Extremely Hot Rear Brakes---what can I do? What may be wrong?

[fishthenation]

I have a tandem trailer for my 2007 Champion 200 Elite.

Today, I traveled only 15 miles to the lake....and my rear tires were screamin' hot! Not the tires...but I believe the brakes themselves. When I dropped the boat in....the wheels were so hot, that I had smoke come up from both sides.
Then... I trailered boat home, and same thing.

I have a tourny in 7 hours---and am concerned.... is there a way I can just shut off those brakes temporarily? Could it be a wire? I did check the brake fluid...and its filled.

The trailer/boat are in great condition...but I don't know whats going on here?

The bearings are maintenance free..... so I don't know...please help.

[DaveH]

check the doc's that came witth the trailer, it should tell you how to disconect them in a emergency... disc brakes not releasing, sounds like that tourny is going to have to be put on hold till you figure it out, could catch on fire... good luck let us know the out come on what you did to fix it.

[KevinP]

All breaks have lock out system. Lock yours out. Sounds like your calipers may have stuck in closed position. First check that your tounge on trailer is all the way out. Then jack up one side of trailer. See if you can spin wheel freely. I had to use a large flat screw driver once to pop my calipers open. Put it between break pad and disc and pop open.

[fishthenation]

OK> soooo I'm leaving in 2 hours for my tourny, haven't gone to sleep yet cuz I really really needed to figure this one out. After searching "locked brakes" within these BBC boards, I found that....the other day I pulled the breakaway cable by accident as I left it hooked up to the hitch....well. I DIDN'T PRESS THE BREAKAWAY SYSTEM RESET

So...now my question is....did I ruin my brakes? How do I know that?

[KevinP]

Lock them out and worry about it when you get back. Not something you can do anything about at 3:30 AM

[DABS]

Now that you pushed the reset button, everything should operate normally. I doubt if you did anything to the brakes except lessen the life of the pads a bit.

[taeheel2az]

KevinP, I'd sure check out the bearings. I don't know about sealed bearings, but when the other kind gets that hot, it sure messes up the lubricant.

The time this happened to me, a bolt had worked loose inside the actuator, jamming the piston and preventing the bakes from releasing.

[KevinP]

Most likely just the pads got shaved, but when hubs get that hot, you can very easily lose a seal when dropping the trailer into the water. I always check my hubs to make sure they are cool to the touch before backing down the ramp. I already had to replace seals once.

[Superpro]

I agree with the other posts on this subject, but I have to say that there are NO "maintenence free bearings" on any trailer brand that I know of.

[gambler4]

mine were so hot today when i got home the tires steamed when i sprayed water on them i couldnt touch the wheel. at first i could not push it in th garage then something released and i could push it in. what do i need to do ?

[KevinP]

Make a new post directed to Lynn or Dennis. Sounds like you need to bleed your break lines,

[Ratltrap]

Sounds like a few things could be wrong, one thing is the master cylinder free play setting. When the tongue is pulled out all the way there should be about 1/16-1/8 of an inch of free play before the master cylinder push rod makes contact with the plunger of the master cylinder. The term "master cylinder free play" is when the plunger of the master cylinder relaxes all the way out and all of the pressurized brake fluid returns back to the fill chamber to await the next sequence.
Sometimes it's really hard to tell if this setting is right as with the friction and the shock absorbers on the sliding tongues it is hard to feel the free play, so here is the best way I know how to check for proper free play. Pull the tongue out all the way, pull the cover and the cap off the master cylinder fill hole, put on a pair of safety glasses and look straight down into the fill hole of the master cylinder. Then with your knee or a board you want to compress the tongue about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch, looking down into the master cylinder fill hole while you just start to compress the tongue. There should be a burst of brake fluid that tries to squirt out of the fill hole of the master cylinder. Sometimes it's a little burst of fluid and sometimes it will pop fluid right out of the fill hole, if you see the fluid sort of bubble up then there is a very good possiblity that the master cylinder is releasing the brake like pressure back into the master cylinder properly. Every time you pull the tongue all the way out the fluid in the lines should relax, every time you push the tounge in the little squirt or bubble should be there.
If you don't see the fluid squirt or bubble when you first try to push the tongue in then a couple of things could be happening, one the master cylinder plunger could be sticking due to rust or wear or the second item could be an improper adjustment of the master cylinder push rod free play or the tounge itself could be hanging up in the slide.
If you think the system is not letting the brake fluid back into the master cylinder, jack up one wheel that the brakes are on, make sure the tongue is pulled all the way out, try to turn the tire, if it is super hard to turn then crack open a bleeder on the wheel cylinder or caliper, if you have high pressure brake fluid squirt out then it's most likely in the master cylinder, if no pressure comes out then it could be a caliper or wheel cylinder hanging up.
One other thing that I see alot of people do is they are towing their boats with the tongue in a below level postion, this gives a false signal to the master cylinder as it thinks it's going to stop, the free play in the master cylinder never comes into play and the fluid pressure in the system is never released. It's best to be level or just a touch above level when towing your boat, in my opinion.
Hope I haven't confused you all too much. I sure miss the spell check feature!

[DABS]

The act of initializing the solenoid to release the brakes means you have trapped fluid in the lines. I take it you have pushed up on the release tab on the bottom of the actuator? Trapped fluid released by the solenoid would indicate the pushrod was still engaged either by a pulled cable, a pushrod caught in the release mechanism, a defective shock, a master cylinder piston that is not returning to zero, or a breakaway cable that is lodged between the master cylinder and the inner wall of the actuator. Pull the actuator all the way forward and perform a swirl test with a screwdriver in the access hole. If no swirl, the piston is not returned to zero. If the shock has equal resistance in both directions, most likely not the shock. You will have to disconnect the brake line and reverse solenoid wire to slide the actuator out to inspect the cable and piston behind the pushrod. If you are unsure about how the actuator goes together, simply replace the pins as the inner member clears the outer member body. Now you can take it to the bench for inspection. Observe the routing of the cable and look for witness marks where the cable routes around the bracket on the master cylinder. When re-assembling, make sure the bullet on the cable attachment plate is pushed all the way up so there is no interference with the brace with the pushrod hole in it.