Frozen Brakes

I remember reading a suggestion from G-town about keeping your trailer brakes from freezing by driving a short distance in the truck stop with your foot lightly pressing the brake pedal to dry them. Since it's that time of year again I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how to keep your brakes from freezing. I'm aware that mixing a spray bottle with a 50-50 mix of alcohol and water works well for deicing locks. Would this kind of solution work on the brakes?

Probably but dont set your trailer brakes either. they tend to freeze if you do and the valve says right on it "Not a Parking Brake".

Always have a hammer so you can tap them. I had a trailer last year that no matter what, the brakes froze. I drove that sucker 2000 miles and sat in two TA shops where they put heat lamps around the trailer. they told me it was so cold all the trailers were doing it. I drove to GA thinking it would help to get warmer but the snow follwed me lol.

My first truck the brakes froze twice. You just chock.it if bobtail , release the brakes and tap with hammer. its not a huge deal....unless you drag the tires and create a bald spot.

I agree with Rainy...(I know, strange), if you don’t need to set them, it’s unlikely they’ll ever freeze.

I agree with Rainy...(I know, strange),

Yeah, I had to tap the brakes with a hammer in a situation last year. Not fun getting under the trailer on a cold morning. You never know when you're going to forget about NOT setting the trailer brakes. A cure for absent mindedness would be great.

Laying down in two feet deep snow to tap my brakes with a hammer cured my absent mindedness.

Laying down in two feet deep snow to tap my brakes with a hammer cured my absent mindedness.

When there's a chance of freezing brakes at night, stop using the engine brake several miles before your shutdown spot. This means you'll use your service brakes more and heat them up. It's kinda like driving in the truck stop but when I see a space I can get into at the truck stop I'm grabbing it right now instead of driving around further. Also, backing up will sometimes loosen the brakes, we used this trick a lot when hostling at the DC.

Laying down in two feet deep snow to tap my brakes with a hammer cured my absent mindedness.

Just what the doctor ordered, I'm sure!

Very important to chock your wheels. When I was in training our brakes froze and we could not rock them loose. My trainer suffered a moment of absent mindedness and forgot to chock the wheels. He was under the nose of the trailer banging on the rear drive brakes when he found the last stuck wheel...and the truck started rolling back towards him.

The spot we were in sloped down behind us down to a very abrupt drop. Lucky for him there was a very tall curb at the rear of the spot that the trailer tires didn't jump.

That would have been an awkward call to my dispatcher explaining how my trainer ran himself over.

Most trucks with an APU can be equipped with a microwave. If your brakes freeze, just use the 'defrost' setting. (Just kidding of course)

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.