[djrussell]

I'm camping in a couple days with the popup camper. Last weekend was maintenance time. I pulled the camper around the block to adjust the brake gain but could not get the wheels to lock up. I adjusted the brake drag but still couldn't get this wheel to stop electrically. I pulled the wheels and hubs to investigate and found this.

Looks to be a failed grease seal on the back of the hub. The shoes on this side are for sure trash and I'm not sure the mechanism is working right either. There are a couple trailer repair places nearby but nobody carries these small 7" brakes so will have to special order. Etrailer.com had all the parts in stock so I put in an overnight order. $$$$ for shipping . I'll get it done and it will be nice to have new confidence in the brakes. It's kind of down to the wire though. Not something I want to be doing right before a road trip.

I did at least find that my camper is a bit lighter than I initially thought by a couple hundred pounds. 2002 Flagstaff MAC/LTD 227. 1782 base weight. 2384 GVWR. Not bad for sleeping a family of 6. I'm wanting to add brakes to my utility trailer also so this is a good way to get familiar with the system. Silver lining.

Electric Trailer Brake Kit - 7" - Left and Right Hand Assemblies - 2,000 lbs etrailer Trailer B

Driver's-side and passenger's-side electric brakes measure 7" x 1-1/4". Brake pads are made of durable friction material for improve

www.etrailer.com

 

[absolutsnwbrdr]

Definitely a mess! Its a wonder you didn't have grease all over the inside of your wheel.

 

[Kevin Williams]

I guess grease on the brake pads will reduce your stopping distance slightly!

Hope you get it all sorted out in time!

 

[djrussell]

Definitely a mess! Its a wonder you didn't have grease all over the inside of your wheel.

Yeah, for real. The wheel is completely clean. It mostly got caught by the inside of the shoes. Some flung out to the inside of the drum and a tiny bit of that started weeping out. I didn't expect this much mess though. Luckily all of that junk is going in the trash and I can bolt up a new brake assembly. Less cleaning.

 

[djrussell]

Well, I got it all put back together in time. Yay! The hardest part was dealing with the gobs of grease and getting the new brakes adjusted. I really hate those fidgety little star-wheel adjusters. Brake performance wasn't great at first. I still couldn't get the wheels to lock even at the highest gain setting. They were at least functioning though. It seems the parts weren't bedded in yet as performance increased part way through the trip as noted by wheel skid when pulling into a gas station.

No pictures of the final product but here's one of the Ascent in camping mode and Whitewater Falls. We stayed at Table Rock State park which was about 250 mi each way. Averaged about 17 mpg going 70-75 mph. The Ascent did an excellent job hauling everything. It was very nice to have power on tap at low rpms instead of having to rev a v6 to death to get it up a mountain.

@Ken Myers Just in case you want to add info to the towing log.

 

[Ken Myers]

Beautiful fall photo of the falls!

Thanks for the photo. I've added it to the towing page.

Ken

 

[djrussell]

Absolutely! There were so many beautiful colors. I don't get much of that in coastal GA so really enjoyed the mountain drives.