Trailer brake issues - almost no brake power to trailer

[mtedelen]

Lots of discoveries during my first camp trio of the season....see my water pump thread also

Anyways, Im pulling my 2016 Jayco Eagle HT 26.5BHS with my 2016 Ram built in trailer brake control.

With the gain turned all the way up in the truck, Im barely getting any braking power to the trailer, yet when I pull the emergency trailer disconnect the brakes lock up perfectly and I have to drag the trailer. Even if I manually activate trailer brakes to 100% with the brake controller I can still pull the trailer at idle and the trailer brakes barely do anything.

Not sure is its a brake controller issue, or a trailer brake issue.

[dhunter79]

Get one of these
https://www.amazon.com/58270-7-Way-B.../dp/B001EOWQY4
and it will let you know if it is your truck or your trailer

[mtedelen]

Originally Posted by dhunter79

Get one of these
https://www.amazon.com/58270-7-Way-B.../dp/B001EOWQY4
and it will let you know if it is your truck or your trailer

Ordered. Ill give that a try, thanks!

[edowsfamily]

Originally Posted by mtedelen

Ordered. Ill give that a try, thanks!

Try cleaning the connection on truck and trailer. i notice this with ours also, and use small emery board to clean contacts.

[rsday75]

Lippert is known to have bad seals, and grease contaminates everything in the hub, but since you get lockup with the emergency cable, that may not be your issue.
I had virtually no braking, and grease contamination was the issue. Lippert replaced the whole assembly on all 4 hubs.

[mtedelen]

Going over there today to mess around with it. Got the tester as well as a brush to try and clean the contacts. Thanks for all the advice so far.

[Jagiven]

To me it does not sound like contaminated tt brakes.

To me it sounds like not enough power is getting to the brakes, to engage the the solenoids. Do you have a multimeter and a helper? I would check the voltage to the brakes. I doubt you can do this at the 7 pin connector, as the tv knows if a tt is connected, so you may have to check at the j box between the 7 pin wire harness and the wire going back to the brakes. I have never checked mine, so I do not know what type of voltages to expect, but it will be proportional. This maye a challenge to read. My controller gives me a digital read out, and when I stop, the reading goes to 0. So you may have to test using the manual engagement option. The ebrake cable should give 100% power to the brakes.

It could be dirty plug connection as noted above.

I also wonder if the self adjusting brakes need to "click", it tighten up.

[mtedelen]

I do have a multimeter I can play with. I also tried the backing up method but didn’t help. I’m just hoping now that everything has sat for a week it will just magically work [emoji38]

[bdreinv]

Check your seals we had 4 blown seals right from the factory on our Eagle RSTS!Lippert tried to blame it on us for over packing hubs. We never added a drop!Lippert replaced all plus 4 brake pads on there dime!

[mtedelen]

Originally Posted by dhunter79

Get one of these
https://www.amazon.com/58270-7-Way-B.../dp/B001EOWQY4
and it will let you know if it is your truck or your trailer

So tested the connection with this test and guess what.... the light for the trailer brakes is not lighting up. Well it barely does, very faint and not on constantly as it should be according to the manual. This to me clearly shows there is a voltage issue. Took truck the dealer and they said everything is fine. Took it right back to them and said everything is not fine. Service ad visor said they hooked up to their trailer and everything was fine. Makes me wonder if the trailer had any weight to it. My trailer brakes will still activate, but barely, and definitely wont lock the trailer brakes when manually activated...which all leads me to believe that the truck connection is not supplying enough power to the trailer.

[bap]

Did you go into the menu on your truck and set the brake setup to heavy trailer?

[jimp]

Might check the electrical connections at TT brakes, could be a bad or dirty connector. They don't use top quality connectors, so.....

[Grumpy]

Pull the breakaway pin with the truck hooked up and see if you can move it.

[mtedelen]

Originally Posted by bap

Did you go into the menu on your truck and set the brake setup to heavy trailer?

I did, gain all the way up and on heavy electric and still no brake power.

[mtedelen]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Pull the breakaway pin with the truck hooked up and see if you can move it.

Breakaway pin pulled and brakes lock up to the point where I'm dragging the trailer, and wheels fully locked up.

[mtedelen]

Originally Posted by jimp

Might check the electrical connections at TT brakes, could be a bad or dirty connector. They don't use top quality connectors, so.....

I'll need to further inspect connections at trailer brakes themselves, however with them completely locking up with breakaway pin pulled I would assume they are fine?

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by mtedelen

I'll need to further inspect connections at trailer brakes themselves, however with them completely locking up with breakaway pin pulled I would assume they are fine?

Definitely your truck controller or the 7 pin pigtail.

[mtedelen]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Definitely your truck controller or the 7 pin pigtail.

That's exactly what I'm thinking but I cant get the dealer to understand whats going on....And the service writer won't let me talk to the tech. I even left my 7-pin tester in the truck for them to use but doesn't sound like they will.

I told her the light that detects voltage on the 7 pin connection tester doesn't light up, indicating it't not detecting voltage. Also told them that when I pull the breakaway pin the trailer brakes completely lock up..but still they seem to think its fine. Makes me think they're testing on a 400lb harbor freight trailer in which case of course the wheels will lock up. My trailer is 7500# dry and at idle my truck can pull it with the manual override completely engaged.

[Iraqvet05]

I would take the truck to an RV center to have them test the output of the truck. My TT dealer had a pretty elaborate tester for the trailer connector.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by mtedelen

That's exactly what I'm thinking but I cant get the dealer to understand whats going on....

If I remember correctly there was another thread about issues with a DODGE integrated controler.

Corrected, thanks to Iraqvet05....