Octane 222SL Brakes issue

[magnum12]

Hi everyone, So recently on my previous tow vehicle I kept getting messages popping up on my display saying the trailer connection has been disconnected. Since this was on a truck I was planning on getting rid of and figured it was the connection on the truck, I didn't worry to much about it.

Well fast forward to today, I have a different tow vehicle, 2017 RAM 2500, and noticed I am getting the same message again. In fact coming home today, I got the message, then it went away and decided to stop and check the connection, upon braking I quickly found I had no trailer brakes until it was almost stopped and the trailer brakes kicked in hard. After reseating the plug in the truck, it seemed like everything was back working until I got back on the highway and it came on again. Again I stopped, reseated the connection and was able to make it home.

I am going out here in a few to check all the wiring and see if the obvious is there like a bad connection, etc, is there anything else I should be looking for? To me there is not a lot of resistance when plugging in the connector to the truck and wonder if I should consider chaning the cable and 7 pin connector.

[magnum12]

I just wanted to give everyone an update incase anyone else runs into a similar brake issue like myself.

After sending the trailer to the dealer, as always they could not reproduce the issue and said it must be the truck which is only putting out 6 volts and 8 amps at idle. Tow vehicle is a 2017 Ram 2500 and those readings are by design and do not go up to 12 volts until the truck is over 30 mph. This is supposedly to avoid locking trailer brakes up at low speeds.

Anyway after leaving the dealer things seemed to be working fine until last weekend when I was towing the trailer, quad and gear down to Vegas, I started getting the random "Trailer Disconnected, check connection" message. This happened about 4 or 5 times but was able to get to the campground without any issues. Needless to say I was praying hard as I was driving through Las Vegas traffic.

So by this time I was flat out annoyed and spent one morning researching this issue and came across a few RV'ers that had a similar issue which was caused by the brake wire rubbing against the inside of the axle and wearing through the insulation. When that happens the wire grounds itself to the axle as you drive down the road until you hit another bump and it moves the wire in the tube. This would explain why I had no brakes but all the running lights worked. One test that was suggested was to pull some wire out of each side of the axle tube, tie it off with whatever, I used duck tape and test drive it. I did just that on the back axle only and sure enough I had zero issues with it and made it all the way back home.


After replacing the wire on the back axle, it took some hard looking but I found the problem. A small place where the insulation had worn through and bare wire was exposed. In addition to this spot, I found several areas that had worn flat on the back axle wire and the front axle had several flat spots as well.

One may ask what causes this, well simply road vibration and even though my trailer is only a 2018, every weekend, 3 months out of the year, I tow it down a rough 2 mile washboard road and the trailer gets plenty of road vibration.

[magnum12]

Pic of the wire

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iyyYthwKDPsSBfkh7

[Riich]

Good post. It shows that a guy should not only be checking the roof occasionally, but also do a crawl-around underneath and keep an eye on things.

[Ugeesta]

That’s a hard one to spot but good to know.

I just learned today that my front axle brakes were not working and I’ve been living off the rear axle breaks. Odd thing is I was not getting a warning on the dash.
The trailer is in for a suspension upgrade as we drive a lot of washboard roads as well. Looks like I getting a whole new system on my dime….

[magnum12]

Ugeesta - Funny you mention that because right before I found the issue with my brakes, I had to increase the gain on my truck to bring my truck and trailer to a stop. After replacing the wiring, I reduced my gain back down to where it used to run it as the brakes were functioning a lot better.