Bug Smacker

We are doing a bit of camping out in the wilderness this weekend. We are alongside the Black River in northern Michigan.  We only have a couple of days to spend here this year. We have promised our 2 boys that we would take them to the Zoo on Labor Day.

This is one of our very favorite places in the world. This year it was not as tranquil as years past, due to the invasion of ATVs. These machines have done to our forest what Jet Skis have done to our lakes. They turn a quiet, peaceful setting into a four ring circus. I have nothing personally against these machines. My family and I have been on ATVs and enjoy them just as much as anyone else. It is just the fact that some people think they are the only people around and neglect to respect the existence of others in the area.

We happened to be the victims of just this type of invasion. These characters would whip around our campsite kicking up dust just like Indians circling a wagon train. But unlike the horses used by the Indians, these horses made a real racket. We soon realized that it was a good thing that our trip was a short one this year. I guess just because this place is heavenly, doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Stop! If You Can

Tim R. Enright

This spring we went on a trip to Maine and I wish I knew then what I know now about trailer brakes. If I had, the trip would have been a whole lot easier. I knew that my trailer brakes were not what they used to be, but I did not know why.

Before we left on our trip, I purchased a new Brake Controller. The old one was manufactured by Tekonsha, who makes a very fine product. It was a less expensive model that just had lights to display brake activity and I wanted to upgrade it. I bought another Tekonsha model; I purchased a Prodigy and am still very pleased with it.

This, however, did not correct my braking problem entirely. With the new model of brake controller I can now see the actual amount of voltage I am applying to the brakes. The controller is almost set to the max. This informs me that I also have worn brakes. In fact, upon disassembling the brakes, I found that my drums were worn as well as the brakes. This is due to excessive voltage being applied to the trailer brakes.

RV trailers come with electric and hydraulic braking systems. The most common is electric brakes and that is what I will be discussing here. These brakes work somewhat like the drum brakes on a car or truck.

I will apologize in advance for getting somewhat technical but, here is how the whole process works.

The brake system contains a shoe that when the brakes are applied is forced outward against the wheel drum which is rotating with the tire. This is where the electric trailer brake system becomes slightly different. When you apply the brake in the tow vehicle, the brake controller sends voltage to the trailer braking system. This voltage causes an electric magnet to try to attach itself to the spinning drum. This magnet has a lever that forces the brake shoes out against the rotating drum. The more voltage from the brake controller, the more magnetism to the magnet and the harder the brake magnet tries to attach to the rotating drum. This causes the brake shoes to stop the rotating drum. If everything works then the trailer comes to a halt.

The entire repair process is actually quite simple.  I will not go into the repair in detail. There is plenty of information out on the web. One such site is www.dexteraxle.com. I do want to mention that it is much easier to just buy what are called the “backing plates”. The backing plate will provide you with the brake shoes, the magnet and all of the other brake components all in one assembly. This part goes on with just 4 bolts.

The last thing I would like to stress is that you need to adjust the brake tension with the brake adjusting tool.  Do this before you use the trailer again and also every year afterwards. This will allow the brakes the clearance needed to work well.

Article Courtesy of : www.BugSmacker.com : Copyright © 2007

I have not been happy with the way my trailer brakes have been working. I tried replacing my brake controller and I still did not get the stopping power I was looking for. So today I purchased 4 new electric trailer brake backing plates and drums. These along with my new brake controller will give me a totally new braking system.

Please take a look at my article on trailer brakes for more information on what I have learned along the way.

Today is 08-08-08 and we should be at the casino betting on something. Look at me I sound like a big time gambler. We went to the casino on Friday the 13th to try our luck and I lost the $20 limit we each spend in less than 10 minutes. It was probably a good thing we didn’t go today.

We decided to go to Valley Plaza RV Resort for the weekend. I needed a place with full hookups to flush the tanks out. With rain in the forecast we were not looking to do much camping, we just needed a place to hookup for a night or two.

The conference center was holding an event so the place was quite full. A couple younger guys here for the conference came up to us and told us they were informed that they could not pitch their tent on a site. They were not very happy. They were not acquainted with the differences between a RV Park and a Campground.  I explained this was a common in a RV Park to not allow tents.

I noticed that they have a couple more seasonal rigs spending the summer here this year. You can tell because they have much more stuff than anyone else. They are not allowed to stay all year, so you will not find any porches or sheds on their sites. I believe that makes the place much more inviting to the regular RVers.