How do your brakes look after 7500 miles

GTXRAS · 10-09-2015, 11:20 PM

Just spent the last few days doing the MorRyde SRE 4000 and Titan Disk Brake upgrades. We have about 7500 miles on the house since buying it on 2/10/15. I am amazed at how bad the brakes look.

I knew they must have been greasy as they did not work very well but no idea they were this bad. This is the Left side. Right side rear looked the same. Right side front had a little shoe left.

Have not pulled it yet with the disks but I am sure they will make big difference.

Rick

xtasee · 10-09-2015, 11:27 PM

That is incredible! 7500 miles is about what some vehicles go between oil changes these days. Do you think you had a controller hang up or do you just do that much down hill?

GTXRAS · 10-09-2015, 11:38 PM

No, just inadequate for this size of RV.

Shane Wood · 10-10-2015, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTXRAS

Just spent the last few days doing the MorRyde SRE 4000 and Titan Disk Brake upgrades. We have about 7500 miles on the house since buying it on 2/10/15. I am amazed at how bad the brakes look.

I knew they must have been greasy as they did not work very well but no idea they were this bad. This is the Left side. Right side rear looked the same. Right side front had a little shoe left.

Have not pulled it yet with the disks but I am sure they will make big difference.

Rick

After looking at those brakes and if you have Ron's Titan brakes installed . You better have your seat belt on when you hit that pedal

rob_fla · 10-10-2015, 04:08 AM

Wow, we have about 10K miles on our Redwood, inspected the brakes, bearings and seals a few weeks ago, all looked to be in pretty good condition.

GTXRAS · 10-10-2015, 05:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shane Wood

After looking at those brakes and if you have Ron's Titan brakes installed . You better have your seat belt on when you hit that pedal

Shane,

I am hoping

Rick

GTXRAS · 10-10-2015, 05:47 AM

And here are the plastic bushings.
Right side.

Left side

The worse one on each side was the rear leaf spring hanger.

travelin' texans · 10-10-2015, 06:07 AM

Did you clean those bushings before the photos? If you didn't, they were probably never greased or were like mine & wouldn't take grease. The rear spring eye on mine were worn out also.

GTXRAS · 10-10-2015, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelin' texans

Did you clean those bushings before the photos? If you didn't, they were probably never greased or were like mine & wouldn't take grease. The rear spring eye on mine were worn out also.

No I did not clean them. Only grease I found was on the brakes.

**Dave&Ginny** · 10-10-2015, 11:55 AM

I'm really glad you found this problem before it became a dangerous situation. With the bushings not showing any grease, all the warranty issues would in all likelyhood be denied due to lack of maintence.

This is just one more example of the POS bushings being used with disrespect of safety. Although its my understanding that that they've now upgraded their bushings on the new rigs, these should have never been used even on a pop up camper. Why did it take so long? The NTSB should have recalled these and Lippert sent to the dogs along with any company that allowed these to be used. VERY disappointing!

almcc · 10-10-2015, 01:29 PM

Our RW is in for maintenance, the brakes are toast as a result of grease getting past blown seals. I suspect they were like that since it came from the factory.

The bushings are also toast, and some holes in the shackles are also elongated.

I've had the same issue on other RV's we've owned, it's sad that manufacturers put suspension components on RV's that are weak and fail in one or two years of service when there are better components available.

Sorry for the rant!

**piper guy** · 10-10-2015, 02:47 PM

It was a big decision $$ wise but this is one of several reasons why we spent the extra and had the MORyde IS and disc brakes done.
Besides the ride and handling difference, the whole rig stops incredibly well and I never have to be concerned with springs and bushings. Virtually all of the upper end fifth wheels now have the IS as standard or at least an option.

And disc brakes should be standard on these heavy coaches.

End of my .02

mhs4771 · 10-10-2015, 03:54 PM

Couldn't agree more Vaughan.

**hoosierguy** · 10-10-2015, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

I'm really glad you found this problem before it became a dangerous situation. With the bushings not showing any grease, all the warranty issues would in all likelyhood be denied due to lack of maintence.

This is just one more example of the POS bushings being used with disrespect of safety. Although its my understanding that that they've now upgraded their bushings on the new rigs, these should have never been used even on a pop up camper. Why did it take so long? The NTSB should have recalled these and Lippert sent to the dogs along with any company that allowed these to be used. VERY disappointing!

Dave.........I concur completely. I don't understand how any engineering group could possibly allow such poor, poor, poor crap to be used on what is supposed to be a high quality designed coach. There is just no excuse for this type of issue other than incompetence. The bushings on mine looked even worse than those above when I changed them out this past July. And mine had been greased every year. Shame on the RV industry mentality.

mhs4771 · 10-10-2015, 05:08 PM

Those are the same type of bushing that were used on our 1991 Fleetwood Prowler 24M TT with maybe 4500 Gross Weight.

travelin' texans · 10-10-2015, 05:30 PM

I wonder if those plastic bushings were for shipment of the axles, I noticed at factory tour they were stacked up next to the upside down frames, & designed to be replaced before installation & someone skipped that step & no one pays any attention cause "that's not my job man".

atom ant · 10-10-2015, 06:13 PM

I have to defend Redwood a little bit- they aren't alone in the plastic bushing issue. All of my Keystone products had them, and replacement of the bushing with brass was even an article in the last "Trailer Life" Magazine which said the life expectancy of of the plastic OEM bushings (trailers in general) is about 1,000 miles.

So Redwood isn't doing anything any worse than the others, but not any better either. If they have a fix, they are sure slow in getting it publicized!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTXRAS

No, just inadequate for this size of RV.

I would have to definitely disagree on your conclusion on the brakes - this is not normal wear on drum brakes. You can argue they are insufficiently sized, but more likely defective, incorrectly adjusted, or inappropriately proportioned brake setting between the truck and trailer, and possibly even driving habits. Others are not having the same issue.

travelin' texans · 10-10-2015, 07:12 PM

"I would have to definitely disagree on your conclusion on the brakes - this is not normal wear on drum brakes. You can argue they are insufficiently sized, but more likely defective, incorrectly adjusted, or inappropriately proportioned brake setting between the truck and trailer, and possibly even driving habits. Others are not having the same issue."

I would have to agree, mine had more than 7500 miles when I found them covered in grease & still had plenty of pad left. The brake shoes on these don't have a lot of pad on the shoes to begin with, but something caused yours to wear too quickly. It's still very disheartening in find these kinds of issues in such a short time on these nice rigs.

**hoosierguy** · 10-10-2015, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atom ant

I have to defend Redwood a little bit- they aren't alone in the plastic bushing issue. All of my Keystone products had them, and replacement of the bushing with brass was even an article in the last "Trailer Life" Magazine which said the life expectancy of of the plastic OEM bushings (trailers in general) is about 1,000 miles.

So Redwood isn't doing anything any worse than the others, but not any better either. If they have a fix, they are sure slow in getting it publicized!

I would have to definitely disagree on your conclusion on the brakes - this is not normal wear on drum brakes. You can argue they are insufficiently sized, but more likely defective, incorrectly adjusted, or inappropriately proportioned brake setting between the truck and trailer, and possibly even driving habits. Others are not having the same issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelin' texans

"I would have to definitely disagree on your conclusion on the brakes - this is not normal wear on drum brakes. You can argue they are insufficiently sized, but more likely defective, incorrectly adjusted, or inappropriately proportioned brake setting between the truck and trailer, and possibly even driving habits. Others are not having the same issue."

I would have to agree, mine had more than 7500 miles when I found them covered in grease & still had plenty of pad left. The brake shoes on these don't have a lot of pad on the shoes to begin with, but something caused yours to wear too quickly. It's still very disheartening in find these kinds of issues in such a short time on these nice rigs.

I guess you could say that Redwood's Engineering and Marketing departments just don't pay enough attention to the "squeeky wheel" issues. Oh, I forgot, they are part of an RV industry that hasn't really learned to pay attention to what their good customers really want.

GTXRAS · 10-11-2015, 01:13 AM

I suppose you can say my driving habits are the problem. That's the easy out. I have never had brake problems on any of our other trailers. Those had Dexter brakes so that could be why. We run between 60-65. Maybe it could have been the Indian that walked out in front of us on I40 about 8 weeks ago. Caused the pads to disintegrate, maybe. That slow down moved my hitch. We missed him, barely. Not profiling, we were crossing the res and did get a good look at him.

Couple of trailers in the Park we are in are lighter and shorter and have 3 inch factory brakes. Makes me wonder.

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