Rear drum frozen... done this yet??

[David_VT]

Dipped down to -5 last night.
Wife decided to take my Ram rather than jump start the old suburban... . I hear the Ram start up and then stop in the road...
Wife comes in and tells me the truck is driving down the road sideways... .
Naturally I think now what did she do to my truck, but I had to eat crow on that one... Sure enough, one rear drum is frozen and the other tire is running 2X the rotational speed it should be turning at. The truck is crabbing down the road dragging the bad wheel in 4WD... .
I jump the wife's chevy and send her on her way... Back to the Ram I notice snow packed in the suspension and remember doing a little bashing around in the deep snow yesterday... I guess that late night run to the store for cookie milk was just enough heat to allow the snow to melt down into the drum... .

I put the truck in 4lo and let it idle (sideways) down the road (snow covered dirt road). I cycled the parking brake 3 times and BANG the drum released...

Lesson learned, "don't leave all that snow packed in the wheels"... .

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99' SB 4x4 : DDI's, HOT PE, SPA dual gauge, ESPAR, Line-X OTR, Ladder bars, AMSOIL, etc (GPS,Cell,CB,... . )
Green Monster

 

[sam peterson]

good tip. also don't set the parking brake in freezing conditions if you don,t have to. The cables can freeze in the housings and won't release untill they thaw.
Moisture sensitive shoes will freeze to drums.

 

[Andy Perreault]

... and, after driving through a puddle or deep snow, press lightly on the brakes while driving to build up heat and get all the moisture out.
Andy