New EZ loader trailer brakes locked up

[Ripsnort]

Surge-type brakes:<br />I've had my trailer just over a year. Yesterday we dumped the boat off at the lake(My trailer/boat only sees lakes, no salt water), returned home. Backed the empty trailer up into the driveway. When we went to leave an hour later, both brakes were seized. Backing up, moving forward, even with two large people sitting the trailer, wouldn't unlock the brakes. I eventually had to bleed the lines dry to retrieve the boat. <br /><br />What would cause this?

 

[tommays]

Re: New EZ loader trailer brakes locked up

disk or drums ? but neither is maintance free <br /><br />i have also ONCE parked my trailer uphill with which kept the brakes fulley engaged and they got stuck that way<br /><br />BUT<br /><br />if the brake is not sticking at the wheel , it sounds like they released when you opened the bleeders .<br /><br />then there has to be a problem in the master cylinder not allowing the brake fluid to return<br /><br />that does not mean they did not stick and they need to be checked for free movement of all the parts<br /><br />a disk brake can stick because of the pistons or the pins the brake floats on <br /><br /><br /> http://www.easternmarine.com/em_showroom/tech_articles.html <br /><br /><br />tommays

 

[Reel Poor]

Re: New EZ loader trailer brakes locked up

Make sure the emergency brake lever on the coupler has not been triped/set. If it has it will not release on its own, therefore causing the brakes to remain applied.

 

[Ripsnort]

Re: New EZ loader trailer brakes locked up

THanks all for replies. Still uncertain what caused it. I bled the system, refilled, and everything seems back to normal (Shrugs)

 

[fondafj]

Re: New EZ loader trailer brakes locked up

If you parked with force against the surge coupler the master cylinder in the coupler may have stuck in the actuated state. Bleeding the brakes may have loosened the cylinder in the coupler.

 

[jollymon]

Re: New EZ loader trailer brakes locked up

Ripsnort,<br /><br />I had the same problem with my 2002 Loadrite trailer. Dual Axle, breaks on all wheels, surge brakes. <br /><br />The first time I went pull the boat from the water, I hitched up the trailer, pulled out and 4 sets of skid marks, in the lawn. After almost having a stroke, I called Loadrite. The first question they asked me was "did you back the trailer into it's parking spot" Yea, why?<br /><br />They told me with surge brakes, when you are parking the trailer make sure that after you get the trailer in postion to pull it forward a couple of feet to keep the brakes from locking. My sat like that for 2 months, they pads had rusted to the drums.<br /><br />Now that I pull frward after backing in, I have nothad the problem.

 

[levittownnick]

Re: New EZ loader trailer brakes locked up

My surge brakes came equiped with a special set of brake shoes that are not supposed to act in the reverse direction (backing). Those brakes from the day they were new, locked when braking. After a 2nd. set did the same thing, I threw them out and replaced them with conventional brake shoes. (Because this brake system uses a single acting wheel cyllinder, backing is not a problem.) Since the change (7 years), the locking brake problem has not happened.