Trailer Brake Controller Problem

[Don B]

I'm having trouble with my trailer brake controller. The controller periodically warns to Check Trailer Wiring, after two to three times of this warning it warns Trailer Brake Disconnected. These warnings come and go seemingly randomly. I've had the trailers brakes examined they're fine; wiring checked and no shorts/grounds detected. Dealer says the controller checks out fine.

Luckily the brakes have worked anytime I've really needed them.

Any others experiencing this issue? Suggestions for resolution?

 

[sandawilliams]

I had the same problem a couple of months ago. Spent a lot of hours testing/retesting. Same warnings off and on while hooked up to trailer. Started having problems 2000K miles from home and drove with intermittent brakes. Pulled the rest of my hair out and finally found the problem at the wire going into one of the brakes, outside the drum. I had checked these visually many times and finally started jerking on every wire connection. Sure enough one of them came loose. New connector and everything fixed. Explained why the brakes came and went as the connector was not crimped well enough from the factory. Good luck.

 

[crash68]

^^^what he said plus check the trailer plug itself. A member on here had a bad connection in the trailer plug itself.
Probably preaching to the choir about making sure the trailer plug locks into the bumper.

 

[Vman]

I’ve also heard that sometimes the grounding can be jinkey between the wire connections at the brake and the hitch connector. I believe the resolution was to run a dedicated, higher gauge grounding wire. Anybody run into this before and know if this helps? I haven’t yet run into this issue as I just installed my OEM module but was curious both because Don brought it up and for future reference.

 

[chri5k]

Echo checking the plug. Many trailers come with a cheaper plug that only has metal contacts on one side of the plug cavity. Like the one pictured below. If the contacts in the jack bend away from those contacts on the plug you will get an intermittent connection.

I have changed all my 7 way plugs to this type. The metal contacts on both sides of the cavity provide a much more reliable connection to the contacts in the jack.

 

[Mainuh]

I had the same problem a couple of months ago. Spent a lot of hours testing/retesting. Same warnings off and on while hooked up to trailer. Started having problems 2000K miles from home and drove with intermittent brakes. Pulled the rest of my hair out and finally found the problem at the wire going into one of the brakes, outside the drum. I had checked these visually many times and finally started jerking on every wire connection. Sure enough one of them came loose. New connector and everything fixed. Explained why the brakes came and went as the connector was not crimped well enough from the factory. Good luck.

+1 on the loose wiring. TT trailer wiring is notorious for very poor connections. These guys are blowing them through an assembly line. I had the same issue and re-did all my connections in the junction box at the front where the truck connector cable comes in and meets the other wires for the trailer. No issues since, but it did cause me issues prior when someone cut me off in heavy traffic then stopped short... the trailer brakes didn't engage and the extra weight pushed me into the guys bumper... light tap but enough to cause a ruching stripe in my boxers...

 

[wjbigrob]

Chri5k were you able to find just the double connector that wires could be added to or just the ones that come solid molded with wires coming out. after quick seach all i found was the molded ones. Please post link if so. Thank you.

 

[Farmer Fran]

I had the same problem a couple of months ago. Spent a lot of hours testing/retesting. Same warnings off and on while hooked up to trailer. Started having problems 2000K miles from home and drove with intermittent brakes. Pulled the rest of my hair out and finally found the problem at the wire going into one of the brakes, outside the drum. I had checked these visually many times and finally started jerking on every wire connection. Sure enough one of them came loose. New connector and everything fixed. Explained why the brakes came and went as the connector was not crimped well enough from the factory. Good luck.

Were you coming back from the moon?

I am also guessing something like this problem.

 

[sandawilliams]

Were you coming back from the moon?

I am also guessing something like this problem.

Moon? No. Spent two months traveling, camping, and ATV'ing from Colorado to Ohio and back.

My 2000K does sound like a long trip but it was 2000 miles out and 2000 back.

 

[Don B]

Thanks for all the input. Checked all your suggestions. Turns out the problem was a magnet lead in the brake was being pinched between the magnet and hub.

 

[Timsdually]

Buy a 7 pin tester. It is a 7 pin plug with lights on it. Plug that in to see if each lead is making contact from the truck. If it is, then you know something is up from the trailer on back.

 

[SniperDroid]

This is what I use to make sure the Truck and onboard Brake Controller are working. It also let me compare performance with the onboard controller to the Tekonsha P3 controller. The RAM comes very close the the versatility of the P3.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0UPTYX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's not available from Amazon right now, but it can be purchased elsewhere.