Hartley Falbaum wrote on 4/3/2017 7:22 AM:
On Sunday, April 2, 2017 at 11:03:02 PM UTC-4, Eric Greenwell wrote:
I adjusted the brakes on my Cobra trailer according to the directions from Cobra.
On the first test drive, the right brake drum got very hot in a few miles (about
240 deg F); the left brake drum got up to about 125 deg F.

Neither drum seems to be dragging when I jack up the wheel and spin it. I backed
off the right drum about 8-10 clicks, which reduced the temperature to 175 deg f
(but it was shorter drive). The brake handle still comes up to the correct position.

I'll back off the hot drum another 8 clicks, and see if it still gets hot, but I'm
wondering if I'm missing something here. Does anyone know why it's getting so hot
if it isn't dragging?

If your trailer is newer-2000 or so, it probably has the sealed bearings. They can fail, and heat the drum. Are you checking the hub temp, or the drum rim temp? Remove the drum and inspect mechanism of brakes--may be stuck and not backing off.
If it heats to high, too long, you can anneal the axle and it will break off! Find the problem.

It does have the sealed bearings. I'm checking the temperature at the drum rim.

I'll pull the drum and hope I see something that's easy to fix!


--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf