TRAILER TOWING ELECTRICAL ISSUES SOLVED!!!!!! hopefully

[JDerrick]

So i have been toiled with the design and expense of some type of relay box/ electrical control center/ jumbled mess of wires- parts- and who knows what, to solve the problem the seems to plague the 06' electrical system while towing a travel trailer. I got to searching around on the web and got into the Drawtite web site ( www.drawtite.com ) scrolled down the the section that says " Electrical wiring and Diagrams" and there it was. A small, factory built, little black box that someone else has suffered through the trouble of engineering and has made available to folks like use that have a need for such a thing. The MODULITE box is seemingly engineered to to do exactly what we are looking for. Provide a low amperage ( truck side ) switch for the brake, run and turn lights on trailers that have a higher amperage requirement. The unit utilizes direct, fused power from the trucks chassis battery to deliver the higher amperage requirements THUS not making the TIPM angry. I will be ordering one of these units and will follow up with the results of the installation. Even with having a background in emergency vehicle electronics I was not looking forward to building something to make this problem go away. From the pictures and instructions on the website the installation looks pretty straight forward other than the need to route FUSED 12+ from the battery to the back of the truck for the unit. Hopefully this might relieve some pain for everyone whom has just spent 35K on a new pickup and are having to make modifications to it just so that it will function properly. Also there was some verbiage on the main page for the MODULITE directly referencing DODGE trucks and the trailer electrical problems that we are having.



Jim D

 

[Philip]

I have used one of those style boxes before. If you get a back feed into it. It will blow the circuit that gets the back feed.

 

[camsv3500]

I was wondering if you might educate me since I just bought my truck. .



from what I gather dodge made the wiring too light for some of the circuits to the rear causing issues of blowing circuits? is this correct?

and so you are trying to isolate your trailer circuit from the truck?



Im wondering... if I only run a travel trailer /normal amount of lights. . will I see potential problems?... which circuits are too light. . the power beyond? or all of them?



slightly off topic ...



I just purchased my brake controller with a factory plug and play plug... (tekonsha digital)... I see there are several potential places for it... the one I seem to like the best is the space under the radio (the 8 x 3" area. . my controller seems to fit very well there and will only need a piece of double sided tape to hold it in place because its already captured)



where do each of you like your controllers placed?



thanks for bearing with me on the off topic. . and for giving me an education



cam

 

[roperteacher]

I bought a new 06 in Dec and found out on here about the wiring problems. I trusted the guys who always do my gooseneck and wiring and they said they were going to use drawtite for my hitch and controller. I bet this is what they used cause I have had zero problems!

 

[pwr2tow]

Although this might be an area for concern there is no reason to panic about it. If your trailer, camper, or whatever is wired correctly then there is no concern of over amperage draw. Although it can be a pain, the TIPM is resetable by the dealer. They can also program the TIPM to trip at a higher amp draw. I also understand that there is only so many times it can be reset before having to buy a new TIPM. Remember this is covered under your 3/36,000 warranty. I feel as time goes on this will become a saftey issue and the appropriate agency will step in, you just have to be patient. I feel it will not be long before the aftermarket comes out with something to reprogram the TIPM so you don't have to take it to the dealer. The part about the wires not being large enough is just another myth that Dodge trucks are going to have to live down.


This is my take on the situation and am not going to worry about it for a few years. I will take precautions until that time such as making sure the light are working and take my truck in to have the reflash for higher amperage trip out.

 

[Grizzly]

Although this might be an area for concern there is no reason to panic about it. If your trailer, camper, or whatever is wired correctly then there is no concern of over amperage draw. Although it can be a pain, the TIPM is resetable by the dealer. They can also program the TIPM to trip at a higher amp draw. I also understand that there is only so many times it can be reset before having to buy a new TIPM. Remember this is covered under your 3/36,000 warranty. I feel as time goes on this will become a saftey issue and the appropriate agency will step in, you just have to be patient. I feel it will not be long before the aftermarket comes out with something to reprogram the TIPM so you don't have to take it to the dealer. The part about the wires not being large enough is just another myth that Dodge trucks are going to have to live down.





This is my take on the situation and am not going to worry about it for a few years. I will take precautions until that time such as making sure the light are working and take my truck in to have the reflash for higher amperage trip out.

See, it is nice staying on with TDR, isn't it? :-laf

 

[pwr2tow]

See, it is nice staying on with TDR, isn't it? :-laf

I read that and bursted out laughing, wife gave me the "deer in headlight stare".

 

[TowPro]

From what I have read, if you have a short in your Turn/brake light circuit of your trailer, it triggers something to "open" in the Trucks Power Distribution Module. I have checked out the wire diagrams, and indeed there is not any fuses on these 2 circuits starting in 2006.



As far as warrantee, if you hook up a trailer with a shorted light circuit, its not Dodge's problem and I have heard (on here) of guys buying new PDM's.



I hook up different trailers over time, and some times you find one that someone wired to there own diagram. Most times you blow a fuse, but now you don't have that protection.



Personally I bought a Reese T for my 5th wheel wiring, and spliced 2 fuse holders into the T in the 2 turn/brake light wires. I did not cut the factory harness, I added the fuses to the Reese T wiring. This protects the factory 7 pin as well as the 7 pin I put in the bed, but the factory 4 pin is spliced into the wire harness before the place you put the T, so its not protected. I just use a 7 pin to 4 pin adaptor I kept from one of my older Rams for when I need a 4 pin adaptor.



If you do end up shorting out this circuit, I think you loose turn signals on the back of the truck.



If someone was to build a T that had fuses in it, and a place to tap in a harness for locating in the bed, they might sell a couple.

 

[camsv3500]

Tow. . your idea is sound,,, and easy... I think I might try it. . I love not cutting anything factory,, that way the dealer cant whine you broke it you bought it

In my case Im only towing a bumper tow so Im going to look underneath and see the best method for doing this...

 

[steved]

There are times I'm glad I have an 04. 5...



I would still do this converstion if I did routine towing of multiple trailers that I didn't know their history...



steved

 

[VRJoseph]

Jim D,



What was the outcome of the Modulite box installed on your truck? Did it work? Did you have any problems with the device? Which device did you purchase?



Thx

 

[jelag]

Here's my issue... . on a nice cold morning the truck (05) will charge at 14. 7 volts... plenty to charge the trailer batteries... . when its hot... that voltage drops to around 13. 9 - 14. 1 volts... .

I've ran an 8 gauge wire from the battery through a 40 amp fuse to my trailer batteries and now that I'm retired and doing some full time RV and we're only traveling 350 or so miles a day... .

On a warm day I just can't seem to keep the batteries charged...

Voltage drop tests show less than 1 volt drop from the truck batteries to the rv batteries... but that's enough to keep them at about 75% or so...

Is there any way to fool the circuit when the extra batteries are in the circuit to get them fully charged... .

When the rv is connected to shore power it charges for 15 minutes than drops to 13 volts and holds that so they don't get fully charged that way either.....

Jim

 

[steved]

When the rv is connected to shore power it charges for 15 minutes than drops to 13 volts and holds that so they don't get fully charged that way either.....



Jim

If I were a fulltime RVer, I'd either buy an actual battery charger (like a sealed marine unit) to charge the batteries while on shore power or buy a decent solar panel and charge controller to keep them topped off (real solar panels, not the battery maintainer gimmicks... like this RV, Van Kit With 140 Watts of DC Power and MPPT ). I have that exact setup and it puts out almost 15 volts at around 10 amps... it works well for charging the battery that feeds my landscape lighting.



If you're set on using the truck to charge the RV batteries, I would buy the rear wiring harness for a receiver mounted winch (typically #2 or better wire), acquire a matching Anderson disconnect and similar wiring for the trailer, and run a complete separate wiring circuit than the RV plug. You are probably losing a lot of current through connections, the fuse, and small wiring (even 8ga is small for a run this length)... while 8ga will handle the amperage, the voltage drop is causing you to lose the current needed to charge the batteries in a reasonable time.



Ramsey Battery Power Lead — 24ft. , Model# 251054 | Battery Cables + Wiring | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[DZink24]

i am going to keep an eye on this post. . in 2010, i had an issue with my TIPM (or whatever the module is on an '04) where i had brakes and all lights on a trailer EXCEPT for the pass. side blinker. i went to the dealer, split the difference with them because it was a "questionable" warranty repair, they got it fixed, and forward to 2 weeks ago, i now have all lights but no brakes. the indpendent shop i went to said the controller was indeed bad, but also, the module wasn't reading the new controller he put in. so looks like i will be shelling out some change to get this issue fixed. i love owning a 3/4 ton diesel pickup that can't tow a trailer because of stupid issues.

 

[K5IP]

Jelag,

It seem like this post is sidetracked but your problem is one I have also researched.

First, you can fool the truck charging system to increase the charge voltage to help your trailer, but that would overcharge your truck batteries (not a good idea). The 1VDC drop you mention is very significant in determining how well a battery will charge.

I have even run a #2 wire all the way back to the trailer battery for trips to Alaska, and that really helps, but there is still small voltage drop at high current levels.



Second,

Your charge voltage from your trailer converter is lower than it should be for a good charge. If your trailer has one of the new switching power supplies, you may need a

a device which modifies the charge (i. e. wizard) to increase the voltage.

Mine will charge the batteries at 40A until the voltage reaches 13. 7 VDC.

If you do not have one of these, it is well worth the expense. I think I payed about $15 for mine.

If none of the above, Get another power supply.

Rog