Brake Magnet Wear

[DetnNet]

I have been able to find great information to help diagnose problems. I have not found much on this topic. Last fall I had the local camper folks / repair place repack the wheel bearings on the 5er. I was told the brakes pads were fine. I had kept these adjusted myself. However the brake magnets had grooves in them and would soon need to be replaced. The drums also had grooves which in the shop's opinion was excessive. One cause mentioned was the brake controller set to high. I did have the controller set to 10. You can see the rig in my sig.. The suggestion was to back off the controller to 6 or 7. I have read the many posts on how to set the controller and was never able to get the 5er wheels to slip in gravel at about 20 mph and full stop using the manual levers for the brake controller in the truck. It is a factory brake controller for the 2015 Chevy truck (stock). Could to high a setting in the brake controller cause the grooving in the brake drum / magnet? Or could this have been grooved brake drums from the factory? Or another cause? I have had the 5er from 2016 new and had bearings packed regularly / yearly. I would have thought if the drums were grooved the shop would have said something before since they serviced/repacked the bearings from the beginning. Thoughts?

[chuckster57]

I seriously doubt the grooves were there from the factory. How is the braking with it set to 6 or 7? How deep are the grooves?

[DetnNet]

Thanks for the reply. I have new magnets as they were replaced last fall when this issue was found. I wish I had taken a picture of the drums. When I looked the drums, grooves were about 1/8 inch deep. braking at 6 or 7 when I activate the manual paddles will stop the truck if I am rolling at about 10- 15 mph.

[chuckster57]

JMHO, I would run them and figure on replacing at then end of the season. If you don’t have self adjusting brakes, that would be a good time to consider them.

[DetnNet]

Thanks. I also had the drums replaced last fall with the magnets after this issue was found. All is working fine and will run the brake setting at something less than 10. The stopping distance was reasonable for the 6-7 setting. I was just curious if you can get grooves in the drum and magnet when the braking force is set to high? We have about 3 years of time on this 5er. with about 2 trips a year averaging 2-3 k per trip. I am not a heavy braker since we also have the exhaust brakes on the diesel.

[gearhead]

You might be able to have the drums turned if it happens again. There is a maximum inside diameter stamped somewhere on the drum. The issue will be that in the process of turning them if they won't "clean-up" before hitting the maximum diameter, the job will stop and new drums will have to be ordered. Be prepared.
If you get back into the brakes again I would order the self adjusting brakes like Chuckster said. You can get entire assembly, backplate, magnets, shoes from eTrailer for not much more than manual adjusters.

[DetnNet]

Thanks for helpful replies. I will have more time at the end of the season and will repack the bearings myself. I will certainly look into etrailers for self adjusting brakes. It would one less thing to worry about.