Brakes Grab - Impacting Steering

[chasfm11]

We had the "opportunity" to drive through the outer bands of Gustav on our return on on 9/2. It rained, sometimes heavily, from the time that we left the CG outside of Little Rock until we reached Greenville, TX with a heavy, gusty wind most of the way. In addition, traffic was very heavy and there were long groups of passenger cars (12-15 at a time) bunched nose-to-tail in the left lane for much of the time.

We have an air brake shoe system with ABS on the MH. I also have and ABS system on our toad and am more familar with its operation than I would prefer to be. I've never had the ABS kick in on the MH.

After an hour or so of driving on Tuesday, I was forced to land the brake pedal harder than usual. When I did, there was a significant pull toward the driver's side. Though I was holding the wheel steady (and tightly due to the wind gusts) at the time, it was all that I could do to keep from changing lanes into a group of cars. I attempted to pump the pedal a couple of times to see if I could correct the problem and the pull lessened with each pedal depression. The ABS light never came on. After that, I lightly pressed on the pedal a few times whenever I didn't have other vehicles around me, in an effort to dry out the brake linings. It was my expectation that wet linings were causing the problem. I had the pull happen two more times, to about the level.

Once we were on dry pavement, the brakes performed normally and I never had any feeling of pulling.
I've driven in wet conditions before but never for such a prolonged period.

Any thoughts or suggestions about this situation are welcome.

Charlie

[chasfm11]

We had the "opportunity" to drive through the outer bands of Gustav on our return on on 9/2. It rained, sometimes heavily, from the time that we left the CG outside of Little Rock until we reached Greenville, TX with a heavy, gusty wind most of the way. In addition, traffic was very heavy and there were long groups of passenger cars (12-15 at a time) bunched nose-to-tail in the left lane for much of the time.

We have an air brake shoe system with ABS on the MH. I also have and ABS system on our toad and am more familar with its operation than I would prefer to be. I've never had the ABS kick in on the MH.

After an hour or so of driving on Tuesday, I was forced to land the brake pedal harder than usual. When I did, there was a significant pull toward the driver's side. Though I was holding the wheel steady (and tightly due to the wind gusts) at the time, it was all that I could do to keep from changing lanes into a group of cars. I attempted to pump the pedal a couple of times to see if I could correct the problem and the pull lessened with each pedal depression. The ABS light never came on. After that, I lightly pressed on the pedal a few times whenever I didn't have other vehicles around me, in an effort to dry out the brake linings. It was my expectation that wet linings were causing the problem. I had the pull happen two more times, to about the level.

Once we were on dry pavement, the brakes performed normally and I never had any feeling of pulling.
I've driven in wet conditions before but never for such a prolonged period.

Any thoughts or suggestions about this situation are welcome.

Charlie

[GaryKD]

Drum brakes can do what you describe. Due to the automotive industry moving to disc brakes, I have lost a lot of skill with drum brakes. I do remember some exciting moments when driving in heavy rain, at a slow speed, for an extended period of time. I think your right front drum got more soaked than the left. When you tried to brake the left wheel responded normally. The right wheel did not.

I find it amazing that my 1978 Winnebago Brave had front disc brakes. My 2005 coach has drum all around.

[JerryForwood]

1. Never pump the brakes on an ABS system. You are defeating their normal operation.
2. Get off the road in those conditions and wait for the weather to clear.
It's much safer parked than driving when in conditions that you are not in full control!
JMHO!

[chasfm11]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Let me clarify a couple of points.

1. I wasn't pumping the brakes to use them. When I pumped them, I was trying to dry out the linings. I was doing that only when there were no other vehicles around me. As I indicated, I've driven with and used ABS systems and am familiar with proper brake pedal technique on them, at least with the passenger car versions. I'm not exactly sure how the MH would respond in the same types of skids that I've had my Saturn and frankly don't want to find out.

2. We were driving through the beginnings of Gustav and knew that the weather was going to deteriorate around us. I agree that I would have preferred to be parked but we knew that it was going to get a lot worse before it got better. The next couple of days after our drive from Little Rock, that area was getting hammered with rain and wind.

[speed racer]

The answer to your question is the abs prevents the wheels from sliding on the pavment. What you experianced was a brake that lost stoping power do to wet linnigs. This is common on drum brakes but can happen on disc brakes it just takes longer for drum brakes to dry out because there is more linning and less heat generated. It is most common on the right side because there is more water on the right side of the road do to the fact that all the rain water runs to the side of the road.

[Dutch Star Don]

Charlie....You may want to adjust both front brakes manually. One can be adjusted closer than other and would only manifest itself in wet weather.

[chasfm11]

That's a great point, Don. I hadn't considered that the automatic slack adjuster on one side might be working harder than the other. I'll go take a peek at the actual adjustments and see where they are, side to side.


Thanks,

Charlie