I have a 2007 3H 4-Star LQ that I recently purchased. It seems that when my anti-lock brakes kick in on my 2012 Chevy 2500 that the trailer brakes go crazy and the trailer starts bucking around. This only happens if I am stopping on uneven ground. Actually I am not sure that if it is the truck or the trailer that is doing the bucking. I've turned down the trailer brakes and that has not helped. This happen last night (again) when I was stopping on a rough road on a incline and it was pretty scary. I had to let up on the brake to make it stop. Should I have my truck breaks checked first or start with the trailer? I haven't had the problem without the trailer. I did not have this problem with my previous 2H 4-star GN.
Posted 2013-04-29 2:51 PM (#151665 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
Does your new trailer have electric over hydraulic brakes? If so, the GM integrated brake controller may not be compatiable with the electric over hydraulic system... Does it do this with any other trailer? There may be something going on inside the trailer cord's male plug...
I pull a 2006 4 Star 6 horse head to head with a 2011 GMC 3500 dually with the factory integrated brake controller and have never experienced the symptoms you are speaking of. All of my trailers, horse, hay and flatbeds have full electric brakes. Truck also has exhaust brake.
Posted 2013-04-29 6:00 PM (#151669 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Member
Posts: 37
I had the same experience with a (new to me) 2000 Ford Pickup while pulling a 16 foot stock trailer. I had owned this trailer for several years, and pulled it without incident with a 1988 Chevy Pickup. As soon as I started pulling with the 2000 Ford, I immediately had reoccurring bucking problems while braking.
Took the truck and trailer to the shop, all tested out fine. The only real difference we could find between old truck vs. new truck was that the Ford had a pendulum type brake controller. Despite repeated adjustments by the trailer dealer, we could never "smooth" the braking system out. We finally switched out the controller to a "timed" brake controller and the problem immediately vanished.
Posted 2013-04-30 12:50 AM (#151684 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Expert
Posts: 3853 Location: Vermont
Originally written by bjhouten on 2013-04-29 2:12 PM
I have a 2007 3H 4-Star LQ that I recently purchased. It seems that when my anti-lock brakes kick in on my 2012 Chevy 2500 that the trailer brakes go crazy and the trailer starts bucking around. This only happens if I am stopping on uneven ground. Actually I am not sure that if it is the truck or the trailer that is doing the bucking. I've turned down the trailer brakes and that has not helped. This happen last night (again) when I was stopping on a rough road on a incline and it was pretty scary. I had to let up on the brake to make it stop. Should I have my truck breaks checked first or start with the trailer? I haven't had the problem without the trailer. I did not have this problem with my previous 2H 4-star GN.
Confirm that all the trailer brakes are operating equally
Posted 2013-04-30 7:20 AM (#151687 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Veteran
Posts: 170 Location: Minnesota
Sounds like you are "over driving" if your "anti-lock brakes kick in". They normally kick in when in a panic type stop. In the past 300,000 miles, i can't recall my kicking in. May need to slow down.
Posted 2013-04-30 11:32 AM (#151692 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
The brakes are not hydraulic over electric. But, I did have a trailer with those brakes at one time, and it did pretty much the same thing. It was the controller that time. I am not over braking, I always start stopping well in advance, unless of course, someone pulls out in front of me right before a stop light. It does happen. LoL . I've been pulling trailers of all shapes and sizes for 15 years now. I asked my husband if he'd take a look at the brakes for wear and he said he would. I'll take the plugs apart and look for lose wires, then I guess a new brake controller if nothing is found. I wonder how you add a brake controller to a truck with an integrated controller in it?
Posted 2013-04-30 11:40 AM (#151693 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
I called the Chevy dealer and they said it is an electronic brake controller and they could run a test on it to make sure it is functioning properly. Which I will do before I try and replace the controller in the truck.
Posted 2013-04-30 12:38 PM (#151695 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
I am not breaking hard. Just a normal stop. I haven't even put my foot down all the way on the brake before this happens. That is why this is so concerning. It does seem like the anti-lock is kicking in way before it should. Perhaps it is not the ant-lock kicking in, maybe it's something strange with the brake controller like what's been suggested. Or perhaps the anti-lock breaking needs to be adjusted on the truck? Or perhaps the brakes on the trailer need some sort of repair? I'm looking for ideas that I can check before I take it to the shop and spend $100 an hour to be told nothing is wrong. :-)
Posted 2013-04-30 2:32 PM (#151697 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Veteran
Posts: 109 Location: Florida
Sounds to me your brake controller... Could be the unit or the way it is mounted. If it's a older unit, it must be mounted straight ahead and level or the level wheel (sorry dont know the name of it) set with the arrow pointing straight down. A guess on my part, but gives you something to look at.
Posted 2013-04-30 3:17 PM (#151698 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Expert
Posts: 2960 Location: North Carolina
Just a thought ... Can you duplicate the bucking with the trailer brakes disconnected? Be safe that is have enough distance to stop the trailer using the truck's brakes alone on uneven road surface.
This test would eliminate the trailer brakes as a cause. Leaving the truck hitch, suspension, or brakes as a cause.
I suspect an interaction between the built-in controller and the truck's brakes.
Posted 2013-04-30 10:14 PM (#151705 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 522 Location: Tucumcari NM
I had exactly the same problem this week. Took the rig to a trailer shop and found that a ground wire had broken. fixed the wire and the problem was solved.
Posted 2013-04-30 11:10 PM (#151709 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Member
Posts: 46 Location: Oklahoma
We had the same issue with a 24' gooseneck flatbed trailer we used to haul hay on. It was purchased new and was odd to pull.
We thought it was our truck, but all the other trailers towed fine. We replaced the brake box, checked connections, had the electrical checked twice in the truck.
Had the trailer wiring looked at twice and on the second trip we took them for a ride in the towing vehicle and trailer.. I wont repeat what they said when the brakes were hit and the truck went to bucking.
It ended up being a short somewhere in the wiring. They rewired the whole trailer as they could not find an obvious short. Trailer works great now.
It was dangerous to use loaded down with hay..... couldn't stop, pushed through intersections at 20mph cause the brakes weren't working and the antilock were and the trailer and truck were bucking... scary stuff.
Posted 2013-05-01 10:48 AM (#151724 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
Marla, did they say where the ground wire was broken at? The plug or at the brakes? I checked the trailer side plug last night, and it is in good shape. I'll get under the trailer and see if I can see any broke wires.
Posted 2013-05-28 11:15 AM (#152289 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
I think I may have figure out my problem. The plug in my truck bed seems to be unreliable. My driver side tail lights were not working, so I plugged the trailer into the plug on the bumper, and they worked. So I messed with the plug in the bed, and my tail lights were working, but not my running lights, so I plugged it back into the bumper plug and everything works. The plugs on the 2012 Chevy are a "quick change" with the plug going into a socket on the harness that is on the truck. The connection between the plug and the harness is not very secure. I'm going to use the bumper plug for now, and replace the quick change plug in the bed with a hard wired plug. I just need to figure out what the wire color coding on the truck side is now. I think I'll wait till I have an afternoon with nothing else to do before I start that! LoL
Posted 2013-05-28 8:07 PM (#152301 - in reply to #152289) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
Originally written by bjhouten on 2013-05-28 11:15 AM
I think I may have figure out my problem. The plug in my truck bed seems to be unreliable. My driver side tail lights were not working, so I plugged the trailer into the plug on the bumper, and they worked. So I messed with the plug in the bed, and my tail lights were working, but not my running lights, so I plugged it back into the bumper plug and everything works. The plugs on the 2012 Chevy are a "quick change" with the plug going into a socket on the harness that is on the truck. The connection between the plug and the harness is not very secure. I'm going to use the bumper plug for now, and replace the quick change plug in the bed with a hard wired plug. I just need to figure out what the wire color coding on the truck side is now. I think I'll wait till I have an afternoon with nothing else to do before I start that! LoL
Are you saying that your 2012 Chevy came with a plug installed in the bed from the factory..??
Posted 2013-05-29 12:07 PM (#152312 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
When I had the GN hitch installed (as part of the deal, the dealer made the arrangements) they put the plug in the bed. The truck did have the plug from the factory on the bumper (trailer package). There is an amazing wire harness under the truck that is a collection of plugs that goes to both the bumper plug and the plug in the truck bed. My guess is that the harness that came with the trailer package included the truck harness side for the bed. You plug this "quick change" plug into the harness once the hole is drilled in the truck bed. I'll have to take the truck side harness plug apart and map it to the 7-pin RV plug to know what color wire goes where on the new "standard" plug, and hope I get it right the first time. LoL. I understand why they did it this way for manufacturing purposes, but the design of the quick change plug leave something to be desired.
Posted 2013-05-30 9:04 AM (#152331 - in reply to #152312) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Expert
Posts: 2615
Our 2005 1T Dually Chevy Silverado does the very same thing,but,not on uneven ground.It does it when rolling to a slow stop,at a stop sign,etc.It feels like the trailer is trying to come off of the hitch.I put the same question on this website without much help or results,however.I'm glad you asked it for our reference,maybe we can solve the problem,now.
Posted 2013-06-01 12:15 PM (#152385 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Member
Posts: 7
Location: Pedricktown, NJ
I forgot which program I was watching when I the person who did a lot of trailering suggested when driving trailer, if you seem to be having issues, while you should have it checked out, while getting around with trailer to pump brakes a couple times before you come to the area of stopping that sometimes the electronic brakes may not be signaling 1 out of 1,000 times. We have issues on different trailers we pull with our truck, and yes we have after market electric brakes installed by trailer manufacturer, I've learned to be on the safe side and just tap the brakes a touch before coming to the stop, or going down hills. My husband thinks I'm goofy, but, I haven't had problems, knock on wood, so far. But of course you should have checked out professionally, and do as others suggest. This is just a little hint I heard from professional trainer who travels a lot with, God bless her, a bumper pull.
Posted 2013-06-02 11:13 AM (#152402 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
Well, using the other plug didn't solve my problem. So I'll be taking my trailer to the shop. I looked under the dash to see if I could figure out how to add an after market brake controller, but it is a a real maze under there. I will also try the suggestion of tapping the brakes before I need to actually stop. If they don't find anything at the shop, I'll see if they can add the after market brake controller. I'm also going to see if I can find someone with a different truck to tow the trailer and see if they can make it happen. I love this trailer, but this brake business is down right dangerous.
Posted 2013-06-02 12:34 PM (#152404 - in reply to #152402) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
Originally written by bjhouten on 2013-06-02 11:13 AM
Well, using the other plug didn't solve my problem. So I'll be taking my trailer to the shop. I looked under the dash to see if I could figure out how to add an after market brake controller, but it is a a real maze under there. I will also try the suggestion of tapping the brakes before I need to actually stop. If they don't find anything at the shop, I'll see if they can add the after market brake controller. I'm also going to see if I can find someone with a different truck to tow the trailer and see if they can make it happen. I love this trailer, but this brake business is down right dangerous.
Have you tried using the brake controller slide bar to stop? Will it do this bucking thing when stopping just using the trailer brakes..?
Posted 2013-06-03 10:32 AM (#152422 - in reply to #151662) Subject: RE: bucking trailer
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
I have not tried the slide bar on the break controller. I think I've found a stretch of road where I will be able to make it happen all the time, so I will try that. When the trailer is bucking, I really don't want to be taking my hands off the steering wheel, so I'll have to see if I have enough nerve to do that. LoL. I called the Chevy dealer about adding an after market break controller and they are checking to see which ones will work. I am taking the truck to the dealer on Tuesday (6/4) and they are going to check out the controller and the braking system on the truck. I've also got a call into the local trailer place I like to use to schedule an appointment for the trailer brakes to be looked at. I have a feeling this is about to get really expensive. Oh well...
bucking trailer
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