bovellois wrote:
You could ask someone to press on the brake pedal with the engine off and the ignition key on. If you stand next to the trailer axles and the brakes work you will hear a clicking noise when the pedal is depressed. You could even raise one trailer wheel off the ground and feel whether the brakes are engaging. Make sure to raise a wheel from the axle that has brakes, as some small trailers come with only one braking axle.
When you jack up the trailer, follow the manual. Normally the jack goes under the frame near the axle but not under the axle itself as it's made of light tubing and will bend.
I have a 2012 ram 1500 with the OEM brake controller. It is a proportional controllermeaning the harder you step on tbthe brakes the harder the trailer brakes are applied. This was not the case years ago when they were mostly time based controllers. The idea above is probably the easiest way to find out, you could even spin the tire and if it stop brakes were applied. That being said I tow a 6500 dry weight TT around on the heavy electric setting between 4 and 5 so its not the controller. The brakes on that hybrid as said before may not be anything special BC it happens to be light.
