Brake controller craziness, advice?

[joe_blow]

Hi,

Long stupid story sorry....

All has been great with my WW 3705 after the wall sag repair, along with a bunch of other items.

I redid the entire brake system (drums, complete backing plates, bearings etc) last year and has been working awesome.

So yesterday I am in Parker AZ where I stopped for fuel. As I rounded this turn I tapped the brakes (haven't touched the adjustments for a few trips) and I thought I had hit a curb on how it felt.

I continued forward applying the brakes again and it felt normal. Rolled to the stop....bam again. It felt like full voltage was going to the brakes and the tires skid in my side view.

I pulled over and checked everything obvious, all systems ok.

I changed the aggressiveness adjustments on the brake controller and it seemed to be better.

I feel the brake controller is internally shorting or it may be time for new one.

I have owned the same one for 12 years and am wondering if it is time for a replacement?


Any advice is welcomed.

Thank you

Joe

[lincster]

I had some work done by a local suspension shop, had to replace an axle, they found the same thing.
Replaced all the wiring with good wires ran on the outside of the tubes.
My brakes have never worked so well.

[Y-Guy]

Thanks for the update Joe, glad you got it fixed!

[joe_blow]

Wanted to update you all incase someone finds this post in need of help.

I went through the system with a fine tooth comb and the culprit was inside two tubes. It seems that WW used really nice 10AWG shielded wire up until it splits into the tubes.

From there it seems like they used cheap speaker wire and of course two sections had rubbed through.

The crappy part was I also replaced my brake controller with a smart updated Tekonsha controller, well long story short the brake controller sensed the short and completely disconnected the brakes all together for the ride home. This made my 25 mile trek in stop and go freeway traffic a little sketchy.

I rewired all three axles, wrapped and secured everything including all wiring on the frame rails and it did the trick.

Thanks for all the advice

Joe

[Dirtclods]

I had a broken wire underneath my Toy-hauler by the brakes themselves so only one side was braking.

[dsrace]

i have had a prodigy p3 for maybe 5 years now. i do like it and will buy another as this one has had to be unplugged and reconnected twice now. it starts flashing and won't work so they do go bad.

[joe_blow]

That's what I was thinking also.

thanks

[Sjm9911]

You just need 2 wire. Run it back where you can and branch off. You could run it stright down the middle and do equal lengths. But i didnt, just went to one side then branched off to the other. The volt drop will Not be noticable. I atually followed what was on my camper to begin with, but my 10 wire was way bigger then what was originally run. I have a dual axel for reference.

[joe_blow]

Excellent guys thank you for the advice. I was talking to a friend of mine and he experienced similar on his car hauler. Of course the wires were within the axle and rubbed through.

I will report with my findings.

Joe

[time2roll]

I would assume one wire per wheel if using #10. So 10/2 for two axle, 10/3 for 3 axle.
I don't recommend parallel wires, just use the right size.
Yes needs to be stranded to flex with the suspension.

[Sjm9911]

I did 10/2 on mone and in retrospec was probably overkill. It was recomended by e trailor , but when i hooked it up it was a bit harder. If i was to do it again i would go with a smaller gauge wire.make sure you get stranded wire. And i also ran it outside the tube. Fixed my low power to my break controller issue. And its not a hard job.

[lenr]

Increasing wire size along with rewiring everything has helped me on three different trailers. I use 12/2 with one run to each axle--that is even larger than using one 10/2. The more wire capacity to the hubs, the less voltage lost in the wire. Rewiring also helps eliminate broken connections.

[lincster]

joe blow wrote:
Great. I will pull the old wire out, so I can prove or disprove the issue. I will leave the wire outside the tube as I purchased some nice marine grade sheathed 10/2 wire.

This is what I did recently on my Warrior.
Ran the wire on the outside of the axle.

I also did all new brakes/hubs/bearings/races.
Brakes have never worked better.

[joe_blow]

Great. I will pull the old wire out, so I can prove or disprove the issue. I will leave the wire outside the tube as I purchased some nice marine grade sheathed 10/2 wire.

[time2roll]

I would go #10 if pulling wire. A bit of overkill at 3 amps per wheel. Marginal cost is minimal.