Trailer brake not working

[Kanuck]

That’s interesting. On one occasion we did lose brakes after being stopped at a train. Unfortunately I don’t recall if I just held the brakes the entire time or had it in park.

I am an electrician by trade and have worked in a manufacturing plant for 20 years with automation. Also, I know how hard it can be to find a reason for a failure.
I have read most of the comments on this brake failing and have noticed it happens after the trailer has been connected for a while and traveling down the road. Correct me if I am wrong but the anti-sway system applies the trailer brakes as well as thee foot brake. So that being said, the trailer brake system could be in use even while traveling down the road on cruse. Would a side wind make the system think the trailer is swaying and try to correct it? So the anti-sway system and holding the brakes on might cause a component in the system to overheat an fail or there may be a self resetting breaker that trips due to the heat caused by holding the brakes on. This "breaker" my not reset unless the truck is turned off. Sort of a self protection from a short in the wiring of a trailer.
Makes one think if the components in the trailer brake system are under sized for what they are doing. Just a thought. I do not have a trailer with brakes so I have not had this happen to me.

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[JEB]

I am an electrician by trade and have worked in a manufacturing plant for 20 years with automation. Also, I know how hard it can be to find a reason for a failure.
I have read most of the comments on this brake failing and have noticed it happens after the trailer has been connected for a while and traveling down the road. Correct me if I am wrong but the anti-sway system applies the trailer brakes as well as thee foot brake. So that being said, the trailer brake system could be in use even while traveling down the road on cruse. Would a side wind make the system think the trailer is swaying and try to correct it? So the anti-sway system and holding the brakes on might cause a component in the system to overheat an fail or there may be a self resetting breaker that trips due to the heat caused by holding the brakes on. This "breaker" my not reset unless the truck is turned off. Sort of a self protection from a short in the wiring of a trailer.
Makes one think if the components in the trailer brake system are under sized for what they are doing. Just a thought. I do not have a trailer with brakes so I have not had this happen to me.

Interesting theory but I can’t confirm it. I have never had a disconnect during an ignition cycle. For me, once it’s connected it stays connected. I have only experienced difficulty getting the brake controller to initially recognize the trailer brakes and that is only when I failed to turn the headlights on. So, the sway control is not contributing to the connection issue I’m seeing.

 

[Kanuck]

Interesting theory but I can’t confirm it. I have never had a disconnect during an ignition cycle. For me, once it’s connected it stays connected. I have only experienced difficulty getting the brake controller to initially recognize the trailer brakes and that is only when I failed to turn the headlights on. So, the sway control is not contributing to the connection issue I’m seeing.

It was just a thought....have had stranger things happen when I was working.

 

[JEB]

It was just a thought....have had stranger things happen when I was working.

Same here. I noticed that there were a lot of Canadians on this thread. I was thinking that maybe the brake controller doesn’t like the metric system.

 

[UGADawg96]

Same here. I noticed that there were a lot of Canadians on this thread. I was thinking that maybe the brake controller doesn’t like the metric system.

I thought brake controllers were metric since you set them to 5,6,7,8, etc and not fractions...

 

[Kanuck]

Same here. I noticed that there were a lot of Canadians on this thread. I was thinking that maybe the brake controller doesn’t like the metric system.

That maybe true. LOL

 

[Wild Pig]

For those of you who have researched this, how wide spread of a problem does it seem to be? I know we are still early in the release time frame with a new model year, but there has to be tens of thousands of these trucks out there already. I guess it's the old internet adage of you hear mostly about the issues on the forums because that's where folks go for help.

 

[cghall77]

Truck is only 3 weeks old and towed for the first time. I set the gain at 4 to start, tested with the levers and all good. When traveling I don't feel like the trailer brakes were working. At a gas stop, set the gain to 10, same thing. Something doesn't seem right with current setup.

 

[justinwvu]

Truck is only 3 weeks old and towed for the first time. I set the gain at 4 to start, tested with the levers and all good. When traveling I don't feel like the trailer brakes were working. At a gas stop, set the gain to 10, same thing. Something doesn't seem right with current setup.

Crazy. First tow and you have the same problem.

 

[JEB]

Truck is only 3 weeks old and towed for the first time. I set the gain at 4 to start, tested with the levers and all good. When traveling I don't feel like the trailer brakes were working. At a gas stop, set the gain to 10, same thing. Something doesn't seem right with current setup.

Have you tried turning your headlights on before you set out—not auto but on? I’ve towed my travel trailer four times since putting this practice into use and haven’t had a single random disconnect.

 

[Rich55Marshall]

Not gonna lie, this is all pretty disconcerting. I’ve had my PB since March but the Airstream (Basecamp) isn’t due to arrive until October. And I’ll be a complete newbie with that. Good luck everybody, and *somebody* at Ford oughta have their hair on fire finding a fix for this. Sheesh.

 

[JEB]

Not gonna lie, this is all pretty disconcerting. I’ve had my PB since March but the Airstream (Basecamp) isn’t due to arrive until October. And I’ll be a complete newbie with that. Good luck everybody, and *somebody* at Ford oughta have their hair on fire finding a fix for this. Sheesh.

This isn’t new. Do some research and you’ll see that there have been sporadic complaints about this for years. So, anyone at Ford with their hair on fire would have been reduced to a pile of ashes by now. Put another way, if you are hoping for a near-term fix, I expect you will be disappointed. Best you can hope for now is a reliable workaround.

 

[Rich55Marshall]

This isn’t new. Do some research and you’ll see that there have been sporadic complaints about this for years. So, anyone at Ford with their hair on fire would have been reduced to a pile of ashes by now. Put another way, if you are hoping for a near-term fix, I expect you will be disappointed. Best you can hope for now is a reliable workaround.

Thanks, JEB, and you can be sure I'll start out towing the Airstream with my lights ON.

 

[cghall77]

Have you tried turning your headlights on before you set out—not auto but on? I’ve towed my travel trailer four times since putting this practice into use and haven’t had a single random disconnect.

Turning on headlights is one of first things I do. RV camera will only come on if lights are actually turned on, auto does not work.

 

[Notallthosewhowanderarelo]

Wow so weird. I towed the RV for the first time this weekend and the same thing happened. First hookup no brakes. I disconnected the 7-pin and reinserted it and boom, brakes.

Then on the way home it happened again, so I reinserted it and had brakes. Then at some point I lost brakes again.

I will try the grease first.

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