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......................stainless Tie Down set up for $140. The stainless Kodiak goes for $380. Sometimes we get what we pay for......
I think I'm gonna go piss away a grand and buy new Kodiaks so I too have the perceived best brakes on THT on my trailer. .. I'm tired of defending these stupid Tie Down brakes just because they work perfectly for me (and a couple thousand others of us here)... BUT, hey there's 4 or 5 guys here that had trouble like nobody else, and we hear about it over and over and over again
__________________ Mike
Livin the dream...
Last edited by Afishinado; 09-15-2009 at 11:20 AM.
OK, I gotta ask: what should I be doing to my tie downs other than rinsing? These are on a new load rite. Spin the wheels to make sure the calipers are not binding? Rinse with salt away? There is no lube to be done, correct? I was gonna take some steel wool and take the surface rust off, but not sure that will accomplish anything.
__________________ I'm not a boater, but I play one on THT.
OK, I gotta ask: what should I be doing to my tie downs other than rinsing? .............
Immediately rip off and buy Kodiaks!
I don't do anything else.... But I do rinse the piss out of'em.... I hit each one from every angle I can for longer than I think it does any good. I had a rust build up once on my old trailer disks, pulled the wheels and hit the disks with a wire wheel on a little angle grinder. They came up like new, took about a half hour to do each wheel.
After many more miles on a trailer with Tie Down breaks my experience is not the same as yours. I don't question any of your comments on the brakes themselves, but your heading is about a post on brakes so I don't think is applicable to throw in blown seals that you admit is your fault. Also, tires don't have a "use by" date, but that's another comment that doesn't have anything to do with a brake manufacturer.
Except for the caliper issue, I think most of your complaints should be directed to Load Rite.
Apologies in advance for being blunt but highways and transportation are my business.
While you may try to argue the technicalities of this statement(they don't stamp it on the tire) effectively it does and from a practical standpoint what you said is completely wrong........read what the NHTSA has to say about it.
I don't do anything else.... But I do rinse the piss out of'em.... I hit each one from every angle I can for longer than I think it does any good. I had a rust build up once on my old trailer disks, pulled the wheels and hit the disks with a wire wheel on a little angle grinder. They came up like new, took about a half hour to do each wheel.
Safe to say the wire wheel won't abrade the disk surface?
__________________ I'm not a boater, but I play one on THT.
Safe to say the wire wheel won't abrade the disk surface?
No harm to the disk... Did a nice job..
What happened to me was; One summer the trailer was sitting in saltwater through a few hi-tides during a Nor-easter. A few months later when I went to use it, heavy rust everywhere but where the pads were against the disks. You know, unprotected steel and saltwater= rust. They looked kinda like Crackers signature pict, but not near that bad. They cleaned up like 95% - Certainly to acceptable levels, painted the hubs and never had an issue.
__________________ Mike
Livin the dream...
Last edited by Afishinado; 09-15-2009 at 02:05 PM.
Reason: grammer an spelin
While you may try to argue the technicalities of this statement(they don't stamp it on the tire) effectively it does and from a practical standpoint what you said is completely wrong........read what the NHTSA has to say about it.
No argument from me. That was an interesting read. (as far as reading about tires goes )
I guess I just don't get the attraction of disc brakes on boat trailers?
All seven of our boat trailers have had surge drum brakes, which I thought worked just fine. Our 16,000 lb fifth-wheel toyhauler also has drum brakes (electric), and works fine too. I've never felt any of them have had inadequate braking power, and we tow across far steeper and longer hills than the east coasters do.
Surge drum brakes certainly appear to be more reliable than discs. They stop well too. I'm all for good performance, but I really don't get the advantage of disc trailer brakes... Can someone fill me in on this?
I guess I just don't get the attraction of disc brakes on boat trailers?
All seven of our boat trailers have had surge drum brakes, which I thought worked just fine. Our 16,000 lb fifth-wheel toyhauler also has drum brakes (electric), and works fine too. I've never felt any of them have had inadequate braking power, and we tow across far steeper and longer hills than the east coasters do.
Surge drum brakes certainly appear to be more reliable than discs. They stop well too. I'm all for good performance, but I really don't get the advantage of disc trailer brakes... Can someone fill me in on this?
Other than the fact that a disc brake is superior "performance wise" in everyway...........power, heat dissepation/fade resistance, etc.etc.....when you dunk them in salt water they dont fill up and hold the water and they are easily rinsed clean. It is much more difficult to effectively flush out drum brakes which leads to more corrosion. Also drum brakes are not more reliable just cheaper....
I have done a fair amount of towing over the years (mostly farm related) and always dispised surge brakes primarly because of the limited control over the application of the brakes. Our "big" trailer on our farm is ~15,00 0# gross and it has electic over hydraulic with a "bias control knob" and an independant brake lever. Once you drive a setup similar to this you will never want to haul a trailer with surge brakes again.....
OK, I gotta ask: what should I be doing to my tie downs other than rinsing? These are on a new load rite. Spin the wheels to make sure the calipers are not binding? Rinse with salt away? There is no lube to be done, correct? I was gonna take some steel wool and take the surface rust off, but not sure that will accomplish anything.
One guy said jerk 'em off, but Afishinado is havin' good luck w/his, so rinse 'em good, spray Salt Away on 'em and grease the pins the calipers ride on and see how they go...since they're already on your trailer, you might as well give 'em a chance...
This seems kinda off-topic, but since someone asked...
Disks are clearly superior for performance applications, but that doesn't really apply to trailer applications. For me the big draws of disks are, in no particular order:
1) Visibility - I can see all the parts to check for wear, grease seal leakage, etc, without taking anything apart.
2) Simplicity - I prefer the lack of complication of brakes that don't have all of the springs, levers, etc, inside.
3) Relatively maintenance free. Yeah, I bought the stainless. Sure beats the annual drum brake overhaul I used to have to do, even with a flushing system.
4) No need to adjust them. I've never had, seen, or heard of, a trailer with self-adjusting drum brakes. Probably because people pulling trailers try to avoid backing up, which is when the self-adjusting systems of drums work.
There may be other things that escape me right now.
For trailer use the advantages of drums (that I can think of right now) are:
1) They typically require lower actuation pressures for equivalent stopping power than disks, which is a big benefit for those who use surge systems. Obviously you could find a big, or multi-piston, disk system that would out-stop a set of drums at a given pressure, but the cost would go up big time.
2) Self-actuation - another benefit of drums for surge applications is that as the shoes start to grab the drum the whole shoe assembly is rotated in the direction that the wheel is turning, and the design of the system uses this rotation to increase the pressure of the shoes on the drums, and consequently stopping power. This is one reason that drums require springs to retract the shoes from the drums. They try to explain it here, see figure 7: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-p....htm/printable
3) Cheap - this has always kinda surprised me considering how much more complicated drums have always seemed to me. I guess the castings for drum brakes are much cheaper than those for disks.
OKay, here is my experience with tie downs. I bought a 1999 parker with a load-rite trailer, no brakes. I asked and the dealer says I did not need them. After a couple of tows I decided I definitely needed the brakes. I bought the tiedown SS disk brake kit from champion trailers in Louisiana. Installation was a breeze. The stopping ability was a day and night difference compared to not having brakes. I towed that trailer through 3 sets of tires over 9 years back and forth from burlington NC to morehead city NC. I always washed them with soapy water and sprayed them down with wd-40 after each trip. The pads and rotors needed replacement this spring. I got 9 good years of service out of the brake system.
I've had these on my LoadRite Trailer for 2 years .... not any issue whatsoever. I crc'd torsion axle arms, castle nuts, and all the hanging hardware. These work like champs not one issue.
7.5 years old .... like many of you I take care of my stuff,
I replaced both torsion axles, hubs and replaced the breaks two years ago. I learned alot in the first 5 years. Spraying CRC on all the hardware really makes a difference.
Honestly I would not spray CRC or any other rust preventer anywhere near disc brakes because they will keep the brakes from working well due to the lubricating quality that most of them have...the rust preventers work great on ubolts and leaf springs and I use either Corrosion X or Boeshield all over my trailer...just not on friction surfaces like a disc brake rotor...if you want to spray the axle components take the wheel off and cover the disc brake with a plastic bag...
__________________ 1988 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee
4.0/NV 242 Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited
5.7 HEMI/Quadradrive II
Lou brings up a good point. Spraying everything down does keep the brakes from working effectively initially but the oil burns off after the brakes heat up and then they work like normal. It is just something you have to bear in mind if you do spray down all the hardware.
Earlier this year I shopped trailers from a number of sources, including a manufacturer that I've bought several trailers from before. Asked about brake components and was told that TieDown has gone to the same components as Kodiak's SS system.
I wonder if anybody on this thread has a trailer from 2008 or 2009 with the same brake problems?
__________________ Rick
Alabama's Gulf Coast
Chaparral 240 Signature (Sold)
where did you come up with that assumption ..... nothing on the braking system should be crc'd (calipers, pads, or mounting pins). The only part I sprayed on the assembly is the disc brake mounts that are installed on the torsion axles. The mounts were crc's prior to attaching them to the axles.
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