No Trailer Brakes or Emergency Cable Brakes

[rklavoon]

I have no electric trailer brakes while towing (I dont feel them and tried the manual slider and got the error message about "Trailer disconnected").

I pulled the emergency cable as well and did not hear any hum at the brake drums as well and I could gently roll the camper back and forth which leads me to believe that it was not locking up the tires.

All other lights/signals on the camper work with no issues.

Can someone talk me through the steps on what to trouble shoot on this?

Your help is much appreciated.

[Murff]

Is your trailer battery connected?

Murff

[Shokyle1]

I know alot of times the brake wiring rubs on the inside of the axle tube.

[rklavoon]

Originally Posted by Murff

Is your trailer battery connected?

Murff

Yes.... Connected and charged.

[THE MEEKER]

First of all - GO BILLS!

Second, start at a simple solution then go on from there.

Make sure your connections are clean as a whistle. Clean your 7 pin female and male connections. Brush off any corrosion off each with sand paper or a small file. Then attach then unattach about 4 or five times. Use WD 40 to lightly coat the connections. That might do the trick.

[ARoamer]

With a test light or voltmeter, test for 12v at your emergency disconnect. One wire should allways be hot with a charged battery installed.

If there is 12v present look for broken or shorted wires going to or around the axle area.

If 12v is not present, try to follow wiring back towards the battery till you find 12v, look for broken wires and verify your ground connections are clean and tight.

[magnum12]

Not sure if this will help but I went though a similar issue as you. Only difference my emergency brake worked when the cable was pulled and mine was intermittent.

Here is the link to my post here on the forum and mine was the brake wire grounding itself out inside the axle tube.

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...sue-93016.html

One troubleshooting step you can take, which is what I did, is crawl under your unit, go to each wheel and pull some of the brake wire slightly out of the axle tube, maybe an inch. Then take a little duck take and wrap it around the wire so it doesn't fall back in.

Do this at each wheel, hook up your unit to the TV and see if you get the trailer disconnected message or not. If not and your brakes are working, then you found your issue.

[rklavoon]

Originally Posted by magnum12

Not sure if this will help but I went though a similar issue as you. Only difference my emergency brake worked when the cable was pulled and mine was intermittent.

Here is the link to my post here on the forum and mine was the brake wire grounding itself out inside the axle tube.

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...sue-93016.html

One troubleshooting step you can take, which is what I did, is crawl under your unit, go to each wheel and pull some of the brake wire slightly out of the axle tube, maybe an inch. Then take a little duck take and wrap it around the wire so it doesn't fall back in.

Do this at each wheel, hook up your unit to the TV and see if you get the trailer disconnected message or not. If not and your brakes are working, then you found your issue.

Thanks for this info. I read your post. I am going to be doing some troubleshooting this weekend to see if i can find the problem.

[Rustic Eagle]

Originally Posted by rklavoon

I have no electric trailer brakes while towing (I dont feel them and tried the manual slider and got the error message about "Trailer disconnected").........

I had the same problem, was the wiring shorting out within one of my TT axle tubes.

The following JOF thread may be helpful on the subject:

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...age-95968.html

Bob

[BuddyRay]

I had the wire grounding out inside the axel problem too (I think they scrape the insulation off the wires as they are pulling them through the rough edges of the axel at the factory).
But in my experience, when you have that problem the controller doesn't say "no brakes detected" it says something like "short" or "overload" detected.

I would first look for a broken wire under the trailer - those wires just hang down around the springs and axels and can get caught on all kinds of things.
Also, if it's a new rig, I wouldn't assume that the wiring was connected at all.

You didn't say if you have a TT or 5th wheel. On most TT there is a plastic circuit box somewhere on the hitch tongue that contains all the wiring from the tow vehicle including the brakes. I'd open that and see what shape it's in.
If it's a 5th wheel, the wiring is usually in a messy bundle stuffed into the base of the Pin Box.

[rklavoon]

Originally Posted by BuddyRay

I had the wire grounding out inside the axel problem too (I think they scrape the insulation off the wires as they are pulling them through the rough edges of the axel at the factory).
But in my experience, when you have that problem the controller doesn't say "no brakes detected" it says something like "short" or "overload" detected.

I would first look for a broken wire under the trailer - those wires just hang down around the springs and axels and can get caught on all kinds of things.
Also, if it's a new rig, I wouldn't assume that the wiring was connected at all.

You didn't say if you have a TT or 5th wheel. On most TT there is a plastic circuit box somewhere on the hitch tongue that contains all the wiring from the tow vehicle including the brakes. I'd open that and see what shape it's in.
If it's a 5th wheel, the wiring is usually in a messy bundle stuffed into the base of the Pin Box.

The trailer is a bumper pull trailer with a 4" steel box on the front a frame that has all the wires in and out. It has been too dark to look into it here at night, so I am going to tackle this project this weekend. I just towed it this past weekend through some road salt so not sure if something got in there or not.

I think I am going to check the connections in the a frame box, check for good grounding points, wire connections back at each brake and then (hopefully not) the wires through the axle tubes.

Thanks everyone for all your thoughts and help.

[Brownie]

I had a similar issue about 1-1/2 years ago, except I also had a rattling sound coming from the passenger-side wheels. Turns out the rattling came from the brakes just falling apart and rattling around inside the hub. In addition, the wires that control the brakes were disconnected from the wires going through the axels. The cheap connectors Jayco used had rusted out, so the wires were just hanging loose. That may be the case with your brakes, as well. I ended up soldering the connections and covering them with heat-shrink tubes. You may be able to check the connections by simply crawling under your rig and looking at the wheels. But you may have to remove the wheels and brake drums to get to the wires. Good luck tracking down the problem!

[rklavoon]

Just an update......

Ended up opening up the 4" square junction box in order to check all the connections before taking a deeper dive into the trailer wiring.

As I was poking around, one of the grounding wires popped out of the large blue ground wirenut. Ended up breaking down that connection, re-stripping the wires and reconnecting the wirenut and then used electrical tape to make it more secure. That ended up being the problem!

Hooked up the tow vehicle to verify everything worked through the 7 way plug and then pulled the emergency cable and both ways locked up the brakes. I was able to hear the magnets engage at the axles.

Thank you to everyone for your input. Problem solved!

[JFlightRisk]

Very nice to hear you found it. When I took the cover off that metal junction box on our frame, it was wet inside, and the white wire ground bundle started to corrode. I replaced the box with a Pollok plastic junction box. It eliminated the poor wire nut connections.

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...k/PK52248.html

You only need the 7-terminal box, but I opted for the 10-terminal one in case I wanted to add something later on.

[Rustic Eagle]

Originally Posted by JFlightRisk

snip....... I opted for the 10-terminal one in case I wanted to add something later on.

I purchased the same.., just haven't installed it yet.

In the meantime I did the following:

The inside of my junction box was a compressed wire-nut mess, and the cluster of ground wires eventually landed on a 'small' screw at the back of the junction box. I did a clean-up of the ground wires inside the box using copper wire lugs (tossed the wire nuts), then ran heavier gauge wire outside the box to a new frame grounding location.



Bob

[Gillespiek]

Most TT & 5th do not have self adjusting brakes
\

[Pauls72]

My trailer brakes went out too. I was driving down the interstate and the truck reported an ABS brake failure, then no trailer brakes. After turning the truck off/on there was just no trailer brakes. What I found is the green wires from the brakes broke off by these connectors right by the axles at all 4 wheels. I used some crimp connectors to fix the wires. Both the wires from the brake solenoid (electromagnet) are green and it doesn't matter which one goes to which of the 2 wires coming from the front of the trailer. It is red and white wires coming from the front on mine. In my case the wires come from the front junction box by the tongue to the left wheels then over to the right wheels. If the wires are too short you can splice in some additional wire. I also replaced the missing rubber grommet where the wires go into the axle tube.



If you contact Jayco support they will send you wiring schematics for your trailer for free. However they may not be a perfict match.

[KKTrave]

First things first - make sure you have all 12 volt signals on your tow vehicle connector, then recheck all at junction box at end of cord. Make sure you use the same ground connection for testing as the tow vehicle uses. I am a recent convert to the "Ancel Power Probe" - so much more functional for finding electrical problems and grounding issues. Look it up on YouTube - there are lots of reviews and how to videos on this.

[richraeder]

I’m the Dexter Axle rep for Jayco. Please feel free to call our service and warranty department. They will gladly help you troubleshoot your brake issues.

Rich Raeder

[ARoamer]

Originally Posted by richraeder

I’m the Dexter Axle rep for Jayco. Please feel free to call our service and warranty department. They will gladly help you troubleshoot your brake issues.

Rich Raeder

Hi Rich and welcome!
Nice to see that suppliers do visit the forum!