Trailer Brakes

 

Drum Brakes

Performance, serviceability, dependability, simple operation and proven design are factors common to our drum braking products. Meritor is a major original equipment supplier of drum braking products to leading trailer builders in North America.

The Meritor Q Plus™ cam brake (pictured) increases service life and mileage between relines by using thicker lining blocks. Because of these thicker linings, we specially designed an S-cam and heavy-duty shoe return spring to provide additional brake show travel for full wear. An improved camshaft bushing also contributes to longer service life.

Q Plus brakes are available for trailer axle applications and provide greatly enhanced stopping power.

Features and Benefits

Our Q Plus brakes feature linings with extra thickness at the maximum wear point and improved camshaft bushing to help ensure an increased service life. 

The shoes are of a quick change design for ease of serviceability and our focus on parts commonality among steer, drive and trailer brakes help customers to effectively reduce parts inventory.

 

Disc Brakes

Today’s vehicle combinations provide higher power to weight ratios and higher average speeds. This coupled with increased congestion and increasingly stringent legislation placed demands on braking which stretches conventional drum brake technology to its limit. Meritor disc brakes on both trailers and trucks offer an overall shorter stopping ability in both routine and emergency braking situations.

The full combination of disc brakes on truck and trailer ensures that response times are matched resulting in safer, more stable braking

ELSA Trailer Brakes

Meritor’s ELSA air disc brake family is offered in Europe as an alternative to our DX series air disc brake, which was the first air disc brake to be offered on ROR trailer axles. The ELSA 225HE air disc brake, formerly known as the D ELSA brake, has a powerful sliding caliper design that installs within a 22.5 inch wheel envelope.

The ELSA 195LE air disc brake (pictured above) is a weight-optimized version of the 225 and installs within a 19.5 inch wheel envelope.

 

Features and Benefits

The ELSA brake offers market-leading torque capacity with a rated torque capacity of 28,000 Nm. It also has a very large swept pad area, delivering a low pad wear rate. This advantage is compounded by extra thick pads, giving a very large wearable pad volume and extended pad replacement intervals.

ELSA brakes also eature integral automatic adjustment for pad wear, sealed synchronized twin tappet design and robust sealing of slide pins for environmental protection. The brake can be supplied with electronic pad wear sensing – an electronic pad wear warning indicator, or a simple visual wear indicator.  

 

Wheel Ends

Meritor’s wheel end solutions – including hubs, brake drums and hub assemblies – meet or exceed OEM specifications for heavy-duty commercial and industrial vehicles. Our products are engineered with materials that reduce weight without ever sacrificing strength and durability.  

The Meritor SteelLite X30™ brake drum (pictured above) sets a new standard for trailers in advanced wheel-end design and development. Feature for feature, it’s a superior alternative to any other brake drum available. Those features include reliability, balance, weight reduction and lower operating costs.  

Fleets can specify the SteelLite X30 brake drum for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, tractors and trailers as OEM or retrofit.

 

Features and Benefits

The exclusive one-piece steel shell of the The Meritor SteelLite X30™ brake drum provides exceptional strength, durability and concentricity while reducing weight and eliminating weld seams.  

As a lighter-weight design over standard full-cast drums, this product can offer a 200 pound weight reduction for a typical tandem axle tractor/trailer.  

Finally the design requires no weld weights, resulting in an inherently balanced, ready-to-mount drum.

Meritor Tire Inflation System

More than 80 percent of fleet tire problems are caused by improper inflation. In fact, tires represent the second largest financial expenditure for most fleets.  

The award-winning Meritor Tire Inflation System (MTIS™) by P.S.I. is an automatic tire inflation system that keeps tires properly inflated. The system increases tire life, fuel economy and safety by helping to compensate for pressure losses resulting from typical tire punctures and other slow leaks. Unlike equalization systems that merely distribute air from one tire to another, or monitoring systems that simply tell when a tire has lost air pressure, MTIS uses compressed air from the trailer’s air system to inflate any tire that falls below a preset pressure whenever the vehicle is in operation.  

This innovative system connects all tires on the trailer to a controlled air supply to fill and maintain tires at the desired pressure setting, even while the vehicle is moving. As air pressure drops below the tire manufacturer’s recommended level, MTIS automatically routes air through a control box and through the trailer axles to refill any underinflated tires. By maintaining proper pressure, MTIS helps extend tire life and allows for more even tread wear and maximized recap potential.  

Self-contained on the trailer, MTIS can easily adapt to any tractor. The system can be installed on any type of trailer, from vans and tanks to flatbeds and container chassis. MTIS kits are also available for retrofit. Use our payback calculation tool to see how MTIS can pay you back.   P.S.I.’s ATIS is covered by one or more of the following U.S. Patents: 5,287,906, 5,584,949, 5,767,398, 5,769,979, 6,131,631, 6,698,482

The MTIS ThermALERT™ option adds high-temperature protection to the industry-leading automatic tire inflation system. ThermALERT wheel-end heat-sensing technology alerts drivers to take preventive action that avoids damage caused by elevated wheel-end temperatures.   ThermALERT reduces vehicle downtime, risk and costs to keep your business moving ahead. A patented eutectic insert (thermal screw) in a ThermALERT-equipped spindle plug melts if the wheel end reaches abnormally high temperatures. It allows air to escape through the hubcap tee vent and triggers the system’s exterior light. In addition, when the driver exits the cab to inspect, an audible signal will be heard at the suspected wheel end. The alert can also be communicated to the cab through the Meritor WABCO PLC Display or to an operations center via a telematic system.  

 

Features and Benefits

Properly-inflated tires can maximize tire life, fuel economy and on-time deliveries; and lead to less trailer downtime and damage, while increasing safety.  

ThermALERT’s unique thermal-equipped spindle plug uses new six-vent hubcaps that allow a path for air to escape. Its exterior-mounted LED indicator light offers longer life and increases driver visibility and awareness. And an instructional decal provides simple operating guidelines to driver.