[Richard]

In prep for our upcoming trip, I was crawling around under the coach with the grease gun. Much to my surprise, I saw this when I went under the rear.
   
This officially qualifies as Houston, We have a problem. You may be able to see the brake chamber is about 180 degrees from where it is supposed to be. Further examination shows the brake chamber is mounted to a bracket, and the bracket is bolted to the backside of the drive wheels with 4 5/8 bolts.

The mounting ears on the bracket failed. When I look at the ears, it looks like the failure occured over time. There is very little fresh fracture area, and most of the broken area appears that it is hammered smooth. That would have happened each time the brakes were applied and the bracket tried to rotate.
   
   

Now comes the fun part. Inside the bracket tube is the rod that turns to activate the cam for the brakes. The design feature that kept the bracket captured was that the inboard end of the rod has the slack adjuster attached via circlip.

But...........there was not enough room to slide the bracket off the rod. And to take the rod out meant taking the wheels off the coach. So I put the ears back in place with the bolts, clamped the bracket in place with c clamps and tacked the ears back on. I then could move it out of the confined space enough to get the welder to it. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the fix, but I was pretty covered in grease and dirt, and getting out the phone for a photo op was not on my priority list.

I'll go ahead and try to find a replacement to have as a spare. That way it'll guarantee this one doesn't break.

Needless to say I didn't have brakes or e brakes on that wheel. I don't know how long it's been that way, as I haven't been under the rear for several months. I guess the moral of the story is it wouldn't hurt to shine a light around occasionally to see what you can seen under there.

[lbrachfe]

Again, I say ''Wow" to what you discover and repair Richard.. You are one smart guy, especially when dirty...

[bikestuff]

Richard, it appears that your brake chamber is resting on the ground. Did I get that right? Holy smoke, that looks bad.

Thanks for the reminder to look under the coach!

[Ozarkguy]

Unbelievable.. Glad you found it.. Does Newell have a process to collect these types of failures??

[lbrachfe]

I think that Newell does record all types of failures from a previous conversation with Karl about hitch and lift capacity and hitch failure and how motorcycle lift installs are not suggested or endorsed because the weight is not distributed effectively to prevent possible failures and it seemed he was very well informed on this subject.

[bikestuff]

Richard,
I was thinking during the thunderstorm last night and may have figured out what broke your brakes. With our vintage coaches, the automatic leveling does not play well with the parking brake. Do you have to release the air brake to be able to obtain a good level?

On my coach, you have to release the air brake and when you do the bus will pop up to a different level. That means that the air bags were putting pressure on the brake. I bet over time, it fatigued the bracket.

Now, to inspect mine!

Cheers,
bill

[bikestuff]

Larry,

I hope that is just some motorcycle lifts! Mine is built like a tank and seems as if it does a great job of distributing weight left to right. As far as front to back, I hope that the weight of the lift plus the cycle is not a big deal.

No one here at Newell has ever suggested that the lift was not a good idea.

Cheers,
bill

[Richard]

I agree on the parking brake leveling issue. For some time I would hear popping from that corner as the coach sat. I was not in the practice of leveling with brake off but I will be from now on. Also I think that part of the problem could be the length of the bracket. Just guessing but it is about 14 inches from the mounting point to the brake cannister. That is a lot of weight to be cantilevered out like that. Every bump in the road would stress the joint. The failure line looked to be more from up and down movement of the bracket rather than rotational. It would take an insane force to fail the mounting point rotationally. Also when I was looking for a new replacement I noticed that many similar brackets had gussets in the vertical orientation. It sort of confirmed my conclusions.

[qcj]

I usually don't level my coach if the pad I'm on is fairly level. Just leave it in travel mode. It has been in my storage now for almost 30 days and is still as it was when I parked it.