Dragging Brakes

[DT6]

While taking a turn into Lava Beds National Monument yesterday a gentleman honked his horn at us so I stopped. He said there was a lot of smoke coming from the trailer tires (2019 Escape 19). After thanking him, I had room to test it so I sped up to about 20 mph and hit the brakes and sure enough a while cloud of smoke was coming from the drivers side. Possible it was coming from the passenger side too, but it was raining and a bit harder to see out that side.

I have a 2018 Ford F150 with a factory installed brake controller and tow package.

1. I changed the brake controller setting from "7" which is where we have had it set since picking up the trailer from Escape in early 2020, to "4" and this seemed to help but not completely eliminate the problem.

2. I looked up some information on the Dexter Page that I picked up from a sticky post here in the forum on brakes and bearings (last post to that thread was 2020 so someone let me know if I should have posted there instead). It says:

• Check for defective controller (I'll have to get the Ford dealer to check as it is a factory installed option).
• Check for corroded brake assembly. (I looked at these a month or two ago and they were in great shape, this was the first trip with the trailer since then. My only concern is that when I took the brake drum off to check the bearing repack, I may have messed up something. In my defense, it seemed rather simple to take the drum off and put it back on even though I had not done a drum brake job in 30 years).
• Check for weak or broken brake shoe return spring. (everything looked fine a month ago and no use since then)
• Check for worn or damaged lever arm between magnet and brake shoe.
• Check for improper controller installation.

I am also wondering if there is some electronic controller on the brakes themselves (I have no electronic brake experience), and if so can it be adjusted? I'm asking this as I'm wondering if the recommendation I had from the RV repair shop to replace the brakes when it was in for a bearing repack may have had some merit after all (but they were not clear about reasoning to replace them at the time)
This is the post from that discussion and I did post pics of my brakes at the time. https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...kes-22530.html

So from factory to now, we have never had a brake problem until this first trip since the bearing repack a few months ago.

As I mentioned before I do have some mechanics experience, I just like to avoid when I can. With that in mind should I take this somewhere to be evaluated or is there any trouble shooting that I can reasonably do?

[JohnK]

DT6, your 2018 Ford is likely different from our 2011 Silverado, but, we did have a brake drag problem which turned out to be a faulty switch on the TV brake pedal arm itself. That brake pedal switch illuminates and extinguishes the brake lights which in turn activate and deactivate the electric trailer brakes. Replacing that old switch with a new one immediately fixed our brake dragging problem.

John

[Rossue]

If the brakes are out of adjustment(too loose) then when activated the shoes will travel further and can slap against the brake drum and lock up.

[cityofdestiny]

Originally Posted by Rossue

If the brakes are out of adjustment(too loose) then when activated the shoes will travel further and can slap against the brake drum and lock up.

I had one wheel with an out of adjustment brake when my trailer was new. It locked once at low speed at a gas station. I actually had to reverse the trailer to get it to unlock. It happened again shortly thereafter when I was in a traffic jam on dry pavement. Murphy’s law being what it is, there was no place to pull off. The brake released itself, but not before ruining the tire.

I adjusted all four after that and have had no problems since. Lesson learned. They all now get adjusted at least once a year when I’m doing the bearings or more frequently if there is any indication of an issue..