Should All Trailer Brake Assemblies Have Same Adjustment Tension When Spun by Hand

Question:

Hi, I followed the procedure for adjusting the 4 electric drum brakes on my trailer. Locked them up with the adjuster and then backed them off until there was just a slight drag but they still turned freely about 2 turns per spin by hand... Then I connected to the truck and applied the brakes with the controller with the manual button and verified they all locked up after a spin. They did. But after I completely disconnected, I noticed that all but one wheel had significantly more drag. I tightened the remaining wheel to match but is this normal? Did I just have too slight a drag with my original adjustment? Have a long cross-country trip so Im being a little more cautious with this. Thanks,

asked by: Phil

Expert Reply:

You'd want to get the drag as even as possible between all of the assemblies so that you get uniform braking activity. The 10 clicks back from lock up gets you pretty close but you'd want to fine-tune them as much as possible to be all the same. Based on what you did to get them all as tight as the tightest one you would be fine as-is.

expert reply by: Jameson C