Trailer brake question

[JMalliet]

Ok, i'm working on wiring a trailor I built. I just put a Prodigy in my truck with there Dodge wiring harness. I plugged in the trailor and the Prodigy showed the brakes were not hooked up. So I unplugged it, had someone hold the brake pedal down while I check the plug on the truck with a tester. Everything worked except the trailor brakes, and battery (hot) prongs. Will the trailor brake prong not have any current going to it unless a trailor with brakes are hooked upto it? Is that the same with the battery (hot) prong?

 

[BillGotthelf]

Power should be available at the plug when the brakes are applied regardless of having a trailer hooked up or not. Also the 12v hot lead is hot when the truck key is in the run or accessory position.

 

[Joe G.]

Did you test with the manual lever on the Prodigy? Or the foot pedal? The Prodigy is a pendelum type of brake controller so if the truck is not slowing down, thus moving the pendlum, you might not see much from stepping on the brake pedal. The manual lever will put the proper voltage on the connector. The voltage will vary acording to how much brakeing you want. 12 volts should slide the wheels.

 

[JMalliet]

I did move the manual lever over with the plug plugged in, it read "n. c. ". Which the instructions says it will do if the trailor plug is not connected. Im going to have to look at the harness on the truck, maybe one of the previous owner messed something up in the harness.

 

[GHill]

Power should be available at the plug when the brakes are applied regardless of having a trailer hooked up or not. Also the 12v hot lead is hot when the truck key is in the run or accessory position.

The 12V hot on my stock 01. 5 has 12V all the time regardless whether the key is on or not.

 

[SnoKing]

The colors on the Prodigy do not match the colors on the Dodge pigtail. SNOKING

 

[JMalliet]

The colors on the Prodigy do not match the colors on the Dodge pigtail. SNOKING

I used there Dodge harness, that way everything just plugged in.

 

[GerryDrake]

Quick check

If at all possible, try the same test with another trailer. My buddy was having fits with his, and we tried moving our trucks to the other's trailer and plugging in. Quickly found, in our case, it was a bad ground on his running lights.

 

[dezeldog]

I am having trouble with my draw tite controller as well. Without a trailer on the truck the controller will show the value of the brake tension and when I put the right turn signal on the value of the brake tension will flucuate from 0 to the full scale in cadence with the turn signal. Any suggestions as to whats going on with it TIA



Jim

 

[Alan Reagan]

I used there Dodge harness, that way everything just plugged in.

What Snoking is saying is that the wires coming from the plug do not match the colors on the prodigy. In other words, you have to look at the color code of the wires in the truck harness and the color code of the wires from the prodigy and connect them by signal name, not by color or the system won't work.

 

[Alan Reagan]

Sounds like you have a ground problem. With the trailer off, it sounds like you don't have a true ground to the controller.

 

[Alan Reagan]

I am having trouble with my draw tite controller as well. Without a trailer on the truck the controller will show the value of the brake tension and when I put the right turn signal on the value of the brake tension will flucuate from 0 to the full scale in cadence with the turn signal. Any suggestions as to whats going on with it TIA



Jim

Sounds like you have a ground problem. Without a trailer, the controller appears not to have a true ground.

 

[dezeldog]

Thanx Alan but where to start to look for a ground problem..... in the trailer connector?



Jim

 

[NevadaBackroader]

Check your instructions for the Prodigy. There may be a difference in which wire controls the brakes between east and west of the Mississippi. I bought a 7 wire round to 4 wire flat adaptor that had instructions on switching the wires for the two methods. If this is the case, you will need to rewire your trailer to match the truck.

 

[dezeldog]

Well I was all set to try and hunt down that electrical gremlin... . I fired the truck up and everything was fine so that tells me that it probably is a bad ground somewhere. I'll shelf it until the wknd as it is supposed to warm up. Thanx all.



Jim

 

[JMalliet]

I found the problem today. The brake and power wires were cut in the harness about a foot back from the plug. Hooked them up and tested the plug, now everything has power when it should. Looked like someone replaced the plug. All the wires had been soldered together in that same spot, but they didn't do the brake and power wires.

 

[Alan Reagan]

Thanx Alan but where to start to look for a ground problem..... in the trailer connector?



Jim

Start with the controller harness. Make sure all the connections are good, especially the ground. As the other problem indicated, his wires were nicked or cut and that was causing the problem. If you have a bad splice in the harness for the ground it will cause this type of problem.

 

[Eric_77]

I am having trouble with my draw tite controller as well. Without a trailer on the truck the controller will show the value of the brake tension and when I put the right turn signal on the value of the brake tension will flucuate from 0 to the full scale in cadence with the turn signal. Any suggestions as to whats going on with it TIA



Jim

Sounds to me like the blinker lead was used to activate the brakes as opposed to the brake light lead. The 03 has seperate circuit for blinkers and brake light. Do you have the factory tow package or did you do an add-on?