hey Getout,
Buy any chance has your break away system on the trailer have a fault and this caused all 4 wheels to lock, only a thought.
I also find to help prevent corrosion i rub a bit of grease on all the calipers and hub section of my rotors (not on the disks themselves).
regards
Geoff Mahaffey
Yes I think we need to rethink the whole trailer towing weight and stuff, might be better to adjust the tow vehicle size (by law) and scrap the brakes altogether (I know it will be unsafe and you will need a new car and other true arguments) but I am sort of thinking that no brakes might be better than unreliable sh!t brakes!! that may work, may jam on, may fall to bits on you!
What actually corroded? Was it the bore of the caliper, or was it the piston? Why did the water get in, what seal failed? I think this needs to be understood first, then you can consider new pistons/calipers etc.
How effective do you consider the rinse to be? Is it really getting the rinse water in between the disc, the pad and down to the piston area?
I recommed people with disc brakes fit a simple but effective rinse pipe in their trailer. All you need do is go and buy some ganden sprinkler hose from Bunnings and attach it each side of your trailer so that you can connect the hose fitting to it. Along the pipe you screw in the appropriate water jets and when working it sprays water exactly where you want it to go.
I doubt much rinse water is actually getting into the areas that you need it to.
- Darren
Last edited by Mr__Bean; 20-03-2007 at 01:20 PM.
No Black Jack it wasn't the breakaway system activating.
Mr Bean, not sure what is corroded but I do flush as well as anyone, because after being in the salt, I back the whole axle assy into a freshwater lake at home. The rest of the trailer is still perfect.
If I'm having this problem on all four wheels, many other must be suffering the same thing.
I'll strip them down and find out what actually caused the pistons to jam in the on position.
Getout,
Are you absolutely certain that the problem exists at the caliper assembly?
I would have thought it most unusual that ALL FOUR calipers decided to lock and stay locked at the same time.
Is it possible that the system that is providing the hydraulic pressure to the calipers is not releasing when you take your foot off the brake??
You have not mentioned what braking system you have, I once had all four of my wheels lock momentarily on my rig - it was the Sensa-brake unit having a hissy-fit.
Once the air pressure was released, and the unit allowed to cool down, it has not done it since. I also found that if I had the degree of trailer braking set too high, the pads had a tendency to not release properly after braking, resulting in much smoke and concern from following vehicles. - lesson 1., do not set controller too high!
Richard.
Hi Getout and others
As some of you may know I went thru this not so long ago and as has been said didn't fit ss etc due to cost
The earlier thread had some interesting bits in it re specific components that one needed to get made out of ss and I think it was Kerry who semed to have done this to his trailer which I think he drowns every time.
re the freshwater lake washing can I ask if you then take the washed rig for a drive and get the brakes hot and so dry them off before you park the trailer? I ponder if this was not done would there still be a rusting issue anyway?
Here is the link to the other thread with the ss components discussed
http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...t=brakes+chimo
By the way, with the last brake repair I had done, I watched with interest as the repairer crossed out the 12 months warranty on the invoice / statment and when I suggested "No fair!" he said that the first time I backed the unit into salt water that was the end of the warranty.
So since then I have kept the rotors and brakes out of the water and use a double cable and idler pulley and give the 912 powerwinch a chance to earn its keep. Sick to death of bloody boat trailer brakes and the lottery in traffic of will I stop or not before turning the car in front into a 'compact"
Since the no water on the brakes program its amazing how comfortable one becomes driving in Gold Coast traffic with 2 tonnes plus of boat behind you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry for the rambling ....................
Cheers
Chimo
What could go wrong.......................
Good points blokes!
Topaz, definitely not hydraulic pressure- I cracked thge bleeders and even the inlet fittings to make sure. It is a Hydrastar breakaway system which is electric/hydraulic. You can hear when its working.
Chimo, maybe they don't get hot enough to dry out after the dunking, but surely, fresh water from rain would cause car brakes to do the same? I do what you do- winch on and off. I never dunk the axles or brakes- that is why I am perplexed.
I may have had the controller set too high, but why no release?
The same thing happened to me i put the brakes on and they stayed on ,what had happened was the pistons had a build up of crap on them and didnt release back.I recon the best brakes are duel mechanical and a bonnet strut as break-away,it might not be legal but it would be far less hassel than elec/hyd.
I had mechanical on two other trailers. Never a problem. Unfortunately not legal on a 2 tonne rig
Hi Getout
Did you read the other thread?
It seems that rust will occur with water salty just much worse if things dont get to dry out.
What brake controller do you have?
Hydrastar units HBA series 12 etc need specific controllers only ie Tekonsha Voyager or Primus or Envoy / Hayes XPC or Endeavor or Energise III or Genesis
I had to back my controller off to less than the brightest red and went down to light red / dark orange.
Sounds like you have rust or crud in the mechanism anyhow.
Read the comments made by Kerry too.
Chimo
What could go wrong.......................
Sorry, I missed the reference to Kerry's thread. If I had seen it in the first place my questions would have been answered. Great info there. I will check the pins first- they might be the culprits. I think I cooked the axle grease also.
I have a Tekonsha Voyager which I may have had dialled up too high. Still astounds me that this must be an amazingly huge problem for the boating public. who dunk trailers. Most poor buggers wouldn't have a clue what to do!!!
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