hot brakes

[william_5131721]

i have an Avondale Argente 480 2 every time we go out the brakes got so hot you cant toutch the brake drums. It has been back to the dealers they cant find any thing wrong so they contacted AL-KO who say they run hot when alloy wheels are fitted as they cannot disapate the heat Has anyone had the same problem or am I being fobbed off?

TFN Billy

 

[Damian]

William,

Drum brakes should not run hot, as the brake pads should not be in contact with the drum, except when braking.

If they get hot when no braking has been applied, then they are wrongly adjusted.

Aluminium heats up quickly, thats why it is used in car engines to get to operating temp quickly, but also cools quickly too, and with the air passing by as you drive, should dissipate the heat from the steel drum quite quickly.

If you are checking the drums as soon as you stop, then I would expect them to be warm to hot, depending how much braking was needed to come to as halt, but given a few minutes should be cool enough to touch and given half an hour should be cold.

 

[gary]

They use aluminium as heat sinks in all manner of things, if steel was better at the job they would use that instead!!

So I would expect the alloy wheels to draw the heat from the drums faster not slower, this would make the alloy wheel run hotter than a steel but keep the drum relatively cooler.

 

[Hamer_5041128]

William,

Does your caravan brake evenly? If so jack up one side of the caravan and see if the wheel spins freely without any rubbing noise. Check that the rod which goes under the caravan from the handbrake is free and moves slightly up and down. When moving the rod, up and down, have someone spin the wheel to see if the movement makes the brakes bind. If it does the rod is over adjusted and as you are travelling along the brakes will be binding ever so slightly as the rod moves up and down, creating heat.

Hope this may help.

HAMER

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello William,

If the wheels are running hot then, there must be some friction causing the heat. There are only a few main causes of heat,;

Brake drums - either these are being used a lot (especisalli hilly countryside) or they are not properly retracting when the brakes are not applied.

Wheel Bearings - these may be worn or need lubricating, or the caravan may be overloaded and thus putting more load on the bearings.

Wheel allignment - if the allignment is out, this can apply greater laoding to the wheel bearings and cause additional heating.

The dealer should be easiliy able to check the brakes and bearings but alignment may need specialist equipement that some dealers may not have.

 

[Ron_5097685]

Alloy wheels do get hot but too hot to touch. Never ignore hot wheels, My vans brakes came on without me realising it (I tow with a 3.5v6 4X4 and am still waiting to get it back after a repair time of two months and bill

 

[william_5131721]

Many thanks for all your replys

I forgot to say in my first post the van is only 8 months old hense why i have not done any work on it. The dealer has had the brakes to bits and cant find anything wrong (i have jacked it up and the brakes do not bind at all)

Van loaded ready to go to site weighs 1290kgs on weighbridge MTPLM 1325kgs so overloading not the problem

TFN Billy