Thread: Trailer override brakes

My daughter's boyfriend brought his tradie trailer round yesterday so I could give him a hand to bleed the brakes.

We got it bled OK and adjusted the shoes - but using the hand brake lever (same one the override pushes on) the brakes don't come on until the second push of the lever. If you watch the reservoir level it goes down when you release the lever after the first push, then after the second push when you release and wait a bit the level returns to original.

What I'm guessing its doing is using the first pump to expand the slaves, and the second to do the braking. What I don't understand is why the slaves would be contracting again if the shoes are adjusted correctly.

I haven't had to do any maintenance on override brakes before (the braked campers I've owned had electric brakes) but I'm assuming that's not normal behaviour, and that the brakes should come on with one push.

Any ideas whats going on and how to fix it?

Steve

Pull the drum off and gently apply the brake and have a look what's going on. You can also clamp off the hose to check the mc with the hose clamped off it should be solid. But at the end of the day it's most likely hot air still trapped