Crazy issue with Brake Controller/system …. I think ……Need Advice

[tcamper]

Last year at this time I had an incident on a local road at 40ish miles per hour with a quick hard braking …… and my trailer brakes locking up and ruining my 1 year old tires (flat spots).

I took the trailer to a trailer mechanic and they adjusted my brakes on my 1 year old 2017 310GK. The said my brakes were terribly out-of-adjustment.

I also bought some new very expensive G614’s …. Set my gain on 4.5 and all my problems were resolved….no breaking problems for a year.

Until yesterday when I was taking my trailer back to storage.

All of a sudden …..I was traveling about 30-35 mph and had another rather quick kinda hard braking incident (a DA in a beat-up pick up truck pulled out in front of me) ….. and I hit the breaks and had a short tire skid and a brief smell of burnt rubber.

I examined the tires as best as I could and did not detect any damage or flat spots. I did not lift the trailer to examine.

Once in the storage parking lot I triggered the manual lever on my break controller and there was an instant slam of the breaks ….. like my controller was set to 10.

I lowered my controller to 1 for the time being.

What is going on guys?

[howson]

Last year at this time I had an incident on a local road at 40ish miles per hour with a quick hard braking …… and my trailer brakes locking up and ruining my 1 year old tires (flat spots).

I took the trailer to a trailer mechanic and they adjusted my brakes on my 1 year old 2017 310GK. The said my brakes were terribly out-of-adjustment.

I also bought some new very expensive G614’s …. Set my gain on 4.5 and all my problems were resolved….no breaking problems for a year.

Until yesterday when I was taking my trailer back to storage.

All of a sudden …..I was traveling about 30-35 mph and had another rather quick kinda hard braking incident (a DA in a beat-up pick up truck pulled out in front of me) ….. and I hit the breaks and had a short tire skid and a brief smell of burnt rubber.

I examined the tires as best as I could and did not detect any damage or flat spots. I did not lift the trailer to examine.

Once in the storage parking lot I triggered the manual lever on my break controller and there was an instant slam of the breaks ….. like my controller was set to 10.

I lowered my controller to 1 for the time being.

What is going on guys?

As I understand the theory of operation, as the boost/gain is set higher the voltage sent to the brakes also increases. I do not know the specifics of your truck, but it should be possible to isolate the problem. If the measured voltage from the controller is constant regardless of the gain setting, I suspect the controller. If the voltage changes (as expected) with boost/gain changes, then the brakes on the trailer probably have an issue.

Wish I could be more specific on how to troubleshoot your truck and RV. You sure are "blessed" with interesting electrical issues!

[TucsonJim]

In my opinion, it sounds like an issue with the controller, and not the trailer's brakes. Are you using the factory controller on your Ram? I'm a Ford guy, so I'm not real familiar with your controller. Is there a setting for light, medium and aggressive braking other than just the 1-10 setting?

Jim

[tcamper]

yes Jim there is a setting and I have it set for "Heavy Trailer" .... but I have not changed any of my settings. Actually would have to get the book out to even remember how to change it.

[CoChris]

.... Once in the storage parking lot I triggered the manual lever on my break controller and there was an instant slam of the breaks ….. like my controller was set to 10.

I lowered my controller to 1 for the time being.

What is going on guys?

I do not know how the brake controller works on RAMs, but on the current generation of Ford (I believe) the manual slider overrides the gain setting. Pulling the manual slider all the way gives you max brakes, independent of what your max gain is set to.

That being said, the "instant slam of the brakes" is not right.

Chris

[TucsonJim]

Here's another thought. Make sure the emergency break away cable is firmly inserted into the housing. And that the housing is screwed tight to the pin. If the cable plug is not firmly pushed in, it could cause it to move during braking.

Jim

[gbkims]

I'd want to look at the brakes to see if anything happened to the brakes internally, like the shoe lining or mechanical.
Since so many of the threads I read about Ram's ITBM 2015 onward were about not enough voltage/amps to the brakes under 30 MPH.

Here's some links about the Ram ITBM.
My ITBM (MY15) won't even hold the truck and RV at a stop in drive at idle using the manual slider.
https://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/24228433-post54.html

Here is a scope shot of my 2015 ITBM's output with the gain set to 10 and the manual slider all the way to cause 100% brake input with a travel speed over 30 MPH.;
https://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/24283305-post71.html
Here is another scope shot of my 2015 ITBM's output with the gain set to 10 and the manual slider all the way to cause 100% brake input with a travel speed under 30 MPH.;

Ram integrated brake control https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/f.../tid/29004307/

Question on brake controller http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/20...ontroller.html

[Cate&Rob]

Terry - To figure out whether this is truck or trailer, is there someone with another truck/trailer that you could do some comparisons? You don't need to hitch and tow, just connect your trailer umbilical to their truck and vice versa to see if the problem follows the truck or stays with the trailer.

Rob

[bigb56]

Terry - To figure out whether this is truck or trailer, is there someone with another truck/trailer that you could do some comparisons? You don't need to hitch and tow, just connect your trailer umbilical to their truck and vice versa to see if the problem follows the truck or stays with the trailer.

Rob

you think like me....troubleshooting is always better by process of elimination.

[powerscol]

Ask you dealer if they have a plug in diagnostic tool for the truck trailer plug to check voltage, ground, etc. Ground connection is critical too and could be causing sudden voltage increases if the connection is loose. My Ford dealer has one that plugs into the trailer plug on the truck to check everything. I have also seen one to plug the trailer into the check the trailer wiring, but not sure where I saw it.

Take a look in you plugs for corrosion and loose connections. Also check the box on the trailer where the cord connects to the trailer wiring.
Hope this helps