200 mile Brake inspection

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

I realize several people have had issues with the grease seals but I had my Redwood for exactly 3 years to the day and I didn't have any problems with them. In those 3 years I pulled the Redwood over well over 30,000 miles and repacked the wheel bearings twice. The second time, the grease look so good I thought it was a waste of time.

About 3 times a year (or before a long trip) I would hit each grease zerk with 3 or 4 pumps of grease and I never had a problem. I did have the factory disk brakes.

Completely different manufacturer for disks. I don't think anyone has had any issues with the disk brake seals.

[Blenhardt]

After I had pulled my 2013 RW about 5000 miles I noticed my braking was not as good as it should be. I pulled all four wheels and drums and all had grease on them. Had to change one brake assembly. I know, I could have only changed the brake shoes but elected to replace the assembly. I had slowly pumped one or two squirts of grease in the EZ Lube with a small hand grease gun a few times with wheels off the ground. I blame bad seals on the problem but cannot be 100% sure since I used the EZ Lube. I have since repacked my bearings twice. I will NOT ever use the EZ lube. I paid for the repair parts and did the labor because I did not want to deal with taking the coach to a dealer.

[RomanyLife]

We go in this week to have the bearings repacked and we will do a thorough inspection of everything at that time. Definitely will report back! Our brakes "feel" like they are ok (we travel down a long, steep road leaving our place for two miles) and would definitely feel this portly girl pushing our truck. Nothing so far. Not only that, it's amazingly orderly inside after we travel. The only evidence of travel is my empty clothes hangers fall on the floor, literally that's it. We must have everything set just right ;-)

[travelin' texans]

Bruce, most times it's cheaper & a lot less work to replace the entire break backing plate. When all 4 of mine were greased up it was just a couple less $$ to just replace shoes, but way more mess, 5 bolts, 2 wires per wheel was worth the extra $!

[Blenhardt]

I agree, that is why I replaced the whole assembly. The other three had a little grease on the shoes but I was able to clean it off.

[RomanyLife]

UPDATE: We are back from service and have a report.
Good news! Our brakes and seals are just fine. No grease, no leaking seals and no problems. We have 65% left on our brakes and the trailer has been towed approximately 3000 miles including delivery from Indiana to dealership. We took delivery on our 2015 in June 2014.

We had our bearings repacked, though they told us it was not necessary yet, so all is well. No complaints, no worries.

There was a problem with the shackles... but that's on another thread :-) We are in the middle of fixing that.