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Last month on the way home from our 1st trip of the year, I noticed my TPMS system said the driver-side rear tire was 40 degrees hotter than the other 3 tires. I pulled over thinking maybe my electric brake had gotten stuck on. On the side of the road I Googled what to do and found some tips on pulling forward and backwards while slamming on the brakes to try and free it. Not sure if that worked, or if that was even the problem, but I let the wheel cool down and then limped the last 30 minutes home. Going really slowly allowed me to not only tick off all the traffic behind me 😏 , but it allowed me to hear over the road noise. I could hear a click click click from that one wheel that was in sync with how fast that wheel was spinning.
To sum it all up - I took the Trailer to my local RV shop to get the bearings repacked and also investigate what had broken on that one electric brake (or so I thought). Forgive me if I get the terminology incorrect, as I am not too familiar with all the parts and pieces of axles. But anyway... I was standing there when they took the tire off and we could see that the whole backer-plate was moving instead of being stationary. As they took the drum off we found the bolts that hold the backer plate to the axle sleeve where inside the drum. The brake actuator thing that gets magnetized and activates the brake was melted pretty bad too. But his main concern was that the backer plate was allowed to rotate. This caused damage to the flange on the axle sleeve where the bolts attach. He said he had never seen anything like this in 30 years. He said that he has seen a bolt get sheered, but never all 4 bolts simply come out and fall inside the drum. He suspected that perhaps the nuts had not gotten properly torqued down when the axle was assembled by Dexter, and over the course of the last 2 years they finally worked themselves off. There was no damage to any of the bolts, and the bearings were also in perfect condition. He said to get me back on the road we could replace the backer-plate/drum/brake and get me back on the road as a temporary fix. But with the damage to the axle where the bolts attach, that he could no longer warranty any repairs he could do and suggested that the entire axle needed to be replaced.
In fact here is his exact verbiage from the repair ticket:
CAUSE: customer says left rear is making a clanking noise.
Removed wheels, found backer on driver side rear axle is spinning on the axle. Looks like all 4 backer bolts have fallen out. Removed drum from axle,
Inner and outer bearings look good. No heat or scoring marks on bearing, Grease looks good, No contamination. All 4 backer bolts are in the drum and
none are broken. Looks like the nuts fallen off allowing the backer to spin with the drum. The backer has now damaged the mounting tabs and brake
wiring on the axle, and now it is un-safe to bolt new backer to the axle. Recommend replacing axle with complete new axle with backers and drums
I have been in contact with Grand Design, who told me to call Dexter, and Dexter has opened a warranty claim. That was just yesterday so I don't have any update from Dexter yet....but has anybody ever seen anything like this before?
100_6116.MP4
I also attached the short MP4 video he took, but apparently you have to download it to be able to watch it, as it won't play here in the forum thread.
To sum it all up - I took the Trailer to my local RV shop to get the bearings repacked and also investigate what had broken on that one electric brake (or so I thought). Forgive me if I get the terminology incorrect, as I am not too familiar with all the parts and pieces of axles. But anyway... I was standing there when they took the tire off and we could see that the whole backer-plate was moving instead of being stationary. As they took the drum off we found the bolts that hold the backer plate to the axle sleeve where inside the drum. The brake actuator thing that gets magnetized and activates the brake was melted pretty bad too. But his main concern was that the backer plate was allowed to rotate. This caused damage to the flange on the axle sleeve where the bolts attach. He said he had never seen anything like this in 30 years. He said that he has seen a bolt get sheered, but never all 4 bolts simply come out and fall inside the drum. He suspected that perhaps the nuts had not gotten properly torqued down when the axle was assembled by Dexter, and over the course of the last 2 years they finally worked themselves off. There was no damage to any of the bolts, and the bearings were also in perfect condition. He said to get me back on the road we could replace the backer-plate/drum/brake and get me back on the road as a temporary fix. But with the damage to the axle where the bolts attach, that he could no longer warranty any repairs he could do and suggested that the entire axle needed to be replaced.
In fact here is his exact verbiage from the repair ticket:
CAUSE: customer says left rear is making a clanking noise.
Removed wheels, found backer on driver side rear axle is spinning on the axle. Looks like all 4 backer bolts have fallen out. Removed drum from axle,
Inner and outer bearings look good. No heat or scoring marks on bearing, Grease looks good, No contamination. All 4 backer bolts are in the drum and
none are broken. Looks like the nuts fallen off allowing the backer to spin with the drum. The backer has now damaged the mounting tabs and brake
wiring on the axle, and now it is un-safe to bolt new backer to the axle. Recommend replacing axle with complete new axle with backers and drums
I have been in contact with Grand Design, who told me to call Dexter, and Dexter has opened a warranty claim. That was just yesterday so I don't have any update from Dexter yet....but has anybody ever seen anything like this before?
100_6116.MP4
I also attached the short MP4 video he took, but apparently you have to download it to be able to watch it, as it won't play here in the forum thread.
But that is one of the things these forums are for....to help each other out.
Studs are pressed into the axle flange plate. 
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