Brake issues on my 05 Montana

My 07 Montana had cut brake wires inside the drum, probably from the factory. I blamed the truck and controller for months, because the trailer was brand new.

Road debris could also be a culprit in wire fraying/cutting. If no obvious wire cut shows up on your inspection then you might try to jack up and spin the wheel while someone applies the brake. That should give you a lead on whether it is one brake, a axle set, or all the brakes.

If I remember correctly (sometimes I don't according to my wife) a short will only affect the brakes downstream from the short, while a cut wire, with no ground to the frame, will stop them all from working. I may have that wrong but I am pretty sure my frayed wire only affected the one brake and all the rest worked fine. I am sure some electrical guru will correct me if that is not true. Good luck

If needed contact Tekonsha they have good customer support. I hated the P-2!

I repacked the bearing last June before our trip and they looked OK. What am I looking for?

Thanks

Ray

When it the last time you looked at the magnets. One could be worn and shorting out. Chris

ScottG, that's my project for today. I'll crawl underneath and see what I can. Not sure if I should replace the tube wires first or pull the drums and look inside each one.

Ray

Brake lights coming on wont cause an overload unless there's a short in the brake line going to the trailer. Brake lights will always cause your trailer brakes to come on.
A bad or misadjusted (which requires replacement) brake light sw can cause the trailer brakes to come on without your foot on the brake pedal. Does the controller say OL when your not pressing the brake? I'm betting it doesn't.
The brake wires that cross from one side to the other on your trailer probably go through the axle tubes. After a while the inside of those tubes get rusty and eventually grind through the insulation on the brake wires and cause intermittent shorts (OL).
You may need to run new wires.

the bear II, thank you. I will check your suggestions out.

Ray

I had a similar problem with another brand of controller and it turned out my brakelight switch was going bad. It eventually failed completely so I knew what the problem was. Check to make sure you have brakelights when the OL code comes on.

A quick search and here's another possibility
http://www.etrailer.com/question-6716.html