Disintegrating brake shoes Elddis Crusader

Jan 11, 2009
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Hello everybody. First use of caravan this weekend-great short stay in Kessingland. Delighted to find everything in working order despite the harsh winter-two bottles of tonic had exploded in the cupboard presumably when they froze solid (note to self: drink ALL the gin and tonic this summer) but other than that no bother.
On the way home though, travelling on A14 at 60 mph and over an hour after setting off, there was a sudden tug on the tow bar without warning. By an incredible stroke of luck, we were only 200 yards from a layby. When I checked the van, the brake lever was fully off, but one of the nearside wheels on my twin axle Elddis Crusader Sirocco 2000 was smoking. A quick response from a local breakdown company (arranged through Insurance Choice-cheap and efficient and I would recommend them) and a friendly mechanic removed the offending wheel and brake drum. Inside he found that one of the brake linings had come detached from the shoe, and had been carried round inside the drum to lodge between the opposite brake shoe and drum-hence the sudden braking effect. The brake shoes are a mess, but because the incident occurred so close to a layby and I was able to stop almost straight away, the drum and backplate are undamaged.
I've looked in the Haynes Caravan Manual (John Wickersham) and I'm put off doing what should be a simple replacement of all four sets of brake shoes by the one-shot hub nut, and John's advice that getting the right torque setting with a "normal" torque wrench is (a) critical, and (b) impossible because it "requires a special tool". The brake assembly itself is almost identical to many car drum brakes I've repaired over the years.
What do you think? Should I have a go or leave it to the local dealer, and how easy is it to get the necessary parts?
Thanks for any help or advice.
 
Nov 6, 2005
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I would get the dealer to do it from my experience.
My first Elddis Crusader was serviced at an approved service centre,when i got home from the 65 mile journey you couldnt touch the wheels they were that hot,they came out to me the next day after much wrangling and said that BPW brakes are notoriously difficult to set up!
You have to think why did the lining become detached? was is down to being poorly adjusted and the heat generated caused it to become detatched?
 
Jan 11, 2009
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That tends to reinforce my doubts about a DIY repair. The van was serviced last year at a local dealership. I have no reason to doubt the quality of his work-when the breakdown mechanic removed the offending brake drum yesterday, I could see the nut was marked with red paint just as described in the Haynes Manual, and the torque was considerable-the "FT" torque setting as my mate used to say
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I was charged on the service invoice for 4 new hub nuts so I would guess the service was well done and all adjustments set correctly. The incident occurred on the way home-by the time it happened, I had towed over 150 miles without any problem, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't seized on after winter storage. Maybe just one of those things, but I'm nervous about it happening on one of the other 3 brakes now!
 
Apr 26, 2010
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Why it happend is difficult to say without knowing all the facts and from my experiance operating thousands of pieces of plant equipment and hundreds of vehicles of all types these types of incidents occur on a fairly regular basis.

But the first question I would ask is was it the whole breakshoe that became unattached and jammed into the other shoe or was it the linning that became unattached and disintigrated.
If it was the latter was it a rivetted shoe or an adhesive type of shoe.
Finally you were lucky that you were close to a layby and that you noticed the problem.

I have invested in a TYRE PAL System that would have picked up the change in temprature and or inflation due to heat I apprciate they are expensive but well worth it if it happens again
 
Apr 26, 2010
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At a guess then I would assume that the adhesive compound used when fitting the shoe was either contaminated or had lost its ability to adhead.

Then when the vehicle was braked the linning came free from the shoe which caused the damage.
I personally prefer the rivet type the only disadvantage being when they get worn down they risk scoring the drum as opposed to the glue type.
I would take a sample of the shoe to a brake factor and I am sure they will be able to supply the same type either in glue form or rivet form. they would probably even reshoe your exsisitng shoe for you.
Fitting a brake shoe does not take a genius and if you do it yourself you can besure of the following:
1. The shoe was correctly manufactured before fitting
2. The brake shoe has been fitted correctly
3. The shoes are adjusted correctly and bedded correctly
4. You can adjust them after the first 100 miles
5. The wheels are torqued up correctly
Remeber just because it goes to a dealer it does not mean the person doing the work is an expert or that he will take any responsability should the same happen again.
Furhtewr more you can always have somebody with you to check what you are doing to give you more self assurance
John
 
Mar 10, 2006
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Its a long time since i had to replace brake shoes, but i recall them being expensive back then.

And i'm pretty sure the recommendation was to replace all four shoes for a single axle, not sure with a twin.
 
Mar 9, 2012
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Hi Stuckinthemud. Which part of the country are you based ?. A very interesting scenario. What about this for Freudian Parallel.
At the back end of June this year on our way down to Longleat with our 2000 Elddis Crusader SuperSirocco on the back of our Volvo V70 2.4T SE Geartronic we pulled into a motorway service area. I put the AlKo Hitch-lock on,the AlKo Wheel Lock on dropped the rear steadies and Alarmed the caravan. Upon our return I set about getting ready to pull away and continue on route. In order to remove the Hitch-Lock it was necessary to raise the handbrake. All of that done and put back in order I set-off. The road out off the service area was a Hop Scotch of Pot Holes and after dodging a few and proceeding down the slip-off and onto the carriageway the car slowed up rather rapidly. I signalled and pulled right over onto the hard shoulder. The stink of burning friction material immediately lead me to the OS rear. In the short distance from the parking area the brakes had applied and brought the caravan to a rapid but controlled halt.
It alerted the VOSA patrol that happened to be proceeding Southbound,they stopped and assisted me to resolve the problem by covering my rear and coming to investigate.
The appeared after a short "Sherlock" investigation that the most likely cause was that the handbrake was not fully flat down and HARD OFF and resting on the 'A' frame.The caravan handbrake had apparently jumped during a POTHOLE HOP and activated a handbrake arrest.
The brakes cooled down and followed by the VOSA officers for a short distance at 40mph we proceeded on our way without further incidence.
 
Jan 11, 2009
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Hi Rooster-interesting post, and a spooky coincidence with another Crusader. My brake was definitely and fully OFF though-I checked it as soon as I stopped because that seemed to be the most likely cause of the overheating. It was definitely a disintegrating brake shoe that jammed the brake on, but how or why it should have chosen that moment to fail, I don't know. The only thing is that I had noticed the road surfaces were bad and the van had been jolted a bit here and there by potholes not unlike those you describe-maybe one of these caused an already weak brake shoe bond to fail and it shook free, leading to the incident. We'll probably never know.
 

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