Very hot brake drums

[Sixpackpert]

Hi all,

Hope someone can put my mind at ease.

We have a new Elddis Affinity 554 with the Alko ATC chassis. Love the 'van, beautiful bit of kit apart from the brake squeal and very hot drums!

Picked it up in May and have done 3 or 4 trips already in it and have noticed that when braking at low speeds the brakes squeal very loudly, loud enough to hear it in the car with windows up and radio on! We have probably done around 900 miles so far.

The drums also are very hot, can barely touch them when we stop.

Been back to the dealer today and they checked the brakes and apart from the usual brake dust cannot find anything wrong. After the short trip from the dealer back to storage, a mixture of a 10 mile run down the M5 and then usual A or B roads. When I got to storage the drums were too hot to touch and the alloys were also very warm from the heat soak.

Surely this cannot be right? ATC LED is solid green. Towcar is a Disco 4.

Thoughts anyone, or similar experiences?

[Gavin0478]

May be a stupid question but is the handbrake fully releasing?

I have the atc on my buccaneer and have never heard brake squeal, I will check to see how hot mine get next time we are away.

[Sixpackpert]

Apparently everything is in tolerance and okay acoording to the dealer. When the 'van is off the car it is easy to push around and there are no noises from the brakes like you would expect if they were dragging a bit.

I have spoken to the trusted mobile service guy I used on our old 'van and he says that it does sound like something is not right.

He is coming out to have a look for us in a few weeks just before we go out in it again.

[DirtyHands]

I'm a caravan and motorhome technician (I work at a large dealers). The theres no reason for the drums to be overly warm unless you are driving like a loon. It sounds to me like the ATC unit has not been properly adjusted. Electronically its fine but mechanically it sounds like its set too tight to the brake rod (presuming that that is also correctly set). When the brakes are off you should have about a 2mm gap between the atc unit and the pushrod so its not permanently engaged.

[Sixpackpert]

Thanks for the reply. The dealers checked all the adjustment off the car. Would it change when on the car at all?

[DirtyHands]

Having the caravan hitched up to the car will make no difference to the brake adjustment.

[Sixpackpert]

Thank you, just mulling things over.

[Gavin0478]

Slightly off topic but I have never felt any assistance from the atc, I swapped from a Elddis Crusader Superstorm which didn't have it to a Buccaneer Caravel which does have it, both 8m twin axles the Superstorm with a 1800kg max and the Caravel with a 2000kg max and I do run close to the limits and both towed With a Q7 and around 100kg nose weight (max weight the E&P leveling lifts).
I can understand the advantage on the single axle vans but not so much on the twins as my Q7 like many other modern vehicles are coded so that when a trailer is connected it changes the esp programs etc.

Have you had it on a previous van and felt the advantages?

[powerstroke]

I would jack it up spin the wheels and see if the brakes are dragging ,

[Sixpackpert]

My trusted indie came to have a look today. He found the drums were not spinning freely, dealer said they were fine. Upon taking the drum apart he found...

[Kenty]

They have been very hot!
I hope you get your money back from the dealer who said they were OK! They obviously didn't even look at them.