Overheated the rear brakes. What next?

[proost]

Hey y'all. Here in Cody WY and on our way up and over some mountains, we were coming down with engine braking, etc. Pulsed the brakes occasionally but then needed more and more because of the steeper grades. Once I saw smoke coming from the rear brakes, I pulled over asap to let them cool. See the screen grab from a video my wife took.

It turns out the 7-pin to our car hauler trailer had loosened so that there was no power to the trailer brakes (operator error I assume) and with all that weight, the coach brakes were working too hard. Inside tire temps and pressure climbed kicking off my TPMS alarms.

I let the brakes cool for about 30 minutes and afterwards had some decent brake judder. Once I got to Cody (100mi later), I didn't have much judder at all and it seemed like I had some good brake authority.

Does anyone have any tips on the next steps? Should I get the brakes inspected or is a self-check for damage or excess glazing sufficient? I have read that you can remove glazing if you have it with few hard braking cycles at sub-45mph or so but felt I'd ask here. It does seem like all is well but want a doublecheck if there are any experienced folks here on this issue.

Phil

 

[Bike Dr]

Hello
Yes you will get the brakes bake after all cools down!
Now depending on the miles on your coach you may need new rear brakes. Now you can easily look under the coach and look on the edge of the drum and see the pads where they meet the drum and see how mush is worn, also chock the wheels release the brakes, the go back under and check the slack adjustments. Run them all the way down and back them back off 1/4 turn. Then take it for a ride and your brakes will come back and also be more responsive as the linning will be closer to the drum from adjusting them. By the picture your brakes got very hot and you were very lucky to get it stopped. Make sure to use the engine brake or jake brake. Whatever term you like best on down hills to help save your brake linnings. I assume your coach has one as it seems close to mine by the Pic..
Also since the brakes got that hot you may need to check and grease it as the heat may have cooked some of the grease out and look to see if you see any grease on the drum if so it must be clean off thoroughly.
Also peek at the wheel seals to make sure the excessive heat did not damage them. I mentioned the engine break but see you mentioned it in your post and if it is working correctly it should have helped slow the coach enough unless you let her get rolling to fast then the jake will not kick right in..

LIFE IS GOOD!!!! LIVING IT!!!!

2005 41'4 ATRIUM SE CAT
2017 20' Diamond closed trailer
2014 Streetglide Special
2010 Mini Cooper or 04 H2

 

[proost]

Hello
Yes you will get the brakes bake after all cools down!
Now depending on the miles on your coach you may need new rear brakes. Now you can easily look under the coach and look on the edge of the drum and see the pads where they meet the drum and see how mush is worn, also chock the wheels release the brakes, the go back under and check the slack adjustments. Run them all the way down and back them back off 1/4 turn. Then take it for a ride and your brakes will come back and also be more responsive as the linning will be closer to the drum from adjusting them. By the picture your brakes got very hot and you were very lucky to get it stopped. Make sure to use the engine brake or jake brake. Whatever term you like best on down hills to help save your brake linnings. I assume your coach has one as it seems close to mine by the Pic..

LIFE IS GOOD!!!! LIVING IT!!!!

Hey, thanks for the response. The brake shoes have about 10000 miles on them so are pretty close to new. I did check them and they looked good all the way around and got the coach on the road, got the speed up to 45mph, and then hit the brakes pretty hard and the coach stopped great. Did this three times just to make sure.

Also, we were using the engine brake all the way down grade but I think I was going 50-60 and should have been going slower.

Thanks again!
Phil

 

[THenne1713]

FIRST TIP IS walk around several times, every single stop, copilot/spouse too= extra eyes; **** 2nd tip: Don't leave em behind ****

 

[SlimTim]

I don’t know much about your make and model RV but having overheated the brakes on my RV a couple of times here are some things to check.

A mechanic is likely to tell you that you should have the brakes replaced and all hub seals checked.

You should check to make sure the rear axle hub is not leaking oil. Sometimes the high heat can damage the hub seal and cause the rear diff oil to leak out.

If you have ABS on your RV there is a good chance you cooked the ABS sensor/s on your rear axle. The ABS sensors are pricey but typically very easy to replace. If the ABS sensor was damaged your ABS light will be on within the instrument cluster.

It looks like you already did this but make sure to check that your brake pad’s still have a good amount of remaining material. Also check the drum or disk and make sure it’s not damaged.

 

[proost]

Thanks a lot for the tips. Looks like we dodged a bullet on this one. I did develop a slight leak on an inner wheel. Turned out the valve stem retaining nut heated up and backed off of the stem a few turns. I had a shop do an inspection and also tighten that nut and we're good.

No ABS issues thankfully.

 

[THenne1713]

Beware, any tire that has rolled on low pressure can have unseen internal damage, even double handfuls of shredded rubber. This tire needs to be unmounted and inspected before highway use.

 

[proost]

Beware, any tire that has rolled on low pressure can have unseen internal damage, even double handfuls of shredded rubber. This tire needs to be unmounted and inspected before highway use.

Concur but thankfully it never did. We kept the pressure up within specs until we had it inspected. We were losing 1psi per 15mins.