Intermittent brake locking up on travel trailer

[Kbarker]

I have a 2021 Keystone Cougar 29RLDSW and occasionally, the tires of the trailer will lock-up when I put the slightest pressure on the tow vehicle brakes. It does not happen every time I apply the brakes, just intermittently. I have adjusted the electronic brake control to a lower setting and everything seemed to work normally, but when I pulled the trailer today, one of the times the brakes on the driver’s side of the trailer locked up, causing smoke to come off of skidding tires. Any suggestions on what would be causing this and a possible fix? Thanks in advance.

[NH_Bulldog]

Each brake assembly is individually adjustable. If you have one wheel locking up, it is likely that you need to check the adjustments on all the brakes.

This past summer, I had one wheel getting hot and I thought it may be a bearing issue. When I jacked it up, the bearings felt great so I pulled the wheel and found a friction shoe had come unglued from the brake shoe assembly.

You should be pulling the wheel assemblies apart at least yearly to inspect, clean and adjust the brakes at the same time you are inspecting, repacking and adjusting the bearings. I do this every spring before our camping season starts.

[travelin texans]

If you, or anyone else, has ever pumped grease using the EZ Lube system you quite possibly could have 3 drums full of grease & only 1 brake actually working.
As mentioned pull all 4 to inspect brakes & pack bearings & I'd strongly recommend NEVER using the EZ Lube system.

[Kbarker]

Originally Posted by NH_Bulldog

Each brake assembly is individually adjustable. If you have one wheel locking up, it is likely that you need to check the adjustments on all the brakes.

This past summer, I had one wheel getting hot and I thought it may be a bearing issue. When I jacked it up, the bearings felt great so I pulled the wheel and found a friction shoe had come unglued from the brake shoe assembly.

You should be pulling the wheel assemblies apart at least yearly to inspect, clean and adjust the brakes at the same time you are inspecting, repacking and adjusting the bearings. I do this every spring before our camping season starts.

Thank you.

[dutchmensport]

If the break engages and you are NOT pressing the break peddle in the tow vehicle, then you probably have a frayed brake electric wire that is making contact with metal causing the brake to activate. If it's doing this all on it's own, its a wiring issue.

If the wheel is locking up when you press the brake peddle and then unlocks when you disengage the brake peddle, then it's probably one of the reasons mentioned above in the prior posts.

[Ramtop]

This summer we bought a 2014 269fwrls Copper Canyon fifth wheel in mint condition. On our first trip out with it we made it 4 miles from the house when 1 wheel started locking up at intersections. We hadn’t had any problems on the 2 hour drive home from where we bought it. So we found a place to pull off the road and I ended up backing that break off a lot to get it from locking up. When we got home, I tore it apart and found that the backing plate had a slight tweak in it causing one brake shoe to jam in the out position. I then took them all apart to repack bearings and new seals. I found another one that was missing a part from the factory where the arm pivots. So I ended up putting on 2 new brake assemblies. On a 3rd one, I found the magnet was not working and replaced it. None of them were adjusted up enough because the previous owner didn’t do that kind of stuff I think. By the time I was done, it was like a whole different animal when stopping. In reality, between all the issues, we very little braking power on the camper. So if I was you, I would check over all your brakes because you might have more than one problem.