Trailer break problem. I need help, I;='m Stumped

[sb47]

What I don’t understand is with all there fancy testers that should show a wiring problem, shows everything in working order.
The only thing left is to replace the entire wiring on the trailer, everything else is new.

 

[sb47]

The cargo trailer has a 7 way and my flat bed has a 6 way.
So I use a 7-6 way adaptor for the cargo since the truck has the 6 way.
As much as I hate to spend any more money, I may just put one of those new 7 way plugs on the truck and the flat bed.
I’ve seen some new ones that have a 7 way and 6 way and 4 way all on the
same, bumper plug. That way no mater what the trailer has you can just plug rite without any adapters.

Thing is I’ve been using both trailers the same way for years and had no problems till the flatbed started loosing breaks.

Now i have so much tide up in it, i feel like i have to get them to work. If i had known all that money wouldn't do anything, i would just have soon put in the collection tray at church.

 

[sb47]

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want or intend to be driving down the road and lock up the trailer breaks for no reason. This just a test to make sure the brakes are working as they should so you can dial in the rite amount of breaking power you want the trailer to have depending on your load and weight.
When I’m empty I dial back the trailer breaks accordingly.

 

[sb47]

New up date, I checked the breakaway switch and it does work but no better then just using the hand break.
But I did notice that all they hooked up on the breakaway was the blue wire and to where I don’t know. The white and black wire from the breakaway are not hooked to anything.
On the break away shouldn’t one wire be grounded and the other to the hot from the battery on the truck in order to keep the breakaway battery charged?

 

[beerman6]

just saying...

On every truck/trailer I've ever owned I've always run a dedicated ground wire to the lights and brakes.I will not rely on the ball/coupler to transfer the ground.
This includes running a ground right from the battery to the 7 way on the truck.

The shop said they tested volts and amps to your trailer brakes,that means the problem is in your truck.

Could be that the cargo trailers brakes and wiring are in good enough shape that your truck wiring/controller is "good enough" to make them work.

 

[sb47]

i have a dedicated ground and positive from the battery to the plug on the truck and I even went as far as hook up my jumpers from the negative terminal of the truck battery to the frame of the trailer. still no difference.
Like I said I’m stumped and so seems the trailer shop.


While all this has been going on, I noticed a pin hole in my radiator hose. Easy fix but damn. Everything is hitting me all at once.

 

[sb47]

Last year my water well sanded in and I had to have a new well drilled, had to wait 35 days without running water till that got fixed at 9 thousand dollars. Then my tractor clutch went out at a cost a 2500 dollars. Had a new AC put in at 3 thousand dollars?
Hand to buy 3 new saws for my wood business, and did my yearly service on the splitter complete with engine oil change and hydraulic and filter change.
Oh and 4 new tires on the truck plus 2500lbs supper springs put on so i can pull these heave trailers.
My little nest egg is disappearing faster then I can replace it.

I only sold 100 cords last year, but this year I have tripled that in the first 5 months of this year. So hopefully I can make a little money at it. I love working for myself. And so far I’ve made about as much on my own as I did working for someone else.

Anyone that said selling firewood is easy and good money is out of there mind unless you have lots of money to throw a lot of money in equipment that can spit out 10 cords an hour. and you have the sales to back it up.

 

[NSMaple1]

Is there another truck around you can hook the trailer up to? See how it works with another rig?

 

[nathon918]

just because they put a meter on it and the meter says its good, doesnt means its good,, theyre likely testing in a no load situation, probably putting power to the brakes with the drums off, it pushes the shoes out, and they think its "good", but theres no real load that the actuator has to push...

what is the trailer wired with?
if its THHN then id look at that, thhn is pretty good for outdoor use but if the ends or terminations arent sealed then corosion can travel down the wire rather quickly... can also happen to other wire too, but thhn is the fastest ive seen it happen to

id also disconnect the trailer wireing and run jumpers directly from the actuator to the plug on the truck, if it works then you know the problems in the trailer wireing, if it doesnt work, then you know you have a problem somewhere in the truck...

 

[sb47]

The trailer is wired with 12 gage 6 conductor industrial wiring from the plug all the way to the rear lights. No its’ not wired with the cheap wall mart 14 gage crap most small trailers are wired with.
And all the connections are rapped in electrical tape and done very professionally. It’s not a cheap wiring job.
It’s a heavy duty commercial grade trailer, not a cheap one.

I just don’t see how everything being exactly as before and one trailer works and the other doesn’t. at least not like it did.

I’m getting to the point that I’m just so tired of trying to fix it that I’m almost ready to give up. Even though I’ve spent all this money.

I cant understand why they didn’t hook up the black and white wire in the breakaway.
If there service is open tomrow i will be call and asking all these questions.
They are there for a reason so why not use them.

Something has to keep the battery charged on the breakaway.

I’m making calls to see if I can find someone that has a truck with a controller but no luck yet.
I will be taking it back to the shop that did the work and make them fix it.
Even if its in the truck.

Like I said I just stumped!

 

[sb47]

The real confusing part is the wiring on the truck is not the same coller code as the wiring in the trailer. Nether one of the trailers is the same coller as the truck and both trailers are collard different.
So that meant tracing them all down one at a time.:msp_scared:

 

[lone wolf]

What about hot wire the brakes direct, run new wire to them put 12 volts to them? If they work then re wire the whole trailer. If not maybe put new magnets. Did you inspect for rust on the electronic parts?

 

[lone wolf]

INEFFECTIVE OR WEAK BRAKES
• Insure trailer is not overloaded.

• Check for loose or corroded connections.

• Check for properly wired system, including a good ground between towing vehicle and trailer, not through trailer hitch.

• Check for shorted circuit.

• Check for proper variable resistor resistance (external resistoror controller) to trailer (for hydraulic units only).

• Worn or defective magnet.

• Check brake adjustment.Check for bent backing plate flange.

• Check for contaminated brake linings.

• Check brake system wiring to ensure proper gauge wiring is used. Ensure wiring is not connected through the stop light circuit.

• Check for worn, damaged or improper brake linings.

• Check for weak or broken brake shoe return spring.

• Check for defective or worn brake drums.

• Check for loose axle.

• Check that correct controller is installed.

• Improper controller installed or settings (level or gain).

 

[John_in_KS]

Do this

The magnets in the hub are just that - magnets.

The easiest way to test them is with a battery charger. Clip the leads onto a couple of nails. Put the nails into the brake wire and ground wire of the trailers wire connector. You should hear the magnets jump and hit the inside of the hubs. If not, either the wiring or magnets are bad.

Next step would be to get under the trailer, and clip into the wires that come out of each hub and check with battery charger one magnet at a time. Each magnet should jump to the hub. If not then the magnets need replaced. Pull the trailer hubs off and again check each magnet before replacing it. With power from the battery charger to a magnet it should hold onto a pair of pliers very tight. If it does then the magnet is good and the problem has to be in the wiring or perhaps the hubs need turned as suggested earlier.

 

[nathon918]

The trailer is wired with 12 gage 6 conductor industrial wiring from the plug all the way to the rear lights. No its’ not wired with the cheap wall mart 14 gage crap most small trailers are wired with.
And all the connections are rapped in electrical tape and done very professionally. It’s not a cheap wiring job.
It’s a heavy duty commercial grade trailer, not a cheap one.

I just don’t see how everything being exactly as before and one trailer works and the other doesn’t. at least not like it did.

I’m getting to the point that I’m just so tired of trying to fix it that I’m almost ready to give up. Even though I’ve spent all this money.

I cant understand why they didn’t hook up the black and white wire in the breakaway.
If there service is open tomrow i will be call and asking all these questions.
They are there for a reason so why not use them.

Something has to keep the battery charged on the breakaway.

I’m making calls to see if I can find someone that has a truck with a controller but no luck yet.
I will be taking it back to the shop that did the work and make them fix it.
Even if its in the truck.

Like I said I just stumped!

terminations that are wraped in electrical tape is not a "professional" job! heat shrink is the professional way!
and just because the wire is expensive doesnt mean it wont corrode, THHN is also not a cheap wire.
ive had problems with the crossover battery cable on a truck with dual batterys, the wire was corroded almost the whole lengh of the cable, looks fine on the outside though, and thats a 0gauge cable! put a meter on it, yup it ohmed out, but it couldnt handle the amperage.

 

[lone wolf]

terminations that are wraped in electrical tape is not a "professional" job! heat shrink is the professional way!
and just because the wire is expensive doesnt mean it wont corrode, THHN is also not a cheap wire.
ive had problems with the crossover battery cable on a truck with dual batterys, the wire was corroded almost the whole lengh of the cable, looks fine on the outside though, and thats a 0gauge cable! put a meter on it, yup it ohmed out, but it couldnt handle the amperage.

I suggest unwrap them connections and get to the bottom of this or just rewire the whole trailor!

 

[triptester]

The most common problem with trailer wiring is the ground connections. I have learned to run a dedicated ground wire to all electrical devices on trailers. A corroded connection will often carry voltage but when under load will not carry the neccessary ampage to operate the electrical device.

 

[olyman]

New up date, I checked the breakaway switch and it does work but no better then just using the hand break.
But I did notice that all they hooked up on the breakaway was the blue wire and to where I don’t know. The white and black wire from the breakaway are not hooked to anything.
On the break away shouldn’t one wire be grounded and the other to the hot from the battery on the truck in order to keep the breakaway battery charged?

should be three wires...charge,brake hot,,and ground..

 

[sb47]

I can't begin to explain how frustrated I am with this trailer.
I don’t meant to be sarcastic but every suggestion everyone keeps making has been checked, re checked and checked again.
I took it back today and the breaks didn’t work hardly at all until I pulled into there parking lot, and suddenly they started working a little better. By better they will lock up the rear breaks at a speed lower then 20 mph. anything over that and they just barley work. and that's withe the adjustment set ti max

I asked about the white and black wire from the breakaway battery and they said it was just loose ends that had not been clipped off.

So I drive to my friend’s house to test it with his truck so I could eliminate the truck side of the problem.
Before we switched trucks we went for a test drive and using the hand break at a low 20-30 mph , we noticed that when the rear axel locks up it lifts the front axel off the ground and the front tires don’t even make contact with the ground.

We compared the springs and shackles that go to the equalizer between the two axels and there is a problem. I looked at his trailer and then came home and looked at my cargo trailer and another friend’s trailer that is parked here and one thing stands out plane as day.

On all the good trailers the springs are not set up the same as the one on mine.
I’l try to draw a diagram to explain the difference.’

If you notice the shackles are in the up passion on all the other trailers then why is mine flipped over on the front axel?

I stopped back by to have them look again and they were closed for the day, so that means I have to make another trip over there on Monday to find out what is going on with the equalizers and shackles all going the wrong way on the front axel.

Remember if you have red through the whole thread you can see that I have gone over everything.
What I don’t understand is how the rear breaks are causing the front axel to come off the ground.

And this is with an empty trailer that only weights 2000 lbs empty.

I’m about at the point as to sell this piece of #### and buy a new trailer.
I keep poring good money after bad and spending needed production time trying to get a trailer to function correctly. Not to mention the 5 trips to shops that say they can fix it. but they cant even to get
it rite ether.i'mi so sick of working and spending money and getting no Where.


not to mention i had to replace the upper and lower raider hoses and thermostat this morning before i could make the drive over there.
none of the trailer places are anywhere close so it's a long drive burning up gallons of fuel and time.

nothing frustrates me more to do everything possible and still get no results. especially when i'm a pretty good do doing it myself.

you would after spending 500 plus and three shops looking and working on it it still isn't rite.


someone is going to have to do the job rite and since i spent 500 at Countryside trailers in Spring TX that there gonna get an ear full come Monday.

i guess you just cant find good help these days. they that been very nice up to this point, but i'm tired of the same old problems that there supposed to be able to fix. that's there primary job.
As the trailer sits hooked up to the truck it is all perfectly level. The tong is not too high or too low.

 

[sb47]

The most common problem with trailer wiring is the ground connections. I have learned to run a dedicated ground wire to all electrical devices on trailers. A corroded connection will often carry voltage but when under load will not carry the necessary amperage to operate the electrical device.

I have a dedicated hot and ground running to the plug and a dedicated ground running from the truck to the trailer. and its 10 gage wire. Plus I have tried jumpers cables from truck to trailer, just to make sure there grounded good.


Beats the hell out of me. I hate to sell it because it’s a good heavy duty trailer that would cost me 3 grand to replace.

i;m just too tired to mess with it any more. I'm done. time for a good cold beer and cool off. it' been 90 decrease all week and i just burnt out jacking with something that is getting me no where.

i feel like i'm beating a dead horse.