1700 g Major tanker brakes

[Chips]

I have a 1700g Major tanker and the 8 stud axles brakes have been nearly useless from new and now are useless even though the shoes have loads of wear left on them . There is no means of adjustment either other than taking the lever off and moving it on a spline or two . There is nothing wrong with the tractor as on all my other kit the trailer brakes work very well . Is there a way of improving the set up for not too much doe like a bigger ram or something . We had a new axle under warranty due to a seprate issue and the brakes were no better with the new axle .

 

[Wellytrack]

I have a 1700g Major tanker and the 8 stud axles brakes have been nearly useless from new and now are useless even though the shoes have loads of wear left on them . There is no means of adjustment either other than taking the lever off and moving it on a spline or two . There is nothing wrong with the tractor as on all my other kit the trailer brakes work very well . Is there a way of improving the set up for not too much doe like a bigger ram or something . We had a new axle under warranty due to a seprate issue and the brakes were no better with the new axle .

Have you tried it on another tractor? Valve might not be sending enough.

Failing that a bigger ram would do no harm.

 

[Fergieman]

Change the axle for a 10 stud commercial axle with cam adjusters.

 

[Matt L]

Check the shoes are not glazed. This is common through under use and light braking.
They need heat to release the resin.

 

[davidroberts30]

what is the working angle of the brake ram to the brake lever?
put a picture up

 

[Mur Huwcun]

A quick check you can do is swap the connector for a male fitting and use them on the spool valve to see if they will lock up. Have you checked that the clevis does not thread into the piston of the ram? This will give you some fine adjustements. As said, they could be glased up and need replacing or roughing up a bit and used to get some heat into them

 

[michael N123]

Have you tried it on another tractor? Valve might not be sending enough.

Failing that a bigger ram would do no harm.

I have that issue the old valmet 8050 will make everything brake hard and the newer N4 you need to push the pedal very hard for trailer braking

 

[Chips]

Brakes get plenty of useand chance to heat up as we farm on steep hill and do nearly a mile of downhill fully loaded for nearly every load . The brakes won't even hold the tanker when stationary now which is a bit scary if you fail to pull it up a slippery hill .
Upgrading to a 10 stud axle would be nice but mean new rims as well and thus probably cheaper to just change the tanker which will probably have to be done at some point as it's not compatible with a trailing shoe due to rear self fill arm .
Will check to just to make sure the rod of the ram hasn't got an adjuster on it but I didn't think it had .
Managed to find a FW video on trailer brakes and it said some ag spec brakes were useless from new due to the rams and pipe work being too small , upgrading the ram doubled the efficieny

 

[Chips]

Have you tried it on another tractor? Valve might not be sending enough.

Failing that a bigger ram would do no harm.

Haven't tried a different tractor but my other trailers brake very hard on this tractor even though they are mainly 8 stud too even the rotten old single axle salops will lock the wheels unless fully laden

 

[daveydiesel1]

Is the ram in the top hole on the brake arm?

 

[Mur Huwcun]

Is it still on original brake hose? Is it only a 1/4 or 3/8 hose? Could it have a restriction in it? Have you tried it direct to spool?

 

[Chips]

Will try on a spool and see what happens

 

[njneer]

Simple fact of the matter is AG spec brakes ( 80mm shoes) are not fit for purpose for the weights and speeds of modern tractors. Especially tankers with large wheels with big rolling radius.
The stopping power Required for the weight and speed is multiplied by the added inertia of large radius wheels.
Hi Spec tankers had an issue with the axles they were using once upon a time where the leverage of the large radius wheels literally tore the brake shoe mounts off the hubs and spun the shoes in the drum under braking.
10 Stud commercial axles (180 mm shores with full adjusters ) should be the minimum requirement nowadays.
If you are stuck on AG brakes for the foreseeable than changing from standard 25 mm rams to 30 mm increases the applied pressure , some have adjusters on the mounting pivots To minimise travel.
When the brake is fully applied the optimum angle is for the ram to be at 90 degrees to the lever.

 

[Chips]

Jacked the tanker up and definitely no means of adjustment other than moving splines , took the ram of which is already 30mm and brakes will not top the wheel at full turn of the lever so have been and got new shoes even though the old one don't look completely worn but little else to do given the ram is already 30mm . Hopefully it will be a bit better .

 

[Hilly]

Simple fact of the matter is AG spec brakes ( 80mm shoes) are not fit for purpose for the weights and speeds of modern tractors. Especially tankers with large wheels with big rolling radius.
The stopping power Required for the weight and speed is multiplied by the added inertia of large radius wheels.
Hi Spec tankers had an issue with the axles they were using once upon a time where the leverage of the large radius wheels literally tore the brake shoe mounts off the hubs and spun the shoes in the drum under braking.
10 Stud commercial axles (180 mm shores with full adjusters ) should be the minimum requirement nowadays.
If you are stuck on AG brakes for the foreseeable than changing from standard 25 mm rams to 30 mm increases the applied pressure , some have adjusters on the mounting pivots To minimise travel.
When the brake is fully applied the optimum angle is for the ram to be at 90 degrees to the lever.

I said this last week and got lambasted

 

[Mur Huwcun]

Jacked the tanker up and definitely no means of adjustment other than moving splines , took the ram of which is already 30mm and brakes will not top the wheel at full turn of the lever so have been and got new shoes even though the old one don't look completely worn but little else to do given the ram is already 30mm . Hopefully it will be a bit better .

You can only rotate the shaft a quarter of a turn or 90 degrees to get maximum travel as it’s a flat cam axle setup. If you have the drum off mark or scribe the shaft when the cam is completely flat, you will know then with the drum back on how much possible adjustments you have intill it goes over centre. It could be worn drums but shouldn’t really.

 

[Chuckie]

While it's apart, swap the cam shafts over, then you get a new bit where it contacts the shoes.