At 06:24 18 June 2013, bumper wrote:
I live near the bottom of Kingsbury Grade at Minden. A friend brought his
glider over to my house, coming down the grade (about 8.5 miles of 8%
grade
or so). The brakes on his new Cobra trailer were really hot, with a
strong
odor of burning brakes.

Not good, but I'd say normal.

bumper

Interestingly the Alko manual suggests that if the brakes are coming on
when going downhill or decelerating then the overrun damper is faulty.
Excerpt from manual:

BRAKES APPLY DURING
DECELERATION OR
DOWNHILL TRAVEL
Overrun damper is defective. Replace the overrun damper.