Just before we went away in Sept 21 we had new tyres fitted, after we returned to the storage I checked the pressure and torque as I always do, it was then that I noticed that one wheel was very hot and the other was cold, as we had only done about 300ml since the last service we called the mobile engineer who had serviced it and he [reluctantly] agreed to come and look at it, he told me that it wasn't unusual and they were within spec but did tighten up the cable on the cold wheel.
Off to France and Spain and back some, several thousand kilometres, we did notice on site that the cold wheel needed chocs the stop it moving even with the brakes on.
On return to UK I contacted Kool Klassics and took the van down to them for a chassis service, having told them of the problem.
Now the nasty bit, they found that the hot hub was in the process of delaminating but was working although incorrectly adjusted, the cold wheel the pads had come off completely end were lodged top and bottom, Pete told me that had they move together they would probably have shattered heated up the hub and could have resulted in the loss of the wheel or warped the axle to the extent of needing a new one, as it was the barrel was scored but he managed to grind/sand polish enough out to make it usable, both sets of brakes completely refurbished now and running well, I consider this a very narrow escape,
it could have been very expensive if not fatal.
Dave

Phew, glad you got it sorted in time!

It is a worry though that the mobile engineer clearly didn't bother to check the brakes properly as part of the service!

Kool Classics have been looking after my 1999 Puck for a number of years now. I live in East London so it is a bit of a trek to get there, but I have always found Claire and Pete to be very friendly, honest and thorough. They are prepared to go the extra mile to sort out any issues. Reasonably priced as well! I would happily recommend them.

Ralph

Hi Dave,
We too had a near miss with brakes last season. I left in our van to have the brakes fully serviced. The chap showed me the brakes shoes he had removed and although only slightly worn, one of the linings had detached from the brake shoe body completely. It was just sitting waiting to rotate and cause who knows what damage. Lucky escape. This guy is a trailer specialist and told me this in not unusual. I wonder, is it from spending most of it's time sitting in pretty damp conditions ? And remember " the brakes were down to the rivets" ? Turns out there are no rivets on drum brake shoes nowadays: just adhesive, hence the parting of company with the shoe body. The adhesive just disintegrates over time, so pretty useless just peering through a hole and singing happy days because plenty of lining remaining !
Chris

Bonded linings have been around for at least 50 years. The problem appears to be the steel backplate can corrode allowing the adhesive to come away. Probably more so on cheaply made shoes compared to more expensive ones where the metal is better prepared prior to bonding, such as removing rust and mill scale. Trouble is there is no way of knowing how good a set of shoes are. On most vehicles the lining will wear down before delamination becomes a problem, but not so with a caravan. A bit like the situation with tyres, The brake shoes may look ok but you can't tell when they may fail. Does anyone know if there is a recommended age to proactively swap the shoes?
You could have the shoes re-lined but it would probably be more economical to just have them swapped every 5 years or so. One advantage to having them relined is that you would have a good idea of the condition of the underlying metal shoe before the new lining is bonded in place. The best option may be to get your brake shoes swapped and keep the old ones. Then, when you feel they need replacing get the old ones relined. Have seen one place offers relines for £18.25 (not sure if that is inc VAT). There are plenty of places around who will do it.

I have a 2015 420gt which has been serviced by 2 main Eriba dealers, on 3 services I have been charged for new one shot hub nuts so you would assume that the brakes had been serviced. As the van is now out of warranty and I am a fully qualified mechanic I decided to service the van myself, on removing the wheels I noticed the hub cap was totally unmarked, as new and had a bead of red sealer around the join to the hub, to remove this you use either grips or hammer which would leave small scrapes and dents, when removed I saw the one shot nut sealed with the same sealer, this is obviously as built by Alko which means the dealers had not done the service as required but also charged for parts not supplied.

That's been my experience too Colin, although most of my services have been done by a mobile guy who I've kept an eye on to see what he's done.

The services were done by main dealers, I left the van with them collecting later, no one offered the’removed’ nuts.

Just because you can't see any damage to the Al-Ko hub caps, and the crimped hub nuts are marked with red marker paste, doesn't mean the drums haven't been removed for servicing.

The Al-Ko hub cap removal tool is usually used to take them off and leaves barely a trace.

Al-Ko HubTool.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

And a splodge of marker paste should be applied to the hub nuts after they've been torqued up.
TorqueSeal.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Both are part of Al-Ko's servicing procedures and standards as taught on their product engineering courses.

Possibly if they have fitted new nuts with a socket & torque wrench & used the alko locktight on the thread before they put the nut on you probably wouldn’t see any marks

It’s made me think about keeping in my tow vehicle ( plenty of room) a set of brake shoes & hub nuts + check hub nut size to make sure I have a socket to fit! For when I’m in the wilds of Scotland

The thing is, Mono, if the brakes had been binding to the extent the linings were shot the chances are the bearings would be buggered too, and maybe the drums would be badly scored as well.

You'd need to carry all those items and a bearing press, just in case.

For complete peace of mind you would end up pulling a spare caravan behind you

Best thing to do is to get the brakes serviced once a year.