Unexpected brake controller messages

[estoltz]

I recently installed an oem brake controller from a 2021 ram 1500 into my 2019 ram 1500. I activated the correct settings using alfaobd and see the tow page on the drivers dash and the tow setting on the uconnect setting page. My questions are:

When I press on the brakes it shows trailer brake activation on the towing page whether a trailer is connected or not. Is this normal?

When I connect my trailer and press on the brakes they seem to activate properly. However when I use the manual activator on the dash it says trailer disconnected or service trailer brake and does not activate the trailer brake or show any braking on the towing page. I’m assuming that isn’t normal. Any ideas on the cause? I have a few unknown variables. The trailer brake system is unknown as I bought the trailer secondhand and have not previously towed with it but it does seem to be activating properly from the brake pedal.

Also as a warning I did try to go third party and ended up killing my truck battery so just a warning for anyone who finds this thread in the future. Don’t do it.

 

[crash68]

I would inspect the trailer brakes as there is most likely a problem with them. Sometimes all it takes is some bad wiring or a defective magnet to cause issues with the trailer brake controllers. Lots of issues with brake controller problems are either reported back as issues with the trailer brakes or no follow-up about the issue.
You're correct about the aftermarket brake controllers, there have been lots of them not functioning correctly.

 

[estoltz]

Any advice on quick checks I can do prior to taking the trailer in for a service call? I’m just not familiar with trailer braking systems.

 

[estoltz]

Additionally I checked the voltage across positive and negative pins as well as across positive and brake controller and I see voltage even with the truck completely off. Is that normal?

 

[turkeybird56]

I recently installed an oem brake controller from a 2021 ram 1500 into my 2019 ram 1500. I activated the correct settings using alfaobd and see the tow page on the drivers dash and the tow setting on the uconnect setting page. My questions are:

When I press on the brakes it shows trailer brake activation on the towing page whether a trailer is connected or not. Is this normal?

When I connect my trailer and press on the brakes they seem to activate properly. However when I use the manual activator on the dash it says trailer disconnected or service trailer brake and does not activate the trailer brake or show any braking on the towing page. I’m assuming that isn’t normal. Any ideas on the cause? I have a few unknown variables. The trailer brake system is unknown as I bought the trailer secondhand and have not previously towed with it but it does seem to be activating properly from the brake pedal.

Also as a warning I did try to go third party and ended up killing my truck battery so just a warning for anyone who finds this thread in the future. Don’t do it.

I can only answer your questions based on my experience with my 2019/5th GEN Bighorn;

Question one:showing whether there’s an activation whether the trailer is hooked up or not that is normal because that system is active in a truck regardless that there was a trailer there or not so it’s gonna show that if you bring up that page

Question two: as far as the manual activator, are you talking about the two buttons that are there that you squeeze together to activate the brakes without hitting the pedal that should also show in the trailer page if it does not show or it does not work or are you getting some type of an error in or something wrong there? It’s possible when you did Alpha OBD you did not activate another part of system. That’s my only thought. I don’t know enough about it. unless there’s something wired or hooked up wrong, but I don’t know. I had mine installed by dealer when I bought my truck.

As far as the trailer and the status of the brake system on the trailer, that’s not gonna affect what the system is doing in the truck. If the system is working right, it’s just gonna do what it’s supposed to do whether or not the trailer works right that’s something on the trailer or not on the truck so if you’re squeezing the buttons on the dash and you’re not getting any type of it’s showing it’s working and you’re getting error messages and there’s something wrong with the hook up whether it’s the wiring not done right or my thought is there may be more than one area you have to activate with Alpha with Alpha OBD that energize that system or maybe something that you activated is not activated properly highest the wrong setting

Now other people don’t beat me up, I would not ever put a third-party system for a brake controler in a RAM. The electrical system on these trucks are a pain in the backside and too sensitive.

It might also possibly be a fuse that maybe not working as far as the manual trailer brake not brake pedal but I don’t think so. I think that’s all in one system and my thought is that you just didn’t activate it all properly but I could be 100% wrong I’m just thinking outside the box.

Not all the stuff you’re looking for but is the best I can do.

 

[estoltz]

I can only answer your questions based on my experience with my 2019/5th GEN Bighorn;

Question one:showing whether there’s an activation whether the trailer is hooked up or not that is normal because that system is active in a truck regardless that there was a trailer there or not so it’s gonna show that if you bring up that page

Question two: as far as the manual activator, are you talking about the two buttons that are there that you squeeze together to activate the brakes without hitting the pedal that should also show in the trailer page if it does not show or it does not work or are you getting some type of an error in or something wrong there? It’s possible when you did Alpha OBD you did not activate another part of system. That’s my only thought. I don’t know enough about it. unless there’s something wired or hooked up wrong, but I don’t know. I had mine installed by dealer when I bought my truck.

As far as the trailer and the status of the brake system on the trailer, that’s not gonna affect what the system is doing in the truck. If the system is working right, it’s just gonna do what it’s supposed to do whether or not the trailer works right that’s something on the trailer or not on the truck so if you’re squeezing the buttons on the dash and you’re not getting any type of it’s showing it’s working and you’re getting error messages and there’s something wrong with the hook up whether it’s the wiring not done right or my thought is there may be more than one area you have to activate with Alpha with Alpha OBD that energize that system or maybe something that you activated is not activated properly highest the wrong setting

Now other people don’t beat me up, I would not ever put a third-party system for a brake controler in a RAM. The electrical system on these trucks are a pain in the backside and too sensitive.

It might also possibly be a fuse that maybe not working as far as the manual trailer brake not brake pedal but I don’t think so. I think that’s all in one system and my thought is that you just didn’t activate it all properly but I could be 100% wrong I’m just thinking outside the box.

Not all the stuff you’re looking for but is the best I can do.

Thanks for the reply. Can I ask as someone who has the controller on and working what is the behavior when you squeeze the manual brake slide with the trailer page up and nothing hooked up. Does it show the trailer brake controller actuating?

 

[turkeybird56]

Thanks for the reply. Can I ask as someone who has the controller on and working what is the behavior when you squeeze the manual brake slide with the trailer page up and nothing hooked up. Does it show the trailer brake controller actuating?

Lemme go out to my truck before I feed da hossie and take PICs fer U. Here U go OP:
CAVEAT: There is NO TRAILER attached, parked by house.

Trailer Screen "Brake" depressed
Trailer Screen Manual Slide squeezed all the way
Trailer Screen Up

(OK gotta feed critters).

 

[estoltz]

Ok so I got a tester in. Here’s the layout. Lights seem self explanatory.

Truck off I get solid 12v.
Truck running I get solid 12v and TM and I get flickering BK.
Truck running brake pressed I get solid 12v, TM, LT and RT and a mostly solid BK
I also tested BU and LT and RT separately. So it seems the wiring is swapped between BK and TM which would be brown 3 at 11 o’clock and blue 2 at 5 o’clock. If that’s confirmed my question is where is the easiest place to fix it? At the 7 pin on the back of the truck or should I go dig up my connector pin remover tools and start doing harness surgery?

 

[estoltz]

OK now I'm not sure I believe the tester. On a whim I plugged in the 4 pin tester side. It also lit up the Trailer Module which is strange since the 4 pin wouldn't even be connected to the trailer module circuit on the tester. So I went through the test with my 12 volt source and it appears that the tester is miswired. Not the truck. Back to square 1.

 

[turkeybird56]

Ok so I got a tester in. Here’s the layout. Lights seem self explanatory.
View attachment 578414
Truck off I get solid 12v.
Truck running I get solid 12v and TM and I get flickering BK.
Truck running brake pressed I get solid 12v, TM, LT and RT and a mostly solid BK
I also tested BU and LT and RT separately. So it seems the wiring is swapped between BK and TM which would be brown 3 at 11 o’clock and blue 2 at 5 o’clock. If that’s confirmed my question is where is the easiest place to fix it? At the 7 pin on the back of the truck or should I go dig up my connector pin remover tools and start doing harness surgery?

Can’t help u there never used nor do I have. Someone else needs to chime in.

 

[turkeybird56]

OK now I'm not sure I believe the tester. On a whim I plugged in the 4 pin tester side. It also lit up the Trailer Module which is strange since the 4 pin wouldn't even be connected to the trailer module circuit on the tester. So I went through the test with my 12 volt source and it appears that the tester is miswired. Not the truck. Back to square 1.

If I were U I would research alpha obd and see if there are other areas that may have to be configured and I would also redo all the settings again for the TT module before chasing rabbits. Heck the TT module U got may be bad. Also I would open up and verify all connections to switch and the associated module are plugged in properly and secure. Maybe U missed a wire or not plugged in securely. That is all I can offer. I do not do alpha obd so I am useless there.

Nothing else I can add so good luck.

 

[estoltz]

If I were U I would research alpha obd and see if there are other areas that may have to be configured and I would also redo all the settings again for the TT module before chasing rabbits. Heck the TT module U got may be bad. Also I would open up and verify all connections to switch and the associated module are plugged in properly and secure. Maybe U missed a wire or not plugged in securely. That is all I can offer. I do not do alpha obd so I am useless there.

Nothing else I can add so good luck.

understood. I'm just going through my steps here in case it helps someone else. So I decided to get the tester out of the equation. I'm getting the correct voltages on the correct pins. Everything seems to work correctly with the exception of the manual switch on the dash. The gain buttons work but not the manual trailer brake activator. At this point it comes down to either the switch being bad, the controller being bad or the wiring between the switch and the controller being bad. it does start to move the gauge before throwing the service trailer brake system error so I'm hoping its the 25 dollar switch on the dash although I'm not looking forward to pulling that plastic again. If its not I'm just going to leave it as is since it works with the pedal.

 

[turkeybird56]

Hey if works with brake pedal and U can adjust gain U got wat U need. I have never used the manual slide. Not think it would even register to use. PPL use to check gain but if towing U should be able to figure out gain based on trailer load. See in pics my 2150 lb stock with hay loaded is 6-7K total and I have gain set to 5.

 

[estoltz]

OK closing this out. The manual switch was a bad switch. Replaced it and it works perfectly. So in the end I had a bad OEM unit from a salvage yard (ebay) that I returned, followed by using a third party unit that killed my battery (also the original switch that was flaky came with the third party unit) and then went with another oem unit from salvage. Then I had to replace the manual switch. Moral if this story is 1, go OEM. Either new or one with a return policy and 2) make sure you get it installed within that return window so you can send it back if it doesn't work. Also 3 DON'T USE AFTERMARKET INTEGRATED BRAKE CONTROLLERS.