Over heating brakes

Sam Vimes

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Sep 7, 2020
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My daughter in New Zealand - where life is pretty much normal - has taken the caravan away for a few days. The journey involves a climb over a steep, winding hill range, a journey they've done many time without incident.

This time when they were coming down the hill they noticed a noise and burning smell. They stopped and found the caravan brakes to be red hot, in her words. The allowed them to cool and carried on to the campsite without problem.

New brakes had been fitted a couple of months back. I suspect there may have been a problem with the brake overun mechanism. Does anyone have any suggestions/advice I could pass to them?

Thanks.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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I think that you’ve probably put your finger on the problem. I would see if they can get a mobile technician out to check and reset if necessary. Mine will get quite warm coming down the hill to our drive as the car is in second and braking too with the van trying to push it along. But not so hot that you can’t touch them for a short while.
 

Damian

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From the amount of information given I am guessing that the journey was over a considerable distance, downhill, in which case the van would have been pressing the hitch hard and applying the brakes for a considerable time, which will cause them to heat up and they do not have very good heat dissipation properties.

As new brakes were fitted they would have been, or should have been , set up to the original clearance which is just shy of actually touching the drum, but that means there is little gap and the brakes work a lot quicker than when old shoes are in place and generally have a wider tolerance .

I do not think there is anything wrong with the hitch damper or overrun, more a case of adjusting the brakes and when going on steep hills for a long time to keep allowing for stops to allow the brakes to cool.
 
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Sam Vimes

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Thanks for the replies and your comments are in line with my own thinking. I'll pass on some advice to them.

Thanks and have a good 2021 - when it arrives
 
Mar 17, 2020
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Just a small extra from personal experience.
We were in Europe as novice caravanners many many years ago. Our route (we were in the Alps) took us down a long descent.
I noticed other drivers "dabbing" their brakes to control speed but I was far too "clever" (replace with stupid), and popped the car in a lower gear.
Eventually arriving at the bottom we were stopped by a motorcyclist who could see and smell our brakes!
Needless to say lesson learnt and, fortunately, linings were not destroyed so we could, after a suitable cooling off period, continue.
 
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May 7, 2012
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It does look like it was the over run brakes being actuated all the way down so should not be a long term problem.
 

Sam Vimes

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Just curious.....

Do any caravans come with disc brakes?

Also are there any that have electrically operated brakes rather than a mechanical linkage that activates when the van pushes into the back of the towing vehicle.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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In Australia caravans over a certain weight require electric brakes.

Not sure that in braking efficiency disc brakes are that much of an advantage for what is a relatively slow moving vehicle already aided by the cars better braking system, plus cost and an actuation sytem hydraulic or electric. Certainly better cooling if going downhill using the gearbox to brake the outfit, but even discs aren’t immune from heating and fading.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Just curious.....

Do any caravans come with disc brakes?

Also are there any that have electrically operated brakes rather than a mechanical linkage that activates when the van pushes into the back of the towing vehicle.
Not for the UK market. I am not aware of any disc system that would meet the UK regs that can be fitted to cars and caravans.
 

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