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Old 06-02-2020, 05:58 PM   #1
Cpap
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Outback brake failure

This past Saturday we were returning home with our 2019 Outback and passing cars alerted me to a problem with my camper. I stopped to find the front passenger side wheel was one fire. I put out the flames with an extinguisher. Many hours later a tow truck and service truck came and had to remove the wheel in order to get the wheel spinning. We found all the parts of that brake loose and mangled inside the brake drum. The camper is 15 months old and has approximately 3000 miles of towing on it. I have yet to contact Keystone about this. Anyone else have a problem like this?
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Old 06-02-2020, 06:04 PM   #2
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A wheel on fire comes from heat generated by?? Were the brakes locked down inside the wheel for some reason? Failed bearings? Removed the wheel to get it spinning? What was the determination of the failure? Failed bearings are common as are maladjusted brakes. A little more info would help.
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Old 06-02-2020, 06:06 PM   #3
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Not quite so dramatic, but yes. I had installed Dexter self-adjusting assemblies. Within about 2000 miles one of them completely fell apart and was rattling around inside the drum. No fire though. I discovered because I was getting a 'Trailer Disconnected' message and losing trailer brakes. Started checking things out and found the problem.
Dexter did replace the brake assembly. That was about my only recourse since I put them on.

good luck
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Old 06-02-2020, 10:23 PM   #4
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Did you or the dealer pump grease into the EZ lube system? If so the seals may have been bypassed with grease filling the drums, it's very easily done.
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Old 06-03-2020, 07:59 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cpap View Post
This past Saturday we were returning home with our 2019 Outback and passing cars alerted me to a problem with my camper. I stopped to find the front passenger side wheel was one fire. I put out the flames with an extinguisher. Many hours later a tow truck and service truck came and had to remove the wheel in order to get the wheel spinning. We found all the parts of that brake loose and mangled inside the brake drum. The camper is 15 months old and has approximately 3000 miles of towing on it. I have yet to contact Keystone about this. Anyone else have a problem like this?
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Originally Posted by travelin texans View Post
Did you or the dealer pump grease into the EZ lube system? If so the seals may have been bypassed with grease filling the drums, it's very easily done.
Just this week we had a similar incident with our 2018 Raptor 353TS. This trailer was purchased new by us in May of 2019, so it is about 13 months old and has about 4,000 miles. It was time to do the annual wheel bearing maintenance. The trailer is equipped with Dexter EZ-Lube 7K axles and auto adjust electric brakes.

[Sidebar: EZ-Lube tends to have 2 following camps; it is either "great" or "horrible". Dexter, a respected US manufacturer swears by the system; many experienced users state they have had horrible experiences with EZ-Lube. How much of this bad experience is simply "word of mouth" and/or based on improper use of the system is impossible to determine. In use, the axle MUST be raised off the ground, rotated, and grease added slowly with a hand pumped grease gun.]

In my case, I fall somewhere in the middle - with low annual miles, I have used the EZ-Lube system on prior trailers (typically every other year) and have never had any problems. However, I also believe the most valuable thing you can add to your trailer is a little "sweat equity" in the form of preventative maintenance. With a new trailer, I had no idea if the axles had been properly assembled and the bearings properly lubricated during manufacture. So, this first year I wanted to actually pull the wheel bearings, inspect everything, hand pack the bearings, and re-assemble everything. After doing so, I KNOW what I've got. Next year? If another low mileage year I very well may use the EZ-Lube system as designed by Dexter.

For this year, everything went well until I got to the forward passenger side wheel (the same one you had problems with). Upon disassembly, I found parts of the auto-adjuster and an "odd" nut floating loose in the drum. The beat up odd nut was clearly an extra nut from the 5 required nuts holding the backing plate to the spindle. Since none of the 5 nuts were missing, I could only conclude that during assembly, one of the nuts was dropped. Rather than finding that nut, the assembler simply grabbed a 6th nut and bolted it together, leaving the loose nut to roll around in the assembly and ultimately take out the adjuster. Other than that, there was no apparent damage to the break assembly, hub, spindle, or elsewhere. Had I not chosen to inspect this myself, I very likely could have experienced exactly what you did with a catastrophic failure & fire. Danny's right; filling the drum with grease from misuse of the EZ-Lube system would easily add petrochemical fuel to any high heat potential fire scenarios.

So, praise God, the decision to verify the assembly by doing my own maintenance potentially saved me from having your same experience. Now that I know the condition of my brake/wheel assemblies, I will have more confidence in choosing the best maintenance work for the future.

Our trailer is just beyond the 1 year Keystone warrantee but still within the 2 year Dexter warrantee. I contacted Dexter, filled out a warrantee form and they IMMEDIATELY agreed to send me a complete new brake assembly - they also offered to pay the cost of replacement. I passed on that since the unit was disassembled and sitting in my driveway. Besides, I'd rather put it together knowing what I have rather than trusting a shop somewhere in town.
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Old 06-03-2020, 11:26 AM   #6
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A wheel on fire comes from heat generated by?? Were the brakes locked down inside the wheel for some reason? Failed bearings? Removed the wheel to get it spinning? What was the determination of the failure? Failed bearings are common as are maladjusted brakes. A little more info would help.
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Did you or the dealer pump grease into the EZ lube system? If so the seals may have been bypassed with grease filling the drums, it's very easily done.
The bearings had not been greased via the EZ Lube.

"We found all the parts of that brake loose and mangled inside the brake drum." Complete brake hardware failure is the best explanation I have because it was all so mangled there is really no way to tell what exactly failed. The heat was evidently generated by the brake shoes dragging because they were not attached to anything and the fire seemed to be from grease which bypassed the inner seal from getting hot and expanding. The bearing was still laterally tight before disassembly and rolling smooth after removing the parts from the brake drum and reassembly. These are deductions based on what we saw at night along side the interstate. The camper is now 500+ miles from home at a Camping World which is backed up on repairs into July.
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Old 06-03-2020, 11:35 AM   #7
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The bearings had not been greased via the EZ Lube.

"We found all the parts of that brake loose and mangled inside the brake drum." Complete brake hardware failure is the best explanation I have because it was all so mangled there is really no way to tell what exactly failed. The heat was evidently generated by the brake shoes dragging because they were not attached to anything and the fire seemed to be from grease which bypassed the inner seal from getting hot and expanding. The bearing was still laterally tight before disassembly and rolling smooth after removing the parts from the brake drum and reassembly. These are deductions based on what we saw at night along side the interstate. The camper is now 500+ miles from home at a Camping World which is backed up on repairs into July.

I am glad you are safe and the damage wasn't far worse. I've stopped a couple of semis in my time and seen others that caught on fire from a burning wheel/tire. It could have taken the trailer. You might want to look into a TPMS system that would monitor those tire temps.

The trailer is 500+ miles away? Is that by choice or are you stranded on your trip? If you are stranded and in route they should be able to do much better than that.
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Old 06-03-2020, 11:46 AM   #8
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Thank you. This could have been so worse in so may ways, I was about to get into the mountains of Tenn so it could have failed on a steep downhill or yes, the whole trailer could've burned. I think I caught it just as the flames started.

I am going to seriously consider getting a temp/pressure monitoring system after this.

We transferred our stuff to our truck and made it home a day late. There is an insurance claim on it so CW won't touch it until an insurance adjuster gives them the go ahead...long story but I'm not thrilled with Progressive insurance and their roadside assistance right now.
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Old 06-03-2020, 11:54 AM   #9
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Side bar... how do you like the 6.4 Hemi towing your FW? How much does your rig weigh? I'm very happy with mine, I switched from a Ford Power stroke to the hemi and don't regret it. IMO Ram makes a better driving truck and from my experience more reliable.
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Old 06-03-2020, 12:29 PM   #10
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The hemi and the 5th wheel is a complicated story. I bought the one ton and hemi 4.10 anticipating a 5th wheel with about a 12k gvw. Ended up with this one instead after I bought that truck at the end of Dec. It's first trip towing this trailer was this one; from TX to FL. I had told DW that I figured a diesel was in our future when we got here to FL. I was extremely, pleasantly surprised on its performance coming down. I think it will do just fine if I don't go overboard on carrying things. GVW is about 14,500 and unloaded is 11,500. We carried about 12-1300 lbs of stuff in the other trailer and moved it straight over then took some stuff out, then added so it will be about the same. I didn't have time to take it to a scale after purchase and before leaving. As far as reliability I've never had an issue except with the 5.7 in a 1500 when they came out in 2003 and that was a computer glitch.

After having that failure and having to leave your trailer 500 miles away for repairs, Progressive hasn't even got to it yet? I think I'd be twisting someone's ear and getting some quotes from other insurers. When we had a blowout in '15 I called the insurance company to tell them what happened and I was taking it to a dealer. Got to CW right before closing time that evening and dropped it off. The Geico adjuster was there and had given them a check for the repairs (right at 7k) before I got there at noon the next day (I live about 60 miles from the dealer).
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Old 06-03-2020, 12:53 PM   #11
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The claim isn't the real problem, I am not going to have time to go get it any time soon but I do plan to push for them to deliver it to me since a 1000 mile round trip will take at least 3 days of my time including time off work on top of the extra day I already had to take getting home.

The problem was the roadside assistance or lack there of. It took about 6 hours for roadside assistance to dispatch a tow truck and, with the tow truck on the way, they came to the conclusion that it would have to be a claim because of the fire so they cancelled the tow truck. When I got on the phone with claims (with the tow truck driver standing next to me) they told me I would have to pay for the tow truck and "possibly" get reimbursed. Thankfully the tow truck driver came to help even though he got cancelled, had sympathy for me, and gave a good deal on the tow which I had to pay for in spite of my roadside assistance which I pay extra for on my insurance. I feel insurance shopping is in my future.
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Old 06-03-2020, 01:02 PM   #12
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If you start shopping around for insurance just keep in mind that the roadside assistance is hopefully a very small part of the insurance plan. Optimistically you would never have to use it. I've got at least 4 plans and I've not found one of them any good for roadside assistance in certain areas. I have met some nice repair guys like you.....and had to pay them then get reimbursed.
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Old 06-03-2020, 01:13 PM   #13
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I think I will separate the 2 services in the future maybe AAA for roadside assistance? I had Good Sam roadside assistance and had bad service with them in the past also.
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Old 06-03-2020, 02:35 PM   #14
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Might I ask where your Progressive agent lives?I believe a drive out to their house and having a face to face is in order. Progressive has let you down big time. I have bolstered Geico's image everywhere I go and they have NEVER let me down in 47 years. When we broke down 4 years ago on Thanksgiving the rep on the phone called every tow truck within 30 miles of our location with no luck. We finally found a large truck triple axle tow truck to do the job and they refunded our bill (and yes, including our $50 tip to the driver) in three days.
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Old 06-03-2020, 03:04 PM   #15
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I think I will separate the 2 services in the future maybe AAA for roadside assistance? I had Good Sam roadside assistance and had bad service with them in the past also.

Just to piggyback on what Jim said, you might want to look into other providers for general coverage as well. I've got Geico, have had them for years, and I can truly say that they outperform any insurance company I've had before.

As far as Progressive, and I know agents, location etc. make a big difference but here's the tale that ended my business with them. Bought a new boat in 2003. At the time I had virtually everything with them boats, cars, trucks, toys etc. I'm sure I had the houses as well but it may have been subbed out to another company.

Took that new boat out with my daughter and her family a few weeks after I bought it to a lake I was unfamiliar with. Right off the bat found that the depth meter didn't work so tried to be cautious. We were riding down the lake, at least 100 yds. from shore observing a boat that someone had obviously driven at high speed the night before way up on the shoreline. Engine knocked back and you could see the tracks of the boat as it ran up the shore - whoever obviously had a little too much fun the night before. Anyway, as we laughed (did I say we were more than 100 yds. offshore?) I had a big bam and the boat started vibrating badly. Pulled up the lower unit and could see the prop was mangled and the skeg was pretty much broken off. Limped it in, trailered it and went home then called Progressive.

Took the boat to the dealer I had bought it from for him to look at it and give Progressive the scoop. Called me back a few days later and said the Progressive adjuster had been there and it didn't look good - they would replace the prop....??? Really, I say? Yep. I told him I would take care of it. Went to see him the next day and he showed me the terribly bent prop shaft and tried to roll it on a table top. He said she told me it wasn't bent! What about the skeg repair? She said it didn't hurt anything (now this boat was a couple of weeks old or so and that was a nice 5.7L sitting in there). I called the adjuster and told her I wanted her to come to the boat shop, she said she was busy. I asked "how busy", I'm going to wait. Sorry, this post is getting too long. I got it ironed out, she understood what a bent prop shaft and disintegrated skeg was when she left and it was all covered. I moved all my coverages to State Farm immediately.

Long story (I'm sorry) about my Progressive experience. I know experiences differ from place to place and a lot depends on the agent/adjustor. Just wanted to share that in the event your adjustor turns out to be sort of like mine.
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Old 06-03-2020, 03:08 PM   #16
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I don't know if Progressive is this way but some insurance companies count a roadside service against you the same as an accident. I would never take that risk.
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Old 06-03-2020, 03:16 PM   #17
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My progressive involvement is via USAA so I really don't have an agent. I wish Progressive was as good as USAA. I have all my other insurance through USAA but they don't do RVs directly.
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Old 06-03-2020, 03:18 PM   #18
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I don't know if Progressive is this way but some insurance companies count a roadside service against you the same as an accident. I would never take that risk.
Hmmmm? I never though of that. That would be unacceptable in my book.
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Old 06-03-2020, 03:22 PM   #19
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I tried to post pics of the carnage but the site wanted a URL for the pics. How can I post pics with posting them on another website 1st?
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Old 06-03-2020, 05:36 PM   #20
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I tried to post pics of the carnage but the site wanted a URL for the pics. How can I post pics with posting them on another website 1st?
When you click on "REPLY" the gray box appears which is where you type your reply, then look at the top of the box. You'll see Fonts, etc. Just to the right of the "smiley face" is a paper clip. Click on that paper clip, a second window will open, choose your photos from your computer files and then click on open. When you get all the photos selected (max of 5) then click on upload, close that box and click on submit reply. Your photos should be included in the post.
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