Trailer: 2001 Sundowner 2H gooseneck. Truck: Ford F150 2005.
Husband and I were going horse camping at a place about 3 hrs south of our house. About an hour into the trip, the trailer brakes activated without pushing the brake pedal. Pulled the truck to a stop within about 500 feet or less. Luckily we had room to pull over. Disconnected the breakaway battery, disconnected and reconnected the controller, turned off the engine, and then started up again with no problem. Did not reconnect the breakaway battery.
Had a wonderful camping weekend, left the camp and within 10 minutes it happened again. How can the brakes activate by themselves????? Again disconnected everything, reconnected and all OK.
It was a nerve racking trip home though, driving very slow in case the brakes came on again but thank goodness they didn't. Tried driving without any trailer brakes...uh, no.
We won't drive that trailer again until it is fixed, have an appointment at the RV dealer next weekend.
So what is happening? The brake controller (Hays maybe?) is only about 2 years old.
Both truck and trailer are maintained religiously.
Posted 2009-10-06 8:09 PM (#111514 - in reply to #111512) Subject: RE: Odd trailer brake problem...help
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
Take the trailer plug apart and check to see if a hot wire or running light wire is touching the "blue" brake wire. Did you by any chance have your head lights/running lights on?... Wiring diagram below...
Posted 2009-10-07 8:15 AM (#111533 - in reply to #111512) Subject: RE: Odd trailer brake problem...help
Member
Posts: 45
Thanks Retento.
One of the stops we made was near a large tractor dealer, and one of the mechanics pulled the plug apart to identify the brake wire in case we needed to disconnect it later and still have lights. Didn't see anything like you mentioned, although there was some corrosion on the the metal part (pin?)inside the plug...probably didn't explain that right. My husband cleaned the corrosion (this was on the way home) and everything worked fine after that.
I will say this - on the way there we were pulled off on the side of a busy hiway, and a truck pulling a horse trailer pulled over to see if they could help. They were on their way to a show and still stopped. I was glad they did because with no brakes and no lights getting on and off that hiway would have been difficult. She followed us until we could pull into that tractor dealer safely. Horse people are the best!
Posted 2009-10-07 8:35 AM (#111537 - in reply to #111512) Subject: RE: Odd trailer brake problem...help
Expert
Posts: 5870 Location: western PA
If you have the brake control wire and the emergency battery disconnected and no lights were activated, the only other power source available to the trailer's brakes is the truck/battery hot wire. This is the wire that is sometimes used to charge the trailer's battery (ies) or feed various interior lights.
Since the lighting and brake control wires head in different directions aft of the front of the trailer, a short of this wire in the plug, the junction box or terminal strip area may be suspected.
The fuse placement for this wire varies by truck manufacture; most are under the hood, with Ford SD's being above the driver's knees. If this fuse were pulled, and your other wires reconnected, and you didn't experience a reoccurring problem, this may be your source problem.
Posted 2009-10-07 2:42 PM (#111577 - in reply to #111514) Subject: RE: Odd trailer brake problem...help
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 447 Location: cedar rapids iowa
Originally written by retento on 2009-10-06 8:09 PM
Take the trailer plug apart and check to see if a hot wire or running light wire is touching the "blue" brake wire. Did you by any chance have your head lights/running lights on?... Wiring diagram below...
Posted 2009-10-07 7:56 PM (#111596 - in reply to #111512) Subject: RE: Odd trailer brake problem...help
Member
Posts: 45
Thank you Gard will check that out. I suppose the electric box or whatever is behind my newly finished wall....should we have left an access door?
The truck lights do not stay on all the time. They must be turned on.
Hubby called the manufacturer to discuss this problem, and turns out the controller in our truck isn't even recommended for horse trailers, it has a delay or something. So Hayes is sending us a new top of the line controller for FREE. Kudos to Hayes.
Posted 2009-10-15 11:10 AM (#111884 - in reply to #111512) Subject: RE: Odd trailer brake problem...help
Member
Posts: 37 Location: Northern Nevada
I had this happen one time too. Only happened when the headlights were on. My husband thought I was crazy but it was true. They were able to isolate the problem easily, crossed wires or something, a simple fix.
Posted 2009-10-15 4:42 PM (#111900 - in reply to #111512) Subject: RE: Odd trailer brake problem...help
Regular
Posts: 92 Location: Harrisburg, PA
We had a similar issue once, in our case it was simply poor contact at the plug. Make sure to keep the contacts clean and lubed with dielectric grease.Dave
Odd trailer brake problem...help
