Bent axles and locking brakes? 1706fb

Duercos · 07-12-2021, 06:26 PM

Hey guys, I have just noticed that my tt's wheels don't look aligned? I am attaching 2 pictures from both sides of the trailer (kept the phone straight to the wall), you can see that each set of wheels are not even.
Also I have a problem of locking brakes. I am using a Curt Echo wireless brake controller and even on the smallest setting it locks the brakes and the whole car jerks badly.
Does it look/sound like a pricey repair?
Thanks.

reeman · 07-12-2021, 11:51 PM

Try the brakes with a different vehicle and an analogue control setup which plugs in. If the problem persists with a simple controller then it could be that your shoes need to be warn in a little. Try running the trailer with a slight application dragging the brakes especially if the trailer has sat for a while. Every season I find that running down the road a little and exercising the brakes helps smooth out the application profile.

I would jack the trailer up first to see if there is a loose wheel or other issues with the spindle drum on the one axle in your case, one tire definitely looks out of line. Then if nothing is amiss with the one axle that seems out of alignment, check axle alignments.
If there is nothing loose where the axles attach to the frame then just check the alignment of the axles to make sure they are square with the centre of the hitch and each other..

When we applied a lift kit to our single axle trailer I checked that the distance was perfectly square to the hitch ball.

The trailer had sat for the winter and after applying a lift kit and checking the brake function and tow profile had to wear in the shoes and drums otherwise the brakes were jerky and hard to set with a proportional controller that senses the reduction in velocity of the tow vehicle and adjusts the current to the trailer brakes accordingly.

Other controllers send a varying level of current to avoid over application, I believe that your system is also proportional in design so it can be a little tricky to setup. Ours needs to be set by adjusting two settings, one for the angle that the controller is at in the tow vehicle and the other which can only be set by moving at 25 mph and testing to see if the brake are weak or too strong. If the controller is suddenly bumped and goes out of angle then the whole process needs to be repeated. I am thinking of changing back to an old school controller which is much less finicky.

tinglett · 07-14-2021, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reeman

If there is nothing loose where the axles attach to the frame then just check the alignment of the axles to make sure they are square with the centre of the hitch and each other..

For the alignment check, I would start by measuring the distance between wheels on each side. Do they match? That's real quick to check and may confirm what you see in the photos is real. But cameras can play tricks on you. Still, like reeman says, you'll need to measure each front wheel to the hitch ball to really know if the wheels are square to the tow vehicle.

I would wonder how the wheels actually get out of alignment. Certainly the initial build at the factory can screw it up. Maybe hitting something really big? I'm not sure...and you'd think that would leave other evidence behind. I suppose everything can loosen over time, but your TT doesn't look old to me at all.

backtrack15 · 07-14-2021, 06:08 AM

I wonder if cranking down x-chocks excessively could bend the spindles or axles. The photos make it look (to me anyway) like the axles are bent away from each other on both sides.

R_Lefebvre · 07-14-2021, 07:37 AM

I'd be surprised if the X-chock could apply enough force to bend the axles? Those axles are designed to withstand incredible forces rolling down the road.

backtrack15 · 07-14-2021, 09:58 AM

I tend to agree. I’m curious what the measurements will reveal. Photos can be misleading.

R_Lefebvre · 07-14-2021, 10:46 AM

Question: Is the trailer sitting completely level? If it's not, I can imagine there could be a bit of toe-change as one axle is compressed more than the other.

The OP could try to check the axle toe-in using a string technique I used to do to with surprising accuracy on race cars. If interested I can provide detail.

But at the very least, just measuring from side to side from a tread line on each tire will give some info.

Inventor · 07-18-2021, 07:08 PM

To confirm if the alignment is actually off; if you have an extension ladder, you can lean it lengthwise such that one rail is against the side of the trailer to establish the true alignment, and one rail touching against the tires. from this you can easily detect if the wheels are actually out of alignment or if it is an optical illusion (parallax error). I actually use this method to check and re-set front-end alignment on my cars.