We are having trouble with these locking up and burning the tires. When we first had them, we had no trouble but overtime they started doing this. We had them worked on and they sorta got better. Now they don't seem to be working at all. They are great when they work correctly but you really miss them when they are not. Of course we have tried the manual tightening and loosening them. Not sure where to take them now to get them looked at. Don't know if they knew what they were doing or not, or if it is something that we are doing wrong. Thanks for any suggestions!
Posted 2007-11-18 4:03 PM (#71432 - in reply to #71282) Subject: RE: hydraulic override on trailer brakes
Expert
Posts: 1719 Location: PA
Not all E/H brake controllers work on every E/H braking system. Maybe that's the problem. I have an Elite and a digital Hayes Lemerz (sp??) controller that works very well.
Posted 2007-11-18 8:44 PM (#71449 - in reply to #71282) Subject: RE: hydraulic override on trailer brakes
Location: Central Arkansas
You are so right about needing the right brake box to work the E/H brakes.
I upgraded trucks because my dually wasn't able to stop my trailer well. Then found out that the Prodigy controller is NOT compatible with E/H brakes! Even then, we didn't figure it out until a buddy of mine hooked up to my trailer with her new dually with built in integrated controller. Which was not compatible. It could have been bad. The place I bought my truck from sent me a new Prodigy brake controller and in the fine print of the package insert it stated that it was NOT compatible to E/H systems. Go figure. So, I called 4 Star and they faxed me a list of all compatible brake controllers. They even numbered them in the order they liked to recommend them. I replaced the controllers in both trucks and have great braking.
Posted 2007-11-20 9:17 AM (#71542 - in reply to #71282) Subject: RE: hydraulic override on trailer brakes
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 534 Location: Zionsville, Indiana
There is an adapter available that solves this problem, and it is less expensive than a different controller. Carlise makes it. The Prodigy and the factory built in Ford controller (which is a Prodigy but they don't tell you that) is too sophisticated for the electric/hydraulic actuator that is mounted on the trailer. It constantly is sending out pings and signals to assure continuity, and the actuator doesn't understand and causes the Prodigy to display weird messages. Carlisle, one of the leading manufacturers of electric/hydraulic actuators, has solved the problem by modifying their actuators manufacturered as of January 1, 2007. They now work well with the Prodigy and with the installed-at-the-factory controllers EXCEPT for the 2008 Fords. I don't know why the exception, maybe Mr. Truck can enlighten us.
hydraulic override on trailer brakes
