several times now, my brakes have overheated. 1st time it happened, only right rear brake heated up. cooled it down and drove the 40 miles home, brake didnt heat up at all. 2nd time front left and right rear both heated up. I had a local brake shop check rear brakes after 1st time but they didnt see anything wrong.
does anyone have an idea what is going on and what needs to be done to fix? I am not at all mechanically inclined , so stuff like this drives me crazy.

 

My first suspicion would be a failing brake hose. Brake hoses tend to fail from the inside out so they won't necessarily look bad, but will act like a one-way valve. The master cylinder will force fluid through the collapsed portion of the hose under high pressure, but once the brake pedal is released, the brake springs or caliper (unsure if your 2009 Ram has disc or drum rear brakes) will not have enough force to push the fluid back through the restriction, causing the brakes to drag and heat up. It could also be something that is either not moving freely with a disc or drum brake setup and therefore causing the brakes to drag. That too should be pretty easy to identify by a shop if they took the time to remove the wheels and really inspect for a dragging brake.

If a hose were twisted a competent shop should have spotted that quite easily.

-Rod

 

check the c clip on the axle in the rear, take the caliper off and see if the axle pulls out.

 

I concur with SHO Rod. Check those hoses and you might want to consider having your fluid changed if the hoses seem to be good.