Trailer brakes frozen stuck

I watched a guy try this using Acetalyne... Lets just say the results were not what he wanted... Unless he was going for the 500 pound bomb shock wave. He walked around for a week saying "What was that?" or "Did you say something?" every time you tried to talk to him. And he ended up getting a new tire.

 

I go through a full case every winter. I put that sheeyat on everything

 

Another trick that worked for me recently is pour rubbing alcohol in glad hands and pump brakes till pressure gone ..then let it build up and try again..I tried hammer ..then this is what worked.

 

Well ya,2 separate problems requiring 2 different solutions.

 

What IH said, there is difference between water in the air supply resulting in frozen valve and brake shoes frozen to the drums.

 

There is a product designed by a trucker called The Brake Releaser...basically, a canister you fill with alcohol and attach to red line, push in the valve, take it off (you don't drive around with it attached).

It delivers a quart or so of alcohol back to the valve and trailer air tank. It retailed for around $375, which is a crap-ton of money. His web site doesn't work anymore, gee, wonder why.

It came with a nice bag, there was one designed for vans and reefers and one for flatbeds, not sure if you get both for that price.

I recently saw them for sale on Ebay asking $250 or best offer. Worth it for $100, but, you can in essence
do what this does just by pouring alcohol into your red line, re-attaching it and opening the valve.

It's a good thing to do periodically during the winter months.

 

Ive been having my tractor breaks freeze up everytime i stopped for the past week. Sometimes they get real froze it wont move forward.. I put er in reverse and its like a magic button gets pressed and they start rolling

 

I haven't set my spring brakes in 3 weeks LOL

 

Mine too...every time I came to a stop, lose all my air.

I had a whole 6 mi to go down the road and make a del Wed AM. I tried to convince them to let me do it on Friday when temps were going to sore to 20 degrees! No luck. So, I was one of the few unlucky ######## on the road Wed AM. Everything else was shut down, just about everything.

I had a leak start over the weekend, cracked the line to the leveling valve right at the fitting. I left it run since Sunday so it wouldn't gel, lots of time idling = condensation build up in the tanks.

Our outside air temp Wed was around -27 over night and about -24 when I was out making my del.

I could hear the air leak when I'd stop, so, my guess is it was froze open. I'd have to wait until the primary tank lost all its air, increase the RPM's and it would air back up again. I figured out, drive with 2 feet and 2 hands, holding the RPM's at about 1,500 as I was rolling to a stop, keep the idle up so the air compressor was faster than the air leak. Limped it back to the yard, parked it and left it running since.

Tomorrow (Fri) will be warmer....it's already warmed all the way up to -7!!! Maybe even warmer...but, now it's snowing again!