I hope someone can help me trouble shoot where the problem is.

This might get a bit long.....

Last year I bought a new LQ trailer and it needed the larger plug. My husband, who is a mechanic with great electical training, wired in my new plug. He uses the shrink connectors(which are better than scotch locks or twist nuts) and wired it all up nice and neat.

Since then, my trailer brakes will NOT work half the time. I get "ER" on the box and have to press the brake pedal a second time to get the trailer brakes to activate. Sometimes when I press the brake pedal, the brakes will slam on and then release.

I took it to a place that wires brake boxes and does hitches twice. Hauled my trailer to them as well. They went over it with a fine tooth comb and only found a bared wire on the truck and thought that was the problem. They said that my husband wired it "correctly and neater than anyone they had seen". They tested the brake box, it was fine, no malfunction with it.

When I tow our 24ft GN flatbed trailer, I get a tugging and pulling of the trailer, worse when its loaded. I also have had the truck start "bucking" upon stopping with a load. This is absolutely scary when you have 14000 pounds on the trailer and you are trying to stop while this thing bucks and doesnt stop! 

Fortunately my husband was with me the last time the truck was "bucking" . He looked at me with a "WTH" look on his face. I think he finally beleives me that there is a problem.

Funny thing is, if you manually work the brake box, it works EVERYTIME!!

Im out of thoughts on where to look. But it all started after he wired that new plug in.

Both trailers are a few years old, no wiring issues on them, they work just fine on my father in laws truck, which is the same year/model and has the same box in it.

My truck is a 99 Ford 350 superduty, dually, four door 4x4.

All other lights and turn signals work just fine. (truck and trailers). All fuses are good, all wiring under the dash is good.

Its not safe for me to pull and I have already had a couple near misses. (stupid people stopping fast in front of me)

I have had it with my husband NOT taking me seriously and getting this fixed. Ive been complaining for a year and a half!!

Im gonna have to fix it and dont know where to start looking since the wiring is not the problem, and apparently the box is not.

The brake box is a Drawtite Activator II, it is for up to 8 axles with brakes. So, Ive got an appropriate box for what Im towing.

Anyone have any ideas where to start looking?

Thanks!

What would I be looking for? Would the brake switch be one of the things that could make it work like it is?

Your trailer brakes work correctly when hooked up to another truck, so it is not your trailer brakes. When you apply brakes manually, the brakes work correctly, so it is not the wires, but when you apply the brake pedal the control box doesn't send the correct information to the trailers.........so in my opinoin it is the controll box. I have a Prodigy control box in my truck, and can't say enough good things about it.

Did your truck suddenly start with the problems or did it start once you installed your controller?

Do you have any idea how they reset your antilock brake system?

roanrobey,

There has been several threads on similar problems recently but i believe the trucks in question where later models(2003's I think). Some of the people posting seemed to have found a problem with compatability with certain controllers and the anti-lock brakes on there trucks.Sounds a bit unusual since You say that your father in law has the same setup and it works fine with his rig.Also the problem starting with the new plug.I would search thru some of the old threads about braking troubles and bucking troubles to see whats there. Also just something to give a try would be to set the level(tilt) on your controller a little differently to see if it would make any difference,That is if Your controller has that feature? Hope you find the problem soon and let us know how it comes out.

                                      Ardly

Did your truck suddenly start with the problems or did it start once you installed your controller?

Do you have any idea how they reset your antilock brake system?

 I bought a new trailer and the brake setup was different from my old trailer.  When I put the new trailer with the truck/existing box it started acting up, especially when I was braking and I hit a bump, it would start jerking.  The new brake steup was causing the antilock brake system of the truck to kick in and out.  Independent shop reset the antilock brakes to a less sensitive setting and has been fine ever since. 

Just FYI, I had taken it to two different Ford places beforehand and they kept telling me it was my front end, $2000 to change everything from brakes to ball joints.  When that didnt work they tried telling me my brand new trailer had bad brakes.  Had that checked.  After all that I took truck and trailer to local trailer shop and they said they have seen the problem with the Fords like this before.  Reset antilocks and all is well.  When Ford contacted me after the fact to find out how things were going and I told them about the two systems not meshing together they basically said there was no way that could have been the problem.  All I know is it is fixed now after reseting the anti locks.  Hope this helps 

Roanrobey:  Did this fix your problem?

Jbsny

My husband hasnt had a chance to look at my truck, he is supposed to look at it today.

I will update once he does.

UPDATE

My husband just looked at the wiring inside the truck, its all nice and tight (just like I had thought it was)

He also said that the sync on the controller was all the way positive. He backed that off.

He also could hear a "sizzle" or arking going on in the brake switch.

He is wanting to replace the brake switch and see if that might fix it.

He is going to look at his dads truck and see if he can hear the same sound or not.

I dont know how the sync got moved to the positive, maybe it got bumped when we were cleaning??

I will let you know if any of this fixes it.

roanrobey,

That brake switch sounds like a very logical place to start. Consider that it would normally send power to Your controller but if its has a bad connection it could easily cause some(most/all) of the problems that You have described.
                                      ,Ardly

Update again...

My husband decided to NOT change the brake switch, but to buy a new controller yesterday. He wired it up and guess what??? 

IT DID NOT FIX THE PROBLEMS!!

I had the bucking still when coming to a stop loaded. And since the new one doesnt have a digital read out (only a light that comes on) I cannot tell if its working all the time or not.

He is going to go back over all the wiring on the truck again tomorrow and possibly replace the brake switch.