Weak brakes Imagine 2500RL

[Mr. Ed]

Wondering if anyone has experience brakes not stopping as they should. Since day one I have noticed that the brakes are weak. I have taken it back to General RV and had a second-opinion trailer mechanic look at them and they both say that they are working. I have tested the wiring harness, and brake controller and hooked my truck to a friend's horse trailer and it is working perfectly. Does anyone have thoughts?

[TedS]

They may need to be adjusted if they are electrically working but not braking.

[familytruckster4]

If you have had it for a while and they are still weak I would suggest having a real inspection done. My experience with General has been that they are good at blowing you off and thin on doing any actual work.
My last 3 trailers (2 of them GD) had been zealously greased at some point before delivery causing the brake linings to be covered in grease. The only way to tell for sure is to pull the drums and inspect them similar to a typical bearing repack. If the contamination isnt too bad they can be cleaned with Brakleen and be perfectly usable. If the contamination is bad then they will need replacing. The only way to know for sure is to pull the drums.

[AlexPeterson]

Wondering if anyone has experience brakes not stopping as they should. Since day one I have noticed that the brakes are weak. I have taken it back to General RV and had a second-opinion trailer mechanic look at them and they both say that they are working. I have tested the wiring harness, and brake controller and hooked my truck to a friend's horse trailer and it is working perfectly. Does anyone have thoughts?

There are threads in this forum about this very issue. Besides those two issues discussed in posts 2 and 3, there is a break-in period that the brake manufacturers note is necessary to achieve full effectiveness. This is from the Dexter manual:



As I did not do this procedure, it took around 500-1000 miles of towing before the brakes worked as they should. I also adjusted the shoes shortly after I took delivery of the unit. It was not a subtle improvement, but a dramatic one. The above came from:

https://www.dexteraxle.com/user_area...ice_manual.pdf

[Yoda]

Wondering if anyone has experience brakes not stopping as they should. Since day one I have noticed that the brakes are weak. I have taken it back to General RV and had a second-opinion trailer mechanic look at them and they both say that they are working. I have tested the wiring harness, and brake controller and hooked my truck to a friend's horse trailer and it is working perfectly. Does anyone have thoughts?

MR Ed
First Welcome to the site.

It would help if we know your truck make and model (year), and trailer information model/year and miles towed. Please fill out your signature line and read the welcome letter. There could be several issues including the excellent information in post #4 by Alex. It could simply be you do not have your truck brake controller set properly too.

If you have never had your bearings repacked and brakes inspected find a large trailer dealer - not RV dealer such as Big Tex, PJ or other that has a full service center to have the inspection done and bearings repacked. Or this is also a DIY project, but if you pull the drums to inspect the brakes you will need new rear seals before reinstalling.

On other simple thing to check is see if all of the brake wiring is connected and good going to the brake drums.

Hope this helps and safe travels

Keith

[Country Campers]

Did you try someone else's truck hooked to your camper?

Brian

[TucsonJim]

Here's a quick check you can use to see if the brakes are working adequately.

1. Hook up the trailer and take it to a location where you can safely drive at slow speeds and test the brakes. An empty parking lot works great.
2. Pull the trailer at 15 mph.
3. Take your foot off the accelerator and apply the hand control portion of the brake controller. Do NOT apply the brake pedal on the tow vehicle.
4. If the trailer brakes stop the truck/trailer and hold it from moving forward at idle, the brakes are working correctly.

You can fine tune the brake controller to be more or less aggressive with the trailer braking and test it out using the method above. You never want the trailer brakes to lock up during this test. If any one of them does, then back off the controller settings.

Jim