Trailer brakes not working

[Nighthawk 96]

My White Hawk is three years old and the last time I hooked it up to my truck the brakes were not working. Brake controller showed nothing on the display.

I had a cheap controller which the dealer had installed 6 years ago when I purchased my 26BH, so I figured it was time to get something better.

I purchased a Tekonsha Prodigy P3 and installed it. It showed that the trailer was not connected. Every thing else, such as brake lights, directional signals and marker lights were working, so looked at a couple of YouTube videos on trailer brakes and decided to check mine out.

I found thatone of the wires coming out of the brake assembly on the streetside of the trailer had broken off of the main connector. This was the case on both the front and rear axles. I repaired the one on the rear axle and the controller now showed that the trailer was connected.

Thought my problem was solved, but checked the wire on the front axle and found it was broken off as well. Repaired it and I am now good to go.

Purpose of this post is to point out that it is possible that only one of your axles is braking.

The wires coming out of the brake assemblies are very small, maybe 22 to 26 gauge and are totally exposed under the trailer. Also the junctions are right over the springs and may rub on them while traveling.

In addition to this the wire junctions are covered by little rubber coverings; one of which was totally missing in my case, leaving the possibility of the junction shorting out on the axle assembly.

I am quite taken aback that the wiring for such an important function is so fragile!

Comments welcome

[ALJO]

Even those connectors might have a little booth over the crimp connector they are still subtle to weather conditions. Twist and soldered and some white grease and tape the rubber booth weather tight is the best. Living close to saltwater are sever conditions for corrosion.

[Jagiven]

Glad you found the issue. First thought was a broken wire. Second thought a blown fuse.


My brake wires are heavy 14 gage. I have not looked closely, but it looks to be exterior direct bury wiring. I am sure they would not use such. I when I bought my htt, I crawled underneath and zip tied the wires up so they could not catch on any road debris. I also sealed all my underbelly wire connections with liquid electrical tape.

[jenoble99]

A brake electrical system check is on my list of things to do in the coming days. They just don't seem to be working well. I expect to find corroded or broken connections at the axles.


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[BCx213]

Last trip out when I hooked up to go, I checked everything except the wiring harness....I didn't go far but I did check the brake controller and noticed it blank....pulled into the sani station and realized I forgot to connect the harness. My truck was capable of stopping the trailer...but I did notice it when I braked.