[A/S] Brake wire check; Charlie

[kentgeld@xxxxxxxx]

Good point Charlie,
My brakes were not dragging but that can speed up the problem alright.
My insulation melted due to downtown Los Angeles rush hour traffic. That
plus the brake wires were just very old.
The plastic insulation on the magnet wires could be replaced with
something that will take more heat. Probably a silicone base insulation
would be better but that would cost more.
The magnets grab the drum when you apply the brakes and this generates
heat that is not very well vented.
This heat goes anywhere it can and that includes down the wires.
To this you add the heat of the shoes when they work and it must get
pretty hot in there.
I have no idea how many cycles of this my original brakes had to endure
but I am sure it was many.

I will add that the guy at the trailer place told me that the round
magnets my Airstream had were getting hard to get and would soon be
impossible to find.
That is another reason I just replaced the whole brake assembly with one
that had the newer oval magnets.