Troubleshooting Brake Controller That Only Work with Override

Question:

I have a living quarters horse trailer and the breaks will only work if I manually engage them. The breaks will occasionally hum after the truck is turned off. I have had my trailer hooked up to several different trucks 4 and the same problem exists with all of them, so it must be the trailer. I just installed new break pads as a whole assembly, so the wiring and magnets are new. I am thinking it might be the wiring somewhere but I am not sure were to start. Can you help me?

asked by: Charlie

Expert Reply:

What's most likely going on is that your trailer connector has a dirty contact for the brake controller output circuit (5:00 position) so the brake controllers aren't showing a trailer connection. But when you hit the override it sends the signal regardless.

So what you should do is inspect the trailer wiring connector on your trailer and clean as necessary to get the contact point fixed.

expert reply by: Jameson C