How do you adjust the trailer brakes?

I work for a mega carrier. All of the trailers at the mega I work for are less than ten years old. So i suppose all the trailers at my company have auto slack adjusters.

If my brakes won't hold, why shouldn't I get a 7/16 socket and a rachet and adjust the brakes myself like in the video that tscottme showed in post #14 on this thread?

 

I can be a trucker for ten years without knowing how to adjust auto slack adjusters because I have been a company driver all these years. Whenever my trailer brakes would not grab when I pulled the red brake valve out, I have always just called breakdown and let a mobile mechanic adjust my trailer brakes. It's not trolling. It's just a matter of working as a company driver at a company that sends mobile mechanics to do repairs instead of the driver doing repairs.

 

@snowwy

Here is my understanding of what you and other people here are telling me:

If my trailer brakes won't grab when I pull out the red brake valve, then I need to push the red brake valve back in, and then I should inspect the trailer brakes myself. On a trailer with drum brakes, if I see a gap between the brake shoes and the drum, then the auto slack adjuster needs to be adjusted. Is that all correct?

Snowwy wrote the following: "I adjust to snug and back 3 clicks." I'm not 100% sure what you mean. What I think that you probably mean is that you adjust the brakes until they are snug, and then you adjust the brakes the opposite direction 3 clicks. For instance, lets say that to make the trailer brakes more tight you turn the socket clockwise. I think that you mean that you turn the socket clockwise until the brakes are snug, and then you turn the socket counterclockwise 3 clicks. Is that correct?

Then in post #5 on this thread @tscottme wrote of "Tightening them brakes down and then back them off a certain amount". That also sounds like first you tighten it in one direction, and then at the end you go the opposite direction a tiny bit to loosen it.

 

There is no reason for you to link to a thread that i created asking about how to add air to a tire with an auto inflate system on this thread about adjusting the trailer brakes. Let's stay on task please. This thread is about how to adjust the trailer brakes.

 

On what planet do all company drivers know how to adjust auto slack adjusters? I don't know what planet you're from, but it's definitely not Earth.