Electric Trailer Brakes Engaging

Question:

Just bought a 2001 coleman utah popup, and when I hooked it up to take it home, I plugged in the 7 pole connector to the 7 pole plug on my truck. Checked all the lights and they were good. I currently dont have a trailer brake controller ordered from you, but not arrived yet . The issues is... The brakes were engaged while the plug was in... Pulled it out and they werent. Im going to replace the not so great looking plug and the not so great looking break away switch in hopes that this fixes the issue. I had to un-connect the brake wire from the connector to haul it. My questions are: have you heard of this before? Will the brake controller fix it? My truck has a diagram of its plug... Im not sure what the trailers wiring should be to match... Do you have schematics, or know where I can find one? Thanks in advance, I love your site/service/products.

asked by: Dave B

Expert Reply:

Thanks for the nice words and all that information! It certainly isn't normal that your trailer brakes are engaging without a brake controller though there are a couple of reasons why this can happen. My guess is a wiring issue on the trailer where the wires are making contact and 12 volt power is getting through to the brakes. So I recommend going over the wiring from your brakes and tracing it to see if there is an issue there. If need be you can replace with 10 gauge wire # 10-1-1. Or it could be the trailer connector is damaged or corroded (on either the truck or trailer) so I recommend replacing both.

For your truck it looks like you have the 7- and 4-Pole Trailer Connector Socket # HM40975.

A 7-way connector that can be used is the 7-Way Molded Trailer Wire Connector # H20042.

It is a good idea to replace your breakaway kit as well, though that is unlikely to have anything to do with your issue, but to replace it you can use the Hopkins Engager Push-To-Test Trailer Breakaway Kit # 20400.

As far as schematics, I have added a link to a help article on trailer wiring that I recommend checking out, as well as a link to some troubleshooting help articles that I think you should find useful. I have also added links to install videos that should be helpful for you.