Brakes are hot...

When I was bringing my rig home a couple of weeks ago, the brakes just didn't feel right. I would turn the correct knob on the control to loosen the brakes up and they still got very hot. They were smoking when I pulled up. I had to go back to the dealer to pick something up and asked if I could bring it back and have them run me through the brake operation again. To be safe, kind of, I drove all the way back to the dealer without the plug in so any brakes would be applied. Straight shot down a country road so it was okay. The left side was smoking hot and the right side was just warm when I got to the dealer. I ended up leaving it there and they said all they had to do was re-adjust the one side. Well driving it home today they got hot again. Both sides. They said it could be the pads breaking in since these are trailered down from Oregon and not towed. At one point, slowly coming up to a stop sign they locked up. I loosened them more and they seemed to work alright the rest of the way home but were still hot. They were so loose that when testing at 20 MPH they barely stopped the trailer when just using the control. I'm going to take her for a spin tomorrow and see how they feel. The drag about this is I bought a pop-up trailer there last year, which I traded in for this, and had to take it back due to bad surge brakes.   They seem to think I’m rough on brakes. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to get some input from all you folks….Thanks, Bill

Dumb idea here, but you aren't one of those people who ride the brake pedal all the time with your left foot are you?  With at least some brake controllers, the longer your foot is on the brake the more pressure is applied to the trailer brakes. 

Backing the controller off should only effect how much pressure is applied to the trailer brakes when the brakes are used, per my understanding.  If your brake pedal is not depressed there should be no trailer braking at all.  If the controller is turned all the way up a light touch of the brakes will lock up the trailer brakes, but not until your foot hits the pedal.

It's probably something else, but I thought I'd throw that out there.  You might check the brake wire at the TV and see if it's getting voltage all the time, even when there is no foot on the brake.  That would indicate faulty wiring or a bad controller.

TT

Here is a suggestion. If possible tow the trailer with a different vehicle if you don't have a heat problem and the brakes work good,  you might say it's youR tv if they still heat up it's the trailer.

I missed the comment about pulling it with the 7-pin cable disconnected.  If the brakes are sticking with no electrical connection to the TV then of course the problem must be behind the hitch.  I agree the first and easiest thing to check would be the breakaway cable.

TT