OP here...a few more responses.
First...man do people read what they think they see and not what is written. I have several times said that I am not yet assuming this is a factory defect and admitted that I won't know for sure if it is until the repair is complete. What I have indicated though is that the dealer's initial assessment to me is that it was a factory defect and that he told me he saw no signs of physical damage caused by any one of the sort of things many people have described so far.
My comments are based on what to do if indeed this is a factory defect as the original diagnosis from the dealer who has inspected the truck.
Next, the brake controller. The brake controller was working correctly. My comment was about what happened when I manually engaged the trailer brakes which causes them to max out. My brake controller is a proportional brake controller which means it applies the brakes in proportion to how fast your vehicle is slowing down and not based on how hard you press the brake pedal. So...if you press the brake pedal to the floor and the brakes and the brakes on the TV only slow the vehicle down slightly the trailer brakes will only be applied slightly. Right?
And yes, I do a full inspection of everything on my hitch, trailer and vehicle before towing.
As to all the discussion about brake systems--I have no clue. All I can tell you is what happened. Brake pedals went to the floor with no pressure and braking on the vehicle and trailer system was applied at a very marginal level, probably 20% of overall braking power or less. Brakes were BARELY there. Much of the slowing down of the vehicle was just a function of taking my foot off the gas and letting the weight and wind resistance of the trailer slow the truck.
Lastly I will reiterate (as someone also said above) when it comes to brake systems I believe there should be very little acceptance of failure. That is one system on your vehicle that should be as close to completely reliable as possible (not possible to be 100% reliable) but there should be little margin for error.
For what it's worth I am an Army officer and work in program management for developing and testing new weapon systems. I have worked developing requirements and specs, as a test evaluation officer and in program management of running and managing the development of the system. So my comments on reliability, safety failures, etc are based on my experience.
Safety failures are a big deal
