Hi ho, hi ho, a camping we will go.

[Professur]

I'm getting (hopefully) a tent trailer (roughly 1600lbs) this weekend. I plan on pulling it with my 1997 Pontiac Transport (that's the new model, not the long nose). The base rating for the van is 2000lbs, and 3500lbs with the towing package (which I don't have). To the best of my knowledge the towing package is only an air-suspension and tranny cooler. I could be wrong.

Now to what I need. First, I wanna change the brake pads, but this POS has ABS so I've no idea of the procedure. And I can't find a Chilton manual for this model.

Second, since I'm well under the 2000lbs base rating, should I go for the tranny cooler anyways?

Third, I'll take any and all advice anyone can give me on towing a trailer, maintaining a tent trailer, living in a tent trailer, and how the frig do you fold it up wet and still use it the next night?

Am I making a big mistake here?

 

[Deanril]

Dont know much about tent trailer except they are one of the lightest tralers out there.

As far as Abs brakes go you want to ofcoarse ,determin how much pad wear you have left ,then see if you need to replace them.

You can pull a wheel off and look at them ,typically 1/32 is 10% and so on ,and when they reach 20% is when you want to replace them.You can also sometimes look at the thickness of the brake pads metal and use that as 50% if the friction material is the same size as the metal backing then its around 50% worn.Again this is on most not all.

As far the difference between lets say a regular brake job and a ABS brake job ,typically lies in how you push back the caliper piston .In ABS you want to open the bleeder screw on the caliper then ,push back the piston ,letting fluid drain as you go.Also ,turn car off ,and key out ,and pump the brakes like 20 times to release any and all pressure ,then go ahead and start your brake work.

Once pads are on, pump the brakes and release then go to the wheel farthest from master cyclinder ,and crack the bleeder ,this will let traped air escape ,then do the other wheel on that axle ,pump the brakes again and repeat step over again.This is known as Gravity bleeding and you can do it with 99% of vehicles and you dont need a partner .

With a trailer you may ask the autoparts store or dealer for the very best pads ,typically if your rotors look and feel ok ,there is no need to have them machined ,this is comon practice now adays .Any problems ,slight warpage ect ...have them machined.

If for some reason a light were to come on during your abs brake job ,you could disconnect the battery thus reseting the abs computer ,this happens but rarely.

Good luck and be safe.