Trailer Wiring, HELP!!!

[rnolen]

Ok here we go. I went to Texas over the weekend to pick up my roping horse and came back with a wiring mess. Since last summer I have had some issues with my trailer brakes and my brake controller. I was towing my trailer this summer and was going around a blind corner and I found a car sitting in the middle of the lane trying to decide which way to turn. I reached down and grabed a hand full of trailer brake and all of a sudden lost them after that. Never hit the guy, but lost trailer brakes. I replaced the brake controller and changed out the plugs on both the truck and the trailer and it seemed to fix everything. A few months down the road I was towing a flatbed in the snow and all of sudden had no or very little trailer brakes. As soon as it dried out the brakes were back. Well, I didn't worry about it and fiqured come nice weather I would find out what is going on. This weekend on the way back we hit rain in D/FW. We lost the brakes and then had them on and off the rest of the trip. I went to check the plugs at a gas station and noticed the running lights on the front part of the trailer were working, but the ones in the second half of the trailer were not working as well. They were considerably dimmer than the ones in the front part. Keep in mind i still don't have brakes. I also noticed one of the connectors on the male end had the plastic melted around it and it was hot by it. I cleaned the melted plastic off and had no change. So we got home unloaded the horse and went inside. This morning I fired the truck off and went to unhook the trailer and couldn't get the plug out of the truck. I finally worked it out, or at least part of it came out. The sucker broke on me. I figure that it melted some more and stuck to the other pieces. What I am getting at is I probably have a wiring issue in the trailer. With the running lights being dimmed I figure that probably have a ground issue. I am going to get it in the garage and check out the underside to see anything. Do you guys have any suggestions for this. Please, Please, Please help on this. I need this trailer soon and I am not the best at wiring things. No I did not wire it the first time it was a friend of mine who is very good at wiring.



Thanks

God Bless

Russ

 

[Casey Balvert]

Since you apparently have the problem with two different trailers the truck end needs to be looked at. It is not uncommon for the truck's 7-pin plug to get dirt and moisture inside resulting in corrosion and intermittent problems such as you are experiencing, including melting of the plastic due to heat caused by resistance. Take the truck end apart and inspect it. If there is corrosion, replace the plug and connectors. Clean everything up and install a new plug. Before reassembling everying, put a good coat of dielectric grease on all the connections and inside the plug. If that doesn't correct the problem, it is time to replace the pigtail on the trailer. You can buy them with a 7 foot cord attached. Good luck.



Casey

 

[Prairie Dog]

The dim lights halfway back on your trailer is a clue. It sounds like you've lost a ground someplace.

 

[TX Gooseneck]

Russ,

You've got a short. You may be better off to rewire the entire trailer. I've had mine ground out before and attempted to patch it and it just didn't work out eventually leading to a total rewire.

Get a new connector and rewire it.

 

[ropinfool2]

Check the brake wires if they run inside the axles. They wear the insulation off after time, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Can also fry electronic brake controllers. Good luck, wish I could help more but you'd have to fly me down to N. M. and let me have a couple of runs (I'm a header) but that would probably be too expensive. John