T@B400 left side brakes locking up, brake drum magnet surface gouged,

jimcenname

During my travel to the NW rally in Bend, Oregon I noticed the left brake on my 400 was occasionally locking up. I also noticed a slight sway when I firmly applied the brakes at speed. Inspection revealed the brake drum on the left side had a gouged surface where the magnet force is applied (see photo.) Additionally, I may have had the electric brake controller set too high, around 9.5 volts. To treat the symptom until I got home I reduced the max voltage on the controller to 6, which helped both the locking and the sway. I installed new drums, which included bearings and seals. I also installed new brake plate assemblies, which include the back plate, brake shoes, springs and magnet. The process was fairly simple, just a lot of work. The only slight hitch was installing the bearing seals in the drums. In lieu of using the correct tools Dexter suggested using a hammer and block of wood to tap the seals in, which worked. I used this opportunity to install self-adjusting brakes. nuCamp installed manual adjusting both as new and when they did maintenance work on my 400 in 2023.

New brake plate and drum with arrows to new magnet, drum and bearings.

Grumpy_G

You brought up a good point: The trailer pulls to one side if one of the brakes applies less braking force than the other. That's easy to see in the door rearview mirror when traveling on a flat road and manually applying the trailer brakes.

Sidenote: It's pretty hilarious that there was a T@b rally 30 minutes from my house and I didn't even know about it.

jimcenname

Nucamp supports Mandy and Kendrick rallies. They do about 6 every year. This is the first year in the PNW.