RV Brakes for Suicidal Dummies

Look, Charlie: Drum brakes vs disc brakes

When it comes to a moving vehicle, few systems are more important to maintain properly than the brakes: if your engine fails while traveling, you are probably inconvenienced; if your brakes fail you might end up dead. This is true whether your conveyance is a motorcycle, a passenger car, or an RV. One should, indeed, maintain the brakes on an RV. On the other hand, one should probably not take maintenance advice from Charlie Gaston, who published "How to Repair the Brakes on an RV"¹ for Trails.com.

Gaston's ignorance of brake systems is, to be perfectly honest, profound. For that reason alone, we submit as our first quote from her article the warning,

"Always have a professional service problems you cannot resolve on your own."

Great idea, Charlie; to which we add, "Never take advice from someone who knows less than you do"! But why do we think Gaston is ignorant of brake service? Well, for instance, there's her apparent failure to know the difference between disc and drum brakes: she spouts many generalities about drum brakes, including "Apply a moly-type brake grease to the contact points between the shoe and the backing plates..." ...although she seems unaware of what "moly-type" might even mean; but the point is that when it comes to disc brakes, her entire repertoire comprises,

"Inspect the rotors. Pay attention to the thickness, quality and run-out of each rotor. Look for warping, thinness or surface damage..."

...which, based on its position, suggests Charlie thinks the rotor is another part in a drum brake. Note that she mentions neither caliper nor pad... Overall, Gaston's failure to comprehend an essential safety system is best summed up in her introduction, however, where she claims that

"Damage from rust, corrosion and wear and tear can cause your RV brake system to stop unexpectedly, which can result in a serious accident."

We aren't absolutely certain, of course, but we're pretty sure that brake system failure results in an inability to bring your RV to a stop, not an unexpected braking event. No folks, heed Gaston's own warning and don't let someone like our Dumbass of the Day anywhere near the brakes on your RV –or your bicycle, motorcycle, car, truck...

¹ This website is now defunct, but you can see the post using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was    trails.com/how_39338_repair-brakes-rv.html

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