Trailer brake question

[HTHM]

I just wired up electric trailer brakes on my trailer, and they do not seem to be activating. All connections are soldered, (including ground), I used 14 gauge wire, all connections on the 7 way plug are good and in the right place. However, when I push on the brake pedal in the tow vehicle all I get from the brake controller is a dim red light. When I manually activate them i get no light at all. The brake controller works fine on my other trailer, so any idea what I have done wrong?

[irishfield]

Electric trailer brakes work on momentum.. to tell the controller how much brake to put on Albert. Now if you activate the controller unit manually.. it should put the brakes on proportionally to how far you push the slider control.

Edited August 10, 2013 by irishfield

[HTHM]

Thats just the thing Wayne, I push the controller as far as it will go and I get nothing. I just coast.

[Muskieman]

bad ground ...

[HTHM]

bad ground ...

I think you may be right as the soldered connection is to a lighter gauge wire that is fastened to the trailer, however it is also connected to the vehicle ground via the seven prong plug. I'll take it apart and solder a thicker gauge wire to the ground connection and see if that fixes it. Back in 30. By the way all components are brand new. I blew a wheel bearing and had to replace the axle, so I decided to put brakes on it as I have a brake controller now.

[irishfield]

Slap a booster cable between trailer frame and the vehicle frame and solve that issue pretty quickly.

Edited August 10, 2013 by irishfield

[HTHM]

Well it is not a bad ground, the ground I out on the trailer would pass even Wayne's inspection. Same symptoms, dim light with brake pedal, no light with manual activation. And of course no braking either. Ideas?

[Sinker]

I'm stumped.

 

S.

[Fisherman]

Some of the brake controllers are motion activated, some of the others are activated on a time basis, the longer you hold the brake pedal down, the more power is provided and the harder the brakes engage. I have to ask the inevitable, did you wire the brakes in series(one long loop) or in parallel? If you did series, it won't work, must be parallel. Did you run the ground wire from the brakes to the frame or to the trailer plug? If you know how to use an ohm meter, check and see what the reading is on the electric brakes alone, not connected to anything. I'll check mine to see what the reading is, tomorrow, too dark right now.

[HTHM]

I wired them with a three way splice from the plug, first into the left hand brake wiring and then into the wire that crosses over inside the axle. That wire was then connected to the right brake. WHat is happening now is: when the brakes are applied the fuse feeding the brake controller in the van keeps blowing. I cannot find the short.

[Fisherman]

Okay, in addition, went out this morning with my ohm meter, I get a 2.1 to 2.2 ohm reading. If you get a zero, you have a dead short, if you get much higher than what I get, it's wired in series. My trailer brakes are wired as follows, the wire from the trailer plug(bottom left contact) goes to one wire(doesn't matter which side of the trailer or which of the two wires), connected there and then goes across to the other side of the trailer and connected to one wire. The other wire from the plug ground(bottom left contact) goes to the other remaining wire one the first brake and continues across to the other side remaining wire. That's it. I'm highly suspecting the wires inside the axle may be highly corroded and or the insulation is brittle, fallen off and may well be causing the ground shorting problem for the brakes. You say the fuse for the brake controller is shorting out now, with the trailer connected or not? Without the trailer connected, then there's something wrong with the wiring inside the van. Usually, (not always) the brake controller wiring runs black is positive, white is ground, blue is the trailer hot brake wire and the other colour is the wire that gets power on the "dead" side of the van brake switch when you step on the brake. Let us know how it goes.

[HTHM]

Well it turns out it was wired incorrectly and a short was the cause of the problem.

Thanks to everyone for your advice and help.

Edited August 13, 2013 by HTHM