Brake shoe adjustment on 2006 3400RL?? - Montana Owners Club

Dean A Van Peursem · 10-08-2008, 07:59 PM

Getting ready for our trip South for the winter and need to check and adjust the brakes. I know there has been a thread on this before here on MOC but I never seems to able to get the search function to work for what I need. The question is, which way do the adjusters turn to tighten up the slack on the brake shoes? I suspect it is different depending on the side being worked on but are the adjusting knurled knobs turned up or down to tighten things up a bit. I have done this procedure on other vehicles, in the distant past but haven't done it on the 3400RL ever. Even saved the special tool from years ago but that isn't a surprise. I save everything even if it is worthless! :-) . After 8,000 miles plus, brake adjustment is way overdue.

I suspect I could figure this out with a little trial and error but I'm sure there are other MOC members who have been down this road and a little help might save me quite a bit of time and frustration. TIA.

PS: The only good thing about what has been going on financially in the World, is diesel prices have dropped here to less than $3.80 a gallon. Was as high as $4.50 or even higher. However, I am still feeling very poor as of late. Sorry, even poorer!

JH Sechelt · 10-08-2008, 09:37 PM

Hi Dean,

Pry them up to tighten (both sides). In the the old days you pried up one side and down on the other.
They used to have right & left star adjusters. Had boxes of them in my old Bus garage.
After the wheel is tight..... back them off about 3 clicks. (just so the wheel spins free).

J&D

Dennis Korchak · 10-09-2008, 04:35 AM

Dean,
Just did mine yesterday. After 18,000 miles, mine were 20 clicks out of adjustment. Just tighten drums then back off until they turn freely. Mine took 5 clicks back to spin free.

sreigle · 10-13-2008, 08:18 AM

Dean, if you can see the adjuster in the hole you can kinda tell which way the threads are and turn accordingly. Otherwise, what I do is turn one way until I figure out the brakes are getting tighter or not tighter. If not, then I reverse direction. As others said, adjust until you can't turn the wheel any more, then back it off until it turns freely. You will still hear some scraping noise and that's fine. Count the clicks you back it off and do the other wheels the same number of clicks. Still check to make sure it turns freely.

Awhile back, someone (Ozz, I think) posted this picture of the adjuster so I could more easily figure out which way to turn it.

It's a standard righthand thread so if the starwheel is to the right, as in this picture, then you'd want to move the close side of the starwheel upwards to expand the shoes toward the drum.

Dean A Van Peursem · 10-28-2008, 03:56 PM

Mission accomplished. Adjusted all four wheels. Some needed more clicks that the others. Will see if this tightens up things a bit on our trip to AZ this week. Thanks for the advice and help.

PS: Unfortunately, in the process, discovered a Mission tire going bad when doing the brake adjustment. This stinking late 2006 3400RL is going to keep throwing stuff at us until we throw it off the end of a pier. Just can't seem to go more than one trip w/o a new and major problem showing up. I think I better hide the pistol or the RV will have considerably more ventalation in it soon.

H. John Kohl · 10-29-2008, 02:44 AM

The unfortunate actually is fortunate. You did not throw the tread and do and additional $1000.00 plus damage to your fender skirt and undercarriage. I do understand the unfortunate of having to spend more money before the trip.
Good luck,

skypilot · 10-29-2008, 03:58 AM

Someone many moons ago posted something to the effect of 'An RV owner has to be either Good with their Hands and Tools, or their wallet; sometimes both!' I've found that to be true no matter what brand or type we own. As my wife said when I was having one of those 'I want to shoot it' moments -- what did I expect, I was moving a whole house down the road. Some truth to that I've found.

Dean A Van Peursem · 10-29-2008, 09:08 AM

skypilot,

Your wife's comment causes me to have to vent a bit. Sorrry. When your wife makes that comment again, ask her if the stick house had wheels on it when it was purchased or if it was sold as a Recreational Vehicle? I get really worked up when I hear that we aren't supposed to expect these units to stand up to road travel. It was sold as a unit for travel, not a mobile home that is exepcted to be moved to a location and made permanent. If Montana is unable to make a unit that can be pulled down the road, without repeated failures, they shouldn't be in the business of manufacturing and selling 5th wheels.

skypilot · 10-29-2008, 11:38 AM

Dean: No offense taken - I realize that we should get a better product than what we do -- I'm now in my 4th 5th wheel and each has been larger and better equipped than the last. However, I've not seen any improvement in running gear. I've often wondered why it is that our trailers still use the spring/shackle system that they do. I've noticed that livestock trailers built around here (and used by our AG Students) use torsion bar suspensions; car haulers and even some semi trailers use similar albeit with air bags. (heck, even the new Dodge has gone to trailing link suspension on the back for improved ride and handling!!) Obviously farmers have a lot of money invested in their horses and wouldn't want legs injured by an extremely rough ride. If it is good for them, why haven't our units gone to them -- not withstanding the lower flooring we could gain by going to such (just a thought).

In any case, I believe, and took, my wife's comment as more along the line of comfort and living items moreso than 'camping items' (microwave, Televisions, satelite receivers, etc.). We never had the problems when we had a simple camping trailer with nothing but a sink and beds in it... at least I don't remember them!

Dean A Van Peursem · 10-29-2008, 07:54 PM

skypilot,

Thanks for the kind response. We have had so many problems with our late 2006 3400RL that I am over sensitive to almost any comment or problem anymore about RV's. I also own a 20' equipment trailer and at the time I purchased it the torsion suspension was available as an option over conventional shackles and springs. For some reason the manufacturer kind of pooh poohed the torsion ride suspension but it has been a few years ago and now I am unable to remember what the reasons where but it obviously made some sense to me at the time since I stayed with the conventional springs. I have had this equipment railer cross country several times and have been satisfied with it, except have had all four OEM tires fail over time. But they lasted a heck of a lot longer than the Missions I have on the 3400RL. We do have the Mor Ride option on our 3400RL and and there are times when I sometimes forget I have the 3400RL behind the truck. We are about to leave on our annual trip to AZ and this trip will have some additional tension associated with it since I found one of the Mission Tires going bad on the pre-trip inspection. So I put the spare on and was going to use the tire that was going bad as the spare. Thought I would switch the spare rim with the original chrome rim and took both wheels down to a tire shop to have the rims swapped. They put the spare on the chrome rim but wouldn't mount the bad tire on the spare rim. Against their policy they said. @#$%^&. OK, I'll mount the @#$%^ thing myself. Got the old tire on the spare rim but have been unable to get the tubeless tire to seal enough to get it pressurized. Tried the compression band around the tire w/o success. I gave up and just put the now un-inflated spare back in the carrier. Maybe I'll find a tire store along the way who will complete the task for me otherwise I may just gamble and make the trip w/o a functional spare. TireCo is going to send me 5 new tires to replace the Missions as soon we get to AZ. Hopefully we won't have trouble on our trip to AZ. Right now, after finding one tire going bad, I don't have much confidence in the remaining original Mission tires. We just can't seem to make any kind of trip with our 3400RL w/o something major going wrong. Hopefully we will have an exception for a change. Getting tired of problems.

skypilot · 10-30-2008, 04:36 AM

Hear you loud and clear --Know exactly what you mean and it really does take the joy out of it when you don't trust it. Wishing you and yours the best, the safest of travels, and no further problems!!

You might want to stop by a tire store and see if they have a good, used LT tire to mount as your spare. Should be just a few dollars and then you'd at least have a spare to get you to your overnight location / a place where you can get a tire fixed if need be. I wouldn't recommend running an LT tire opposite an ST for long but short run it should work.

sreigle · 12-29-2008, 03:04 PM

Dean, I hope you got hold of Tireco and got your free replacement of those Missions or at least reimbursed for your replacement of them.

Dean A Van Peursem · 12-29-2008, 06:39 PM

Steve,

Tireco replaced all five Mission tires with Freestars, free of charge, and I have the new Freestars mounted & balanced on the RV already. UPS picked up the 5 bad Missions and Tireco should have them back by now. But we are parked for the winter and won't put any miles on them until April.

Delaine and Lindy · 12-30-2008, 12:38 PM

This is just a guess, but I think the Freestars are almost identical to the Missions. I have a 30' Haulmark inclosed trailer with the Mission E-rated tires and I also have a Gooseneck equipment trailer for hauling the John Deere Tractor and equipment and have Freestars G-rated on it. Haven't had a problem with the Missions or the Freestars. But I would not run the Missions or the Freestars on my 5th wheel. I only run the Goodyear G614's on the 5er. I ran the G614's on the Cambridge 358 the best wearing tires ever owned on a 5th wheel, I always ran 110 lbs of air pressure. I really believe that no matter what tire you are running its the Air pressure that the problem that causes most tire failures. I will say I have hauled 30,000 + lbs on the Freestars and haven't had a problem. I don't think you will ever have that much weight on your Freestars. However if I ever replace the G614's I think I'm going to 17.5 tires thats H-Rated, I already have 8,000 lb axles and the H-rated would just be more of a safety factor. Good Luck... GBY....

illapah · 12-31-2008, 04:58 AM

Read about this thread many times. Just thought about something since I am going to adjust brakes on our 3295. "Adjust up" means the tool handle end (that is in hand) goes up when adjusting or does the tool handle go down which will make the adjusting wheel go up?

I know, some people can make anything difficult if enough effort goes into it....

sreigle · 12-31-2008, 08:01 AM

Delaine and Linday, the Freestars looked and felt a lot different to me than did the Missions I removed. For one, they weighed more. My Mission spare was brand new so the difference was not in tread wear. Also, if I recall, the Freestars have a higher weight rating than did the Mission. Considerably more. Also, the tread pattern is different. I really didn't seen anything similar other than they were all round, more or less, and black with big holes in the middle.

They seem to be wearing much better, also, but we had our axles replaced with the 7k axles so that's probably most of the wear difference.

Illapah, I've had that same question in the past and don't know the answer. Relating to the picture I posted of the starwheel, i was referring to the starwheel moving up. That would require the adjusting spoon handle move downwards. The key on that one is to look at that picture and notice which way the threads go. Then "unscrew" the starwheel from the threads to make the adjuster wider, pushing the brake shoes out into the drum. Too much information?

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