First pull this weekend. New truck, used trailer, new prodigy controller with the GM harness. Occasionally get not connected indications on the controller, intermittant.

Trailer has 7 pin plug (round), with a ground wire to the frame. Pulled the gound wire and retapped the hole and cleaned up the terminal. No help.

Also noticed the wires to the drivers side trailer brakes were a bit "smashed", threw some tape on them so they wouldn't short, but still intermittant.

Anyways, two questions -

Any ideas ?

How bad is it to not have working trailer brakes on a 5-6K trailer ? I was real easy on it and in tow mode.

:help:

Here's a pic:

http://www.photodump.com/direct/rich1520/425465412zEnNxd_ph.jpg

Sounds like the problem might be where the "smashed" wires are. Have someone wiggle the wire there, while you watch the controller. But with a trailer that heavy, you should have the brakes working. Good luck with your troubleshooting.

Thanks for the reply, yeah I was by myself looking at it the other day.

Would like to see a basic schematic of a trailer brake system if anyone has a handy link available. The smashed wires fed into drum so I'm not sure where they connect or how the circuit actually works, never dealt with electric brakes before.

I think if you go to the Dexter Axle web site, they have schemetics for their brakes. I don't know what axles you have, but you could check for your specific axle manufacturer.

The wires for the brakes are one is positive feed from the controller and one is ground. Your problem could be as simple as a bad trailer plug. Clean the contacts on the plug itself or put a new one on.

If the trailer is now yours I would spend the time to pull the drums and check your wires from the magnets to the plug. If it were me and my trailer I would just rewire it and be done with it. You can spend hours and hours trying to track down the problem when you could have rewired it in much less time.

I have recently debugged 2 problems with my Prodigy. My Prodigy showed "SH" for short. On one trailer (7 pin connector) I found the wires fried inside brake drum at the magnet. This was 20' flatbed I pulled a 4000lb tractor on. Pulled at speed with no brakes, but though ahead when stopping. On the other trailer I was using a 6 pin (g/n stock trailer w/brakes on 2 axles) to 7 pin converter (truck). After an hour I found wires cut to one wheel and realized 6 pins have 2 wiring standards...one with the brake on the center pin and one with the battery on the center pin. Wouldn't you know I had the wrong adapter. I got the right adapter and it worked! Using the wrong adapter also appeared to blow my 40amp fuse under the hood in the electrial center. When I pull this trailer loaded with horses in 2 weeks, brakes will be a must since we will be in the mountains.

I called Tekonsha and their tech support was very helpful. They pointed out the different wiring standards on 6 pin connectors and suggested I check to see how my adapter and trailer were wired.

found a pic...

http://www.monkey.net/steve/images_misc/tractor_trailer.jpg

Rich,

If your trailer has the 7 pin round style connectors how are you connecting it to your 7 pin flat blade connector on your truck? You either have an adaptor or your just plugging it in hoping it will work.

IMHO I would verify all the wiring and then replace the trailer plug with the flat blade style and you should be good to go.

IIRC, here in CA any trailer that weighs 1800lbs or more must have trailer brakes.

Good luck.

I had the same problem pulling a 22' tandem 5th wheel. Sometimes I had breaks and sometimes not...... usually when loaded. What happened was the clips holding the wires inside the hub from the magnet slit of the arm. Then the wire got pinched and shorted out. All the brakes failed to work.

Had it fixed. 3 months later the same thing was happening again. Before I had a chance to fix it, my trailer got stolen. So now I have a different problem.....

Hope this helps

Eltjo
New Brunswick
Canada

Chevy trucks arent ment to use a Digital Readout brake controller. You can use a Digital brake controller but it cant have the little readout with numbers. Truck doesnt put enough power out to supply power to both numbers on brake controller and brakes. Brakes will then cut out and work intermintitily (sp?). Bought my truck new, they put in a digital redout brake controller, looked cool but didnt supply enough power to brakes, they switched it with a digital brake controller with one led light. hope this helps.

IIRC, here in CA any trailer that weighs 1800lbs or more must have trailer brakes.

Would you care to quote the section of the law that calls this out? if it is true then U-Haul is illegally renting trailers in the state of California. Some how I don't think that is true.

Jim

I think I'd look under my dash and make sure my connections are wired right. then work back. It might save you some time.

Chevy trucks arent ment to use a Digital Readout brake controller. You can use a Digital brake controller but it cant have the little readout with numbers. Truck doesnt put enough power out to supply power to both numbers on brake controller and brakes. Brakes will then cut out and work intermintitily (sp?). Bought my truck new, they put in a digital redout brake controller, looked cool but didnt supply enough power to brakes, they switched it with a digital brake controller with one led light. hope this helps.


I don't think so...

There are thousands of Chevy truck owner's with Prodigy brake controllers, and they work just fine, thank you.

Would you care to quote the section of the law that calls this out? if it is true then U-Haul is illegally renting trailers in the state of California. Some how I don't think that is true.

Jim

From the CA DMV web site.

"Trailer Brakes

In California, brakes are required on any trailer coach or camp trailer having a gross weight of 1500 lbs. or more. Usually the braking capacity on tow vehicles is good, however, it may not be good enough to safely stop the several hundred to several thousand additional pounds that your trailer weighs." et. al.

Now, I just noticed the wording, (lawyers, gotta love'em), and they are referring specifically to TT's and Pop-up campers. There may be an exclusion clause for utility type trailers up to a certain weight."

So it looks like I was right AND wrong at the same time. BTW I copied this info from another forum on another web site and NOT from the web site itself just so you know. I will try to get to it later, gotta run.

Don't most of the u-haul trailers have surge brakes?

i have a prodigy dig brake controller,it works great on my 3 axle 40' 2 car trailer,it lights up the numbers to 7.0 when turned all the way up,it will lock the brakes,,mine said nc and sh ,i took it back to trailer world and they replaced it[life time warrenty]i wont go back to a led controller ever again

I don't have the Prodigy yet but I do have one with Digital LED read-out. WORKS fine.

Rich, it is entirely possible to haul a trailer of 5000 or 6000 lbs w/o brakes. Ive done it for a few hundred miles, in town, no less.

Go slow, keep a very open eye, and watch my ass get flamed for this.

I don't think so...

There are thousands of Chevy truck owner's with Prodigy brake controllers, and they work just fine, thank you.
Well Im just going by what the dealership said. They changed the brake controller out with a digital non display unit. it works amazing now. They even bought back the old unit.

Jason,

It would help if you can list the model and brand of brake controller that you are speaking of.

I've run the Prodigy Brake Controller, by Tekonsha, since my truck was delivered from the factory and have never had one problem.

Now, if you dealer used the old style plug-n-play harness from Teknosha, then you may have had some issues, but that issue was due to 2 wires being swapped and had nothing to do with the controller.

Your issue will be the first to find an incompatable controller for a GM truck.


Manny,

I'm right behind you buddy, just tell them to F off. ):h

Chevy trucks arent ment to use a Digital Readout brake controller. You can use a Digital brake controller but it cant have the little readout with numbers. Truck doesnt put enough power out to supply power to both numbers on brake controller and brakes. That's just silly. The display electronics in the controller probably draws microamps.

If yours didn't work it's probably wired wrong or poorly. My prodigy WITH display works just great in my Chevy, as it does for many other people!

Most common problem with trailers stored outside is corrosion on the trailer plug conductors. Take a small emory board, and clean them.

The Prodigy works just fine on GM's. I can lock up the trailer wheels at 9,000lb.

Towing 5-6k, you can probably get by with no brakes. HOWEVER, you will wear out your truck brakes much faster, and will have much greater stopping distances.

Well Im just going by what the dealership said. They changed the brake controller out with a digital non display unit. it works amazing now. They even bought back the old unit.

They lied to you plain and simple. They couldn't figure out what they did wrong so they made up excuses.

Sounds like they had a bad ground connection.

wouldnt be the first time theyve lied. They threw a new brake controller in with the same wiring harness and everything worked great. Ill try to figure out what brake controller it was.

Towing 5-6k, you can probably get by with no brakes. HOWEVER, you will wear out your truck brakes much faster, and will have much greater stopping distances.
Probably, yep. Downhill and panic type stops, very doubtful something won't get broken.

How bad is it to not have working trailer brakes on a 5-6K trailer ? Hopefully, that's the loaded weight.