"Burnishing" your new brakes. WTF......... Now I've heard it all. (I'm raising the Bullsh!t flag)

[Runs With Scissors]

You ARE wrong, trailer brakes are nearly all drum brakes and the material has changed. Read the instructions from the brake manufacturer and do as instructed. When I replaced my trailer brakes they barely worked till I did the burnishing procedure.

Yes sir, I can accept being wrong. (It happened once before )

However, even Wagner realizes, and acknowledges that in real life, shops do not have the time to actually do it.

The part in red is my point I suppose. That procedure, to me at least, is basically a "test drive", and I fully support mechanics "test driving" their own work.


From the Wagner website:

"An effective burnish cycle to seat the friction materials into the opposing rotor and drum surfaces requires approximately 200 stops. The 200 stops are consistent with the burnish procedure outlined in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards FMVSS 105 and FMVSS 135. 200 stops may not be practical for many repair shops. Therefore, we recommend the following burnish procedure:

• Make approximately 20 “Complete Stops” from 30-mph

- OR –

• 20 “Slow-Downs” from 50-mph to 20-mph with light to moderate pedal pressure
• NO PANIC STOPS
• Allow at least 30 seconds between brake applications for the brake pads or shoes to cool down
• It is critical to follow cool down procedures to avoid damaging NAO, Ceramic and Semi-Met friction material as well as the rotor/drum
• No high speed stops and/or braking under heavy loads that could result in glazed or otherwise damaged linings"

I know absolutely jack $%&# about trailers.

Or gulfstream jets for that matter......My goodness that must be somethin btw. Mad props sir. Being a basic wrench chucker, I knew you were a next level kind of tech anyways with them fancy lathes and what not. Plus that sweet F350. You can't hide money LOL.



After that, you just wait for them to call complaining that their engine is misfiring, or headlight is out and the brake job you did 6 months ago is the cause of it.

Hahah....thank you sir, but a career ending injury has me just "polishing a seat with my ass" now.

I'm no longer a "real mechanic".

And I feel your pain. The 2 happiest days in my life were, "The day I opened my shop, and the day I closed it."


I suppose we can add this to "The List" of things people will have to "agree to disagree" on.

1. Best Oil to use.
2. Best grease to use
3. Best Ice Cream
4. Best President
5. Burnishing your brakes or not.

 

[Yooper]

If you buy a new trailer, were the brakes burnished/seated at the factory? Or does the axle manufacturer have a process before they leave their factory?

 

[lynnmor]

If you buy a new trailer, were the brakes burnished/seated at the factory? Or does the axle manufacturer have a process before they leave their factory?

That right there is about the best example of misunderstanding of the current manufacturing process. They will do absolutely nothing.

 

[The Evil Twin]

FWIW, the bedding process for brakes (burnishing) is to facilitate the transfer of friction material from the pad to the steel of the rotor or drum. Brake pads on steel don't provide much stopping power. The stopping power (friction) comes from the brake pad material against brake pad material embedded in the rotor/ drum steel. This is one major reason to NOT change pad types (or even manufacturers ) without turning or replacing rotors. The different friction material compounds may not work together and result in poor performance.

 

[JRHill]

I recall that back in the days of a 'drum' brake job by a professional shop that the shoes would be 'arced' so they fit the diameter of the drum at the moment installation. I really doubt anyone doing trailer brakes would bother with this. But I bet its still done on trailers pulled by a semi.

 

[Sidekick]

Yes sir, I can accept being wrong. (It happened once before )

However, even Wagner realizes, and acknowledges that in real life, shops do not have the time to actually do it.

The part in red is my point I suppose. That procedure, to me at least, is basically a "test drive", and I fully support mechanics "test driving" their own work.


From the Wagner website:

"An effective burnish cycle to seat the friction materials into the opposing rotor and drum surfaces requires approximately 200 stops. The 200 stops are consistent with the burnish procedure outlined in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards FMVSS 105 and FMVSS 135. 200 stops may not be practical for many repair shops. Therefore, we recommend the following burnish procedure:

• Make approximately 20 “Complete Stops” from 30-mph

- OR –

• 20 “Slow-Downs” from 50-mph to 20-mph with light to moderate pedal pressure
• NO PANIC STOPS
• Allow at least 30 seconds between brake applications for the brake pads or shoes to cool down
• It is critical to follow cool down procedures to avoid damaging NAO, Ceramic and Semi-Met friction material as well as the rotor/drum
• No high speed stops and/or braking under heavy loads that could result in glazed or otherwise damaged linings"

Hahah....thank you sir, but a career ending injury has me just "polishing a seat with my ass" now.

I'm no longer a "real mechanic".

And I feel your pain. The 2 happiest days in my life were, "The day I opened my shop, and the day I closed it."


I suppose we can add this to "The List" of things people will have to "agree to disagree" on.

1. Best Oil to use.
2. Best grease to use
3. Best Ice Cream
4. Best President
5. Burnishing your brakes or not.

You forgot the most important one
Rare, Medium, Medium Well, Well Done, or Burnt To A Crisp.
That's the one I encounter most .

 

[Shawn T. W]

Our semi-trailers still have drums, and hopefully the mechanics put all the bits in rights, they don't do any final anything, most just rattle the lugs back on, what's a torque wrench! ... We got disc's on the truck

 

[WFM]

I believe i saw a Malarkey on my deck this morning.

 

[Yooper]

That right there is about the best example of misunderstanding of the current manufacturing process. They will do absolutely nothing.

Oh believe me, I knew the answer to my questions! I thought someone would bite and bring up the CYA aspect that was insisted on by a lawyer somewhere along the pipeline.

 

[Henro]

Oh believe me, I knew the answer to my questions! I thought someone would bite and bring up the CYA aspect that was insisted on by a lawyer somewhere along the pipeline.

I think that aspect of American life is bred into people these days, and is so much taken for granted it’s not even thought of…

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

From the Wagner website:

"An effective burnish cycle to seat the friction materials into the opposing rotor and drum surfaces requires approximately 200 stops. The 200 stops are consistent with the burnish procedure outlined in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards FMVSS 105 and FMVSS 135. 200 stops may not be practical for many repair shops. Therefore, we recommend the following burnish procedure:

After the SIL toasted the brakes…If it were me, I think I would be buying the SIL an abacus and a set of pads for upcoming birthday / holiday.

getting the brake pads seated really is a thing (although I’ve never heard the term burnish until this thread, or at least not paid attention to it…I’ve heard break in and scuffin the pads), but I think some folks greatly over do these type of things…I mean for f sake, how would you get the trailer home?

Simple way is drive like you have some common sense for the first bit of use, starting with the trip home from the trailer sales lot. (I don’t think some folks have any idea how easily and quickly brake pads heat up when someone jumps on the binders.). Actually the concern would be over use / over heat new pads until they been used lightly / scuffed a little.

I think common sense / life skills covers most use cases…that’s probably why its not been a problem for you in 40ish years or whatever your number was.

there is no question stopping very important…personally I’d be more worried about making sure that somebody properly greased the wheel bearings and torqued the lug nuts on a New trailer (or repaired trailer) before pulling it home or using first time after a repair.

keep the rubber side down.

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

I don't know about burnishing brakes to the level discussed, and I have done a few brake jobs in my days.

Twice I bought new ceramic pads that did nothing to stop the car after many attempts. I went and bought and installed different and cheaper pads / shoes. The more expensive the pad or drum shoe, the longer it took to get them to work. I think the pricey ones would work better eventually and last longer, but I put safety first.

I don't think Dexter burnishes their pads / shoes on their new axles. They use cheaper pads/shoes.

That's why after you buy a new trailer and initially adjust your brake force, a week later you see that you are smoking the rear tires on your trailer whenever hitting the brakes. Cuz the pads / shoes became 'broken-in'. Saw this on my equipment trailer and my toyhauler.

Guy says; " My new trailer tires wore out fast! With big flat spots on them!"
Cuz he didn't re-adjust the brake force after a few miles and never looked in his rear view when braking to see the smoke.

On a passenger car or truck it will take more brake pedal force at first with new brakes, and then gradually it will need less force. It happens gradually and we don't notice it or think about it.

On a trailer it is back there locking up and smoking your tires because it isn't felt in the brake pedal because it's electric.

 

[Sidekick]

With newer vehicles having the trailer braking tied into the Emergency Braking System on vehicles there's very little worry after the initial trailer setup. That's why you really want to start with properly seated trailer brakes. I find no more skid marks with the computer monitoring wheel speed and deceleration then adjusting brake power accordingly to the load for very smooth stops. They even know which trailer you have hooked up. It's all black magic to me but I love it.

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

With newer vehicles having the trailer braking tied into the Emergency Braking System on vehicles there's very little worry after the initial trailer setup. That's why you really want to start with properly seated trailer brakes. I find no more skid marks with the computer monitoring wheel speed and deceleration then adjusting brake power accordingly to the load for very smooth stops. They even know which trailer you have hooked up. It's all black magic to me but I love it.

My current tow vehicle is a 2017 F250 XL work truck but it came with the trailer brake set up. But it isn't that high tech like the newer trucks are.

I pinched the little 'ears' on the trailer brake - dash controller once as an experiment a few years ago and the trailer tires locked up and smoked immediately.

 

[McMXi]

So there I am minding my own business when my SIL calls me up and asks me the proper way to "burnish" his trailer brakes/rotors that he just replaced?

I said "WTF are you talking about? Never heard of it........Sounds like some internet BS to me. You just put them on, take it it around the block a few times on a test drive, then set the gain on your controller to the proper settings and your done."

So sure enough, I look it up and there are all kinds of these "internet warriors" making some real doosey claims about how you have to "burnish" your brakes or you will bring down Gods wrath and He will rain down Hellfire and Brimstone on thee............... or that if you don't "burnish" them, then you will have "severely compromised your new brakes"

Intrigued, I watched a few videos of these guys, and they commence to doing some of the stupidest shit I have ever seen in my life.

Some even claiming that you need to "really heat them up good" until "they smoke", to get the brakes to "burnish".

I have been doing brakes on cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers, motorhomes, scooters, bicycles and airplanes for 40+ years now, and have never ever heard of this.

I have worked in dealerships, attended Chrysler Tech center schooling, attended Naval schools about aircraft, worked in independent shops, replaced brakes on EA-6B's to Gulfstream jets,.......... not even once have I done done a "burnishing procedure"; Hell, I had never even heard the term until last night.

I recently bought a new 30ft gooseneck trailer direct from Kaufman in NE. I picked it up at their facility on June 2nd, and the person who takes care of the delivery process specifically mentioned the need to break-in the brakes.

He told me to accelerate to 55mph then slow the truck and trailer to 25mph using only the trailer brake controller. He also told me to drive about a mile between each breaking session to allow the brakes to cool, and to repeat the procedure five to six times. Kaufman sells thousands of trailers a year but what do they know about it, right!

Over the past seven years or so I've bought 16ft and 10ft dump trailers and a 22ft deck over trailer from one of the bigger dealers up here, but they never mentioned a break-in procedure for the brakes and it's not something that I ever did, intentionally at least. Like many here I've done lots of brake jobs over the years replacing rotors and pads as well as some drum brakes and shoes, and every manufacturer provided some kind of break-in process to follow.

The Coyote trailer that came with my boat that I bought used has surge brakes and obviously I have no idea as to the history re the brakes. I bought a used MidSota trailer a few years ago that I sold last year and once again I have no history re the brakes, but it seemed to work well as I received it.

It was no big deal to follow Kaufman's break-in procedure, and if it was a waste of time then so be it, but given decades of replacing rotors and pads and seeing/following the manufacturer's brake-in procedure, I have little doubt that not glazing the drums is a good thing.

 

[ferguson]

Never called it that. But back in the 70's you would "run in the New brakes" on the stock cars. Was to polish off the brake fibers & match the shoe drum. Don't know if it made a differance but every body did it.

 

[McMXi]

Never called it that. But back in the 70's you would "run in the New brakes" on the stock cars. Was to polish off the brake fibers & match the shoe drum. Don't know if it made a differance but every body did it.

Burnish might not be the best word here.

burnished; burnishing; burnishes
: to make shiny or lustrous especially by rubbing

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I recently bought a new 30ft gooseneck trailer direct from Kaufman in NE. I picked it up at their facility on June 2nd, and the person who takes care of the delivery process specifically mentioned the need to break-in the brakes.

He told me to accelerate to 55mph then slow the truck and trailer to 25mph using only the trailer brake controller. He also told me to drive about a mile between each breaking session to allow the brakes to cool, and to repeat the procedure five to six times. Kaufman sells thousands of trailers a year but what do they know about it, right!

Over the past seven years or so I've bought 16ft and 10ft dump trailers and a 22ft deck over trailer from one of the bigger dealers up here, but they never mentioned a break-in procedure for the brakes and it's not something that I ever did, intentionally at least. Like many here I've done lots of brake jobs over the years replacing rotors and pads as well as some drum brakes and shoes, and every manufacturer provided some kind of break-in process to follow.

The Coyote trailer that came with my boat that I bought used has surge brakes and obviously I have no idea as to the history re the brakes. I bought a used MidSota trailer a few years ago that I sold last year and once again I have no history re the brakes, but it seemed to work well as I received it.

It was no big deal to follow Kaufman's break-in procedure, and if it was a waste of time then so be it, but given decades of replacing rotors and pads and seeing/following the manufacturer's brake-in procedure, I have little doubt that not glazing the drums is a good thing.

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The process you describe in your second paragraph sounds nearly/exactly like me simply driving home while adjusting the gain, and I agree that's pretty much what I do to.

That is not what I am talking about.

My original "bitch" was in regard to videos linked below.

This gentleman, "claims" that we need to to apply the brakes and I quote "30 to 50 times with about 1/2 mile to mile between applications for cool down" (see the 4:36 mark).

I take umbrage with the advice given. Sounds more like bad advice/BS to me.

 

[William1]

I was taught, a few gentle stops from 30 to get the pads/shoes to 'mate' to maximum performance. I could certainly tell the difference. My current PU shop manual does use the term 'burnish in the brakes', its a 2005.
When I raced cars and motorcycles, we prepped spare rotors and pads, We'd install, operate a little bit to get them bedded (that's the term we used) and then stored and replaced as a set.
New pads/shoes are flat, a rotor or drum has machining ridges. The first few stops, the pads or shoes are riding on the peaks of the ridges. Soon, the pads/shoes have worn to fit the contour of the drum/disk and are bedded. As they wear, they stay 'matched'

 

[lynnmor]

This will go forever since folks don't understand that the material used to make brake shoes has changed. It is not about getting the shoe to match the drum, although it helps, it is about bringing the compound to the surface and depositing it on the drums. Unless you installed new brakes and noticed the poor performance when first used and then followed the instructions to experience the gains, you have nothing to add.