No brakes on trailer
Hey guys and gals. Picked up a new to us travel trailer and can't get brakes to work at all. Had to be extra careful towing it. Plugged in, truck shows "Trailer not connected. Check brake wiring." mes...
Forum Discussion
crazyro wrote:
I looked all up and down the trailer for a ground wire hooked onto axle or frame but didn't see one - that's why I mentioned ball as I know some trailers use it for ground (and have read that it's not a solid connection). I may just have to open the box and run an additional ground wire.
The brake system ground MUST run up to the tongue and the ground connection MUST be connected to the vehicle via the 7 pin connector..
If you follow the 7 pin cable back to the trailer, it will eventually terminate in a box near the trailer box on the tongue..
All grounds are supposed to terminate at that point and one ground wire from that box will run to the frame of the trailer..
Resist the notion of adding ground wires at the axles, doing so will cause ground loops (in the audio and video world ground loops are the techs nightmare to find and fix).. Those ground loops will cause differences in the current going through the brake magnets and may even cause connection issues with the brake controller..
As I mentioned before, newer brake controllers send out a quick pulse to detect presence of brakes.. Ground loops can affect the timing and size and shape of the return echo pulse which will cause the controller to not be able to determine if brakes are electrically present..
