Frozen Air Brakes

[modo]

I needed to relocate my 2005 Meridian DP from storage this weekend but, after starting the engine and engaging the transmission and releasing the brake it would not move. The local temperature was 21 degrees F. After running for about 30 minutes and with some 'rock and roll' along with an accompanying loud bang it moved and all seemed normal. I have read about the air dryer and it supposedly has an internal heater. Will this device prevent frozen brakes. I have never pulled the drain lanyards but perhaps I should start. Any advice/ assistance would be appreciated.

MODO
2005 Itasca Meridian 34H DP

[FleetMan]

It sounds like your brake shoes were either frozen or rusted to the brake drums. What you did, the resultant loud "bang" and normal operations afterward are typical of that condition.

Yes, you should pull the lanyards periodocally to manually drain the air tanks and look for water or oil coming out. That would indicate other problems. A properly functioning air dryer along with the heated automatic purge valve should prevent water/condensation from getting into your air lines. If you have never had the air dryer serviced, since you are coming up on six years old, it would be a prudent preventive maintenance item to have done.

[bigdog]

It is very possible that the brake shoes were wet when you parked it and they just froze to the drums.We used to have that happen on our school busses a lot when the temps got way down and the pavement was wet.It'll sometimes happen in warmer weather too.Then it's just because the brakes were damp when parked and they dried to the drums.
The air dryer is only to keep the air in your air tanks dry and not the brakes. However,you should pull the lanyards when you are parking it for awhile in cold weather,just in case there is some water in the system. Not very probable,but it does happen.

[JohnRR]

What you described is very common occurrence in over the road tractor trailers that are parked in the winter weather then when it's time to go the shoes and drums are frozen together drivers will then either rock the unit like you did or smack the brake drums with a hand held sledge hammer to "crack" them loose. You'll know which drums are frozen since when you rap them they have a dull or solid sound versus some what of a ring to them.

A rap is way lighter than a two handed all you got smack