Coincidence or Can a Brake Controller Activate Truck Brakes?
I have an '09 F150 with a towing package that includes the factory brake controller. I've had no issues with the truck brakes, trailer or the controller since I set everything up three years ago. The truck is driven regularly.
I recently went to pick up my trailer from winter storage. I hitched up, hit the highway and got less than two miles from the storage site when I smelled the distinct odor of burning brakes. (I had not done any heavy braking to that point.) I immediately pulled over thinking that perhaps after long winter storage, a trailer wheel bearing had seized up - or that the trailer brakes were inadvertently being applied! All the drums on the trailer were cold to the touch so I walked up to check out my truck. Its rear drums were cold, the front passenger rotor was warm and the front driver's rotor was painfully hot to the touch!
I had another two miles to my destination so I decided to wait for ten minutes or so and let things cool down. While I waited, I turned the setting down on the controller from 5 to 4. Whether that had any effect on things I don't know but I can tell you that I made it to my destination without any more burning smell present. After maneuvering and unhitching the trailer, I drove the truck back out on the highway and there was no shimmy in the steering wheel or any other behaviour that you'd expect from say a warped rotor, stuck caliper or bad wheel bearing. The brakes feel fine; the truck stops well and doesn't pull to one side.
I did not do another temperature check of the rotors because the burning smell had not resurfaced and I have booked the truck into the garage to have a full brake inspection. I'm just wondering why the brakes acted up only when towing - and seemingly only momentarily. it seems highly improbable but has anyone ever heard of a brake controller triggering the tow vehicle's brakes?!!! Or perhaps the truck has the start of a faulty rotor, caliper or wheel bearing and the added weight of the trailer exacerbated one of these faulty components. At any rate I want to rule out the brake controller or the truck's braking circuit as the culprit.
Thanks in advance for any ideas that you might have.
I recently went to pick up my trailer from winter storage. I hitched up, hit the highway and got less than two miles from the storage site when I smelled the distinct odor of burning brakes. (I had not done any heavy braking to that point.) I immediately pulled over thinking that perhaps after long winter storage, a trailer wheel bearing had seized up - or that the trailer brakes were inadvertently being applied! All the drums on the trailer were cold to the touch so I walked up to check out my truck. Its rear drums were cold, the front passenger rotor was warm and the front driver's rotor was painfully hot to the touch!
I had another two miles to my destination so I decided to wait for ten minutes or so and let things cool down. While I waited, I turned the setting down on the controller from 5 to 4. Whether that had any effect on things I don't know but I can tell you that I made it to my destination without any more burning smell present. After maneuvering and unhitching the trailer, I drove the truck back out on the highway and there was no shimmy in the steering wheel or any other behaviour that you'd expect from say a warped rotor, stuck caliper or bad wheel bearing. The brakes feel fine; the truck stops well and doesn't pull to one side.
I did not do another temperature check of the rotors because the burning smell had not resurfaced and I have booked the truck into the garage to have a full brake inspection. I'm just wondering why the brakes acted up only when towing - and seemingly only momentarily. it seems highly improbable but has anyone ever heard of a brake controller triggering the tow vehicle's brakes?!!! Or perhaps the truck has the start of a faulty rotor, caliper or wheel bearing and the added weight of the trailer exacerbated one of these faulty components. At any rate I want to rule out the brake controller or the truck's braking circuit as the culprit.
Thanks in advance for any ideas that you might have.
