In our view the Alko brakes fitted to the A'van are just the best in the business! Your A'van has two totally separate braking systems - electric and park. We are looking at the parking brake here. Like everything mechanical they do need adjustment possibly a couple of times a year. If you know nothing about brakes, chances are you will get the adjustment quite wrong, as it goes against common sense. Most people adjust the turnbuckle right up so that the hand lever engages fully after just a small movement when applying the hand brake. This is 100% WRONG.

Alko recommends that with a fully laden A'van, the brakes should be fully applied when the ratchet is 5 to 6 notches from the ball - the FRONT of the coupling. Why is this so? Simple if you think about it. Your A'van has excellent independent suspension which means that the wheels move up and down quite freely. In an extreme instance one wheel could be right up and one right down in a hole etc. This means that the brake cable can actually become very taught and if there is not enough slack then the brakes will be partially applied manually resulting in jerking etc. On rough roads this could happen continuously and lead to brake overheating and possibly eventual failure. The photos above show the correct adjustments.

If you look in your A'van manual, in the plastic pocket you will find a small booklet. There is a lot more info on page 4 plus a photo similar to ours. If after adjusting the cable you find one wheel still moves (if you push sideways on the coupling) it means that you should adjust the brakes on the hubs themselves. This is clearly explained in the manual on page 4. Alko recommend servicing the axle/brakes every 10,000 kms.