AL-KO brakes simple? Hahahaha! Things that can go wrong include allowing the lining to wear too much without adjusting (brake shoes can jam in full on position), rubber seal going into cable housing can leak (cable rusts and gets stiff inside housing, preventing brakes from releasing), damper strut inside tongue can lose force and/or get stiff over time (preventing brakes from releasing), bushings between inner and outer tongue can swell over time (preventing brakes from releasing), water can leak into tongue and corrode inner tube (see "bushings"), and poorly adjusted parking brake breakaway cable can actuate brakes inadvertantly. And if the front tongue mount breaks and the trailer settles on the tongue, the brake rod is actuated and the brakes are full on. I'm sure there are more, but these are just the things I've seen. I check the bearing cap temp every time I stop just in case. Also frequently after a hard stop, which is how I caught the latest brakes-jammed-on problem this summer coming back from TSA. But I left on the trip with a full set of bearings and seals...just in case.
The surge brake on the Komet/Cobra is anything but simple. And definitely not troublefree. And it requires a fair amount of attention and maintenance. And the failure mode often includes burned bearings or worse.
Europeans drive a lot of Mercedes automobiles, too, but many Americans won't put up with the maintenance costs for the privilege of driving such an exquisitely engineered machine. We just want to get in the car and go. It's a car, not a love affair.
I suspect most European pilots don't trailer the miles we do. And more probably store their trailers out of the weather than here. It's a different environment. Today's running gear is better than it was in the days of Eberle and early Komet trailers but it's still not designed and built for our needs.
That said, I've continued to repair and maintain my 27-year-old Cobra. It's a hassle. It requires almost as many inspections as a car, for far few miles each year. And I worry about what could go wrong every time I head out for a contest. But I figure I'd be trading one set of problems for another if I made a change.
Chip Bearden
JB