Rusty drum brakes

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Yea, there are two things my trailer guy recommends...

1. Use your trailer more often...the trailer that only gets used once or twice a year will have brakes that will go bad much faster than one thats used at least once a month for example.
2. Make sure the actuator releases the brakes before you store the trailer. Most of us do back the trailer up into some sort of parking spot and this is putting pressure on the hydraulic actuator and leaving the brakes (whether drum or disk) in a engaged position..then they stick out like that and don't retract properly when you need to use them.

I don't always remember to do this, but when I'm thinking properly, I do chock the wheels, then pull forward a bit against the chocks to release the brakes. But even with all that, rinsing my Kodiak CD disk brakes after each dunking and so forth, one of my pads separated from the metal backplate (with less than one year and 3000 miles on them) and I had to have that side rebuilt..luckily, still under warranty. When these brakes die (and my warranty is up), I may try replacing with all SS brakes, but from what I understand, the calipers aren't really all that different and so therefore, the two rules above still apply. And btw, the stock drum brakes that I got on my original 2000 trailer were really garbage...very light duty and corroded away in no time. I did have those replaced with some higher quality drum brakes which were sprayed down with anti corrosive gel and those lasted for several years. The bottom line is that this stuff deteriorates and its hard to keep your brakes working well for very long.