During my last trip to Scotland I had the problem with the Eriba banging into the car during heavy braking and the braking efficiency of the whole train seemed to be down.

Once home and unhooked however, I have a great resistance in the brake damper when trying to push it in manually and it does slowly move back out which to me, seems that the damper is still efficient.

When a friend of mine had the same problem there was little or no resistance in his damper before changing it. How to replace the Eriba braking damper

Randa

So today our trusted service engineer arrived to do a running gear service and a brake check on our 1999 Troll.

1) The first thing he looked at was the efficiency of the brake damper in situ and to his own mind there was still a lot of resistance in it.

2) Next he took the offside wheel and brake drum off. No one shot nuts on this model, castellated nuts and split pins. He examined the brake shoes and cleaned them up. All looking good with still plenty of lining on them. Never had them changed in the 13 years we've had the Eriba. Lots of miles on the clock too.
He noticed while he was under the van that the nearside handbrake coupling was a bit floppy compared with the offside.

3) So onto the nearside. Once he took the drum off he could see the problem. The bottom brake shoe had no lining at all and furthermore the metal to metal contact under braking had scored the inside of the drum. (the top was OK) OUCH

He deemed it necessary to have a new drum and a complete set on new brake shoes. It's a 13" four stud wheel so we hope that ALKO still supply them. On our van the specification numbers where found on the frame work under the van and just to the rear of the nearside wheel. ( British nearside that is). It must have been prominent as he found it with ease.

Still positive that this was the complete cause of the problem he was a bit concerned that we hadn't heard any scraping noses coming from that hub during our homeward journey but we were adamant that there was no tell tale sound and further more, every time we stop the van at a garage etc I religiously check the wheel temperatures of the Eriba. All appeared well. We rarely have the radio on and we alway listen for strange sounds. That's what comes from owning old cars and trailers for a lifetime.

The bumping and the lack of brake efficiency that led us to worry about the problem was not severe so it wasn't bumping every time we applied the brakes and under normal conditions the brakes did the job.

We still don't know for how long the lining had separated from the shoe but there was nothing left of the lining when he took the drum off.

He then decided to remove the damper to compare its resistence side by side with a new one he had on board and we both agreed that although weaker than the new one, it was barely noticable so he reattached it and we'll have to wait and see if he can get the brake drum and shoes and go from there.

We are a bit sad but we've hardly had to folk anything out on the Eriba in 13 years apart from £80 every other year for a running gear service and of course, several new sets of tyres.

I would appreciate any comments regarding the brakes based on what we found today.

Randa

Quote: Poptop320 wrote in post #5

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One of my shoes brake linings had become unattached however the lining was still floating about in the drum and was caused by a faulty damper snatching at the brakes, it sounds like your brakes are pulling more on one side causing the uneven wear?

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So, to continue the story. My caravan engineer managed to get a part number from ALKO for the brake drum (there are dozens to chose from) but his supplier couldn't find the correct drum so I set about looking.

BINGO. I managed to locate one in Northern Ireland. AUTO AND TRAILER SPARES LTD who specialise in ALKO trailer parts.

I spoke to a guy called Chris who was very helpful. The company was a delight to deal with and the drum was despatched on a free 48 hour delivery. It cost £143.00 including VAT. I bought it on a sale or return. The drum came with a brand new set of bearings all greased up and ready to go.

I really recommend this company:- https://autoandtrailer.com/

The most difficult thing was getting the engineer back here as he's a very busy man. He managed to fit me in for this morning and the weather was kind to us. He supplied a brand new set of brake shoes and set about fitting the new shoes and the drum. Once he'd adjusted the new brake shoes it was decided that the brake damper looked good so we need to get the van hitched up and take her out for a spin to see if all is well.

I am very annoyed with myself if I let this problem take place as I'm absolutely paranoid about checking the braking and ensuring the wheels are not overheating etc. We had no notice of this occurring and there were no noises coming from the Eriba during our tow home.

This adventure has cost around £420 for parts and labour. (including a full chassis service).

Upon closer inspection of the brake shoes when they were removed the picture below shows the different wear factors on the shoes. On the left there were two (one on each wheel) that were in very good condition seeing as they've never been changed in the 13 years we've owned the van. The one on the right has been totally stripped of its lining. The centre one is a worry because as can be seen, there's still plenty of meat on it but it is cracking and could be at the point of disintegrating.

As for the old drum, it looks like it was cooked and the inside surface is badly scored. The one on the other side was still OK. As a strange coincidence, an Italian Eriba friend of Eribafolk yesterday reported on the Italian group page that his 1999 Troll had the same issue and he was amazed to find out that I was going through the same problem. It would appear that his one disintegrated shoe didn't cause the same damage to the drum as mine has.

The Italian Troll :- En Ri.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

New Drum with part numbers:- Drum 01.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)drum 02.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Old Shoes showing degrees of wear and drum showing bad scoring:-

drum 03.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)drum 04.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Randa

Having slept on the issues with the brake shoes (see above photo and comments) I wonder if someone could enlighten me as to whether brake liners can degrade over the years like tyres do? It's a particular worry that the liner with cracks could have broken up during use which is possibly what happened to the shoe that had shed its liner?

The shoe with the cracks in the liner was not noticed until it was removed.

Randa