I have just returned from my last trip of the year, however it wasn't without its hic-cups, hopefully the rest of you can gleam some info .....

On arrival to our destination 70 miles from home I noticed that my wheel nut indicators on my door side were all over the place and I could smell the brakes, on touching the wheel it was very hot and the plastic wheel indicators had melted around the nuts which was why they were pointing in different directions . It was also my first trip out since the Eribas annual service two months previous ....

I'm in Mayday CC rescue so I thought I would use them as I didn't fancy travelling home with dodgy brakes. the Mayday mechanic turned up and diagnosed that the brakes shoes were touching the drum but he was unable to adjust the brakes with the nut at the back of the brake plate. The mechanic was going to remove the drum to inspect the mechanism, I asked him did he have another one shot bolt to replace it with to which he replied that he had never heard of them, so his answer was no. With that he had to leave and recommended a caravan engineer should inspect the fault. If I couldn't get it fixed Mayday would have trailered my Eriba home when my break was finished.

Anyway to cut a long story short I got hold of a local approved workshop mobile Engineer who diagnosed that the adjuster nut had lost a tooth and it was impossible to alter the brakes once the external nut that locates in the adjuster had fallen into the gap, it is basically two cogs at 90 deg. Possibly damaged at the last service..... allegedly, however to be fair I never noticed any issues driving the 25 miles home from the caravan workshop? I also usually keep the hand brake in the off position when at home and chock the van to avoid the brakes sticking.

I learnt two things:

1) Be careful and vigilant if you have a car mechanic fixing your caravan
2) The wheel nut indicators made it very obvious that something was wrong

If you have an earlier Eriba it will more than likely have a castellated nut with a split pin so the one shot nut scenario wont apply.


Brake adjuster cog.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Hi Roger, I always use to check the torque of my wheel nuts before each journey, I never took my bulky torque wrench away with me so I would never know if they had moved for my return journey. With the wheel nut indicators I now only need to torque them the once, as long as they are pointing at each other I don't have to worry about my nuts becoming loose....


Eriba wheel nut indicator.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

i would get someone to check your bearings although the cause was the brake adjusted wrongly via the broken part, the brake over heating can cause the bearing grease to ooze out..
Catterick caravans sell one shot nuts, they took over Ebor caravans on the A64 between York and Scarborough. in a situation like that you could have the eriba put on a low approach slide bed to be recovered to a repairer

I have had to loosen our brakes at 4am on route on jollys, after a service man got a little too over zealous. have every sympathy.
old style car mechanics are ok....

Quote: Pop540 wrote in post #4

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i would get someone to check your bearings although the cause was the brake adjusted wrongly via the broken part, the brake over heating can cause the bearing grease to ooze out..
Catterick caravans sell one shot nuts, they took over Ebor caravans on the A64 between York and Scarborough. in a situation like that you could have the eriba put on a low approach slide bed to be recovered to a repairer

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Quote: Randa france wrote in post #6

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Don't know why, but I always check the wheel temperature of the van and look at the tyres, check the hitches, check the windows,check the door and Thetford locker, wobble the van, every time we stop for a pee break. OCD?
Randa

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