Brake Smart gain control ?

[lorirobert]

I tow a 12,000 lb. 5th. wheel with a 2004 DRW truck set up with the brake smart controller. I cannot get more than a moderate amount of braking action on the trailer , even with the gain set at its highest setting. I had the trailer brakes adjusted recently , but no change. On my old style controller you could get much better results by putting the gain on a higher setting , any ideas would be appreciated.



Thanks for your input,



Robert

 

[nps]

Sounds like a bad unit if you are convinced that the trailer brakes are good. Not familiar with the details of the system, but suspect either the transducer that senses brake force or the control box that amplifies it.

 

[jelag]

Put a volt meter at the trailer connector with the trailer connected... if it will run up to 12 to 14 volts the brake smart is doing its thing and look at your trailer brakes... .



I've often seen trailer axles that don't work 100% like they should... .



You also should be able to go from the trailer brake wire to ground with an ohm meter with the connector not connected to the truck and some idea of whats up. .

 

[LEPage]

I think you more than likely should sell me the brakesmart for $50, and in return I'll give you my Prodigy! Just wishin' I could get one. Good luck getting issues with it resolved, they've been telling me 6 weeks till I could get one for over a year. Now I can't even find the website.

 

[Mishkaya]

LEPage

It seems you may not be current on the situation. The brakesmart is now available from Dr. Performance. http://drperformance.com/index.html

It has been available since January I believe. However the price went up $85 per unit.

Mishkaya

 

[LEPage]

Thanks for the info. Now here's a question for you. Why all this BS on a brake controller? All I want is a GOOD controller, not another electronic toy that can double as all in one wizard. I need a brake controller, period!

 

[rubberneck]

I tow a 12,000 lb. 5th. wheel with a 2004 DRW truck set up with the brake smart controller. I cannot get more than a moderate amount of braking action on the trailer , even with the gain set at its highest setting. I had the trailer brakes adjusted recently , but no change. On my old style controller you could get much better results by putting the gain on a higher setting , any ideas would be appreciated.



Thanks for your input,



Robert

Robert, i have had the exact same problem with my 5th wheel tt and the brakesmart. My old controller provided greater breaking. the strange thing is i tow 2 other trailers both with electric brakes and they work flawlessly. One of the other trailers is my 35ft dual tandem 24k goosneck and the other is a 10k bumper pull dump trailer. Both of these trailers work much better with the brakesmart than with my previous controller, and will easily lock the brakes if set too aggresively. The travel trailer has me puzzled. I am wondering if i have a wiring issue on the travel trailer. i need to crawl under it and make sure all the wires check out. If i only had the travel trailer, i would have assumed a problem with the brakesmart, but it works so darn well with the other trailers. I just dont understand why the other controller seemed to provide better braking with the travel trailer. if you come across anything please post it. for what its worth, my travel trailer is a 30rk alpenlite, also about 12K. Phil

 

[HBarlow]

Robert:



What result do you get when you manually apply trailer brakes at the brake controller? How much current are your trailer brakes drawing when fully applied read from the digital readout on the Brakesmart controller?



Harvey

 

[rubberneck]

I only see about 8 amps on mine when applied manually full tilt with the 5th wheel.

 

[JimKing]

Rubberneck.



My Alpenlite had 2 bad brake magnets when only 1. 5 years old.



Replaced all 4 and now have fabulous brakes. .



BTW, I had set the gain up also, with no affect, when I replaced the magnets I forgot to set it back and had serious brakes until I got it set right. .

 

[rweis]

I would watch how much manual gain with the BrakeSmart.



About 1 yr ago:



Pulling out of the camp site, check brakes usually by applying regular brake, this time I used the manual button, 2 mph, rear axle locked up and broke the spring seat right off one side of the axle. Now the axle is moving toward the rear of the coach but only on one side, the other side the spring seat held.



Short version.



Stopped, gently got the come along to get the axle back sort of under the RV. Lashed it together enough to move it slowly. Moved it 5 mph at midnight with a police escort in the rear about 10 miles to a repair facility. 10 weeks later had the new Dexter axle and ready to go again.



IF it had happened on the interstate it would have been all over and then some.



Make sure you know what you have the manual system set to BEFORE you use it.



Bob Weis

 

[rubberneck]

Rubberneck.



My Alpenlite had 2 bad brake magnets when only 1. 5 years old.



Replaced all 4 and now have fabulous brakes. .



BTW, I had set the gain up also, with no affect, when I replaced the magnets I forgot to set it back and had serious brakes until I got it set right. .

jim, thanks for the info, that very well could be the case here. i parked the trailer for a year while we built our new house. So it didn't move that whole time, and it was in that period that i installed the brakesmart. i put it back in storage and noticed the poor brake performance. I have been planning to go get it and figure out what the deal was. How do you deterimine if a magnet is bad?? Also, my alpenlite has the never lube axles on it, what do you guys think about these things?? should i pull them apart and pack the bearings anyway, or can you even do it? i have had it 3 years, but it has not seen that many miles. thanks for the info. phil

 

[lorirobert]

brakesmart

I finally had a chance to check out some of the suggestions you folks have given me about my originally thread on the brake smart. I found with the trailer hooked up , and appling the brakes I was getting 11. 0 amps and 11. 9 volts. I checked the ground wire at both the truck and trailer , and with the dmm I had 3. 0 omhs and 1. 0 omhs to grd. at the truck connector and the trailer pig tail. The amp and volt readings were from the display on the brake smart. I also have another question about some of the different settings on the brake smart. What is the set inital brake constant for? It has a setting between 5 to 99 that you can set. Also there is a setting that on my controller is set at 10 DET, 204 DIV that you can adjust with the arrow keys. I cannot find anything in the manual about these functions. Sorry for the the response delay , but the camper is off sight and this was the first chance to check any thing out. Thanks ,Robert