Rear Wheels hot

[1niceharley]

OK. Every time I drive the truck I wipe it down and clean it back up, that way the truck is always clean. Well for the last couple of times I wiped down the truck I noticed my rear wheels are hot to the touch. I normally don't touch the wheels with my bear hands, usually with a towel but I lost my balance one day and had to grab the wheel to keep from falling on my butt. So I noticed the rear wheels are hot/warm, warmer than the front wheels.
Is this something I should be concerned about or normal? I never noticed it before because I always had a towel in my hand.
Thanks for the help!
Troy
P.S. no crazy driving just cruising or pulling the boat, but tonight I was just driving around (no boat in tow) and I noticed that the rear wheels were a lot warmer than the front ones.

[2manytrucks]

rear brakes sticking a little??

[Gonebrokeracing]

your caliper may be sticking. If you replace your calipers, make sure the bleeder screw is at the top of the caliper. the calipers on our HD are the same right and left, the only difference is the bleeder screw is in a different position. I just bought my HD and had the driver side caliper locking up, it turned that someone installed the passanger side on the drivers side. when installed the bleeder was at the bottom and would NEVER be able to get all the air out. when I bought a new caliper it was boxed wrong, TWICE.

[bgstew6]

both rears? check for stickiing parking brake

[steinjr]

If you rear brakes are sticking... that might be contributing to your poor gas mileage concerns.

Hope you get it figured out quickly. Let me know if you need some help.

[oki916]

+1 on what everyone else said

[1niceharley]

Yes both rear wheels feel the same, very warm. My parking brake doesnt' work good but maybe that is the issue I'll pull the wheels later and look. Thanks for the info. Think of anything else please post up!

[1niceharley]

Ok.
Checked both calipers - both move freely
Couldn't get the rear rotors off to check the e-brakes but I adjusted (via the little hole in the back of the backing plate) so that even if the parking brake is applied it isn't rubbing. Should be going to the lake this weekend and find out if anything has helped.
Any other ideas? And how do I get the rear rotor off to get to the parking brakes?

Sheridan, I hoped that was a cause of my drop in mileage but we will have to wait and see.

[Blind]

if it's the same brake system as my old ford explorer which I'm fairly sure it is, I had to spend a few minutes with a 10lb sledge hammer beating the piss out of the rotors to get them to pop off the parking brake drums, and I live in socal with no rust...the drum brake dust builds up inside them and mine were stuck to the axle faces, even with the parking brake off and the adjusters backed all the way off.

what caused mine I think was the parking brake shoes wore down all the way and the metal shavings from the shoe backing plates wearing off rusted up inside there, I had to replace everything on both sides...shoes, rotors, hardware kit, springs...truck had 66k on it too.

[Krazed]

My only question is, did you check for free rotation of the wheels after a drive? with them already heated up? That would tell you if the calipers are sticking after use. I had this issue on my Mazda and would be 100% free spinning when cooled off, but the pistons were dry and had no grease and would stick closed when the metal heated up and expanded.

Best way to check would be go for a decent drive, or just coming back from a store or work.. grab some welding gloves or towels,jack the truck up, and spin the wheels. If it spins freely it's not sticking, if it doesnt.. something is sticking after use/heating up.

Keep in mind that normal calipers have slight drag to them so they wont spin forever, but they should spin easily and not come to an abrupt stop.

[1niceharley]

I didn't try that. And the wheels don't get hot enough to need gloves to spin the wheels but I will give that a try next time I get a chance. I'll keep everyone updated.
Thanks!