2004 Monaco Knight Trailer Brakes

[Smaay]

Originally Posted by vito.a

Yes, a Pacbrake is also an exhaust brake.

Several trailers and dollies come with mechanical surge brakes. When the tow vehicle slows down it compresses a small master cylinder in the trailer or dolly tongue which then applies the brakes.

A 2004 Monaco will not come from the factory with a trailer brake pre-wire. Hopefully your previous owner installed the trailer brake wire from the drivers seat to the rear trailer connector.
I've installed trailer brake controllers and wiring on three of our coaches. Two of them did not have a prewire and one did. Actually, I spent more time trying to locate the trailer brake prewire on the coach that came with it than I did just installing the wiring myself.
It is not hard, but time consuming. I also used a Tekonsha Prodigy. Great controller.
Link to thread, post 19. (There are some other helpful posts on the previous page.)
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/trai...-366077-2.html

it looks as though im in a similar situation as you Vito, could you post some more pictures or email some pics to me on where you ran your wiring. how did you get from the fuse box area to the steering column where you mounted your controller?



as much info as possible will be appreciated. i have 2 weeks to get this figured out, Glamis is calling.

[barmcd]

I'm not going to be much help, but my Dynasty has a U-haul brake controller installed and all the wires look like they were added after the fact. None of them are in wiring looms and the brake line runs from the brake switch on the fire wall, under the coach, to the 7 pin connector at the rear of the coach.

[CadillLinc]

I have a 2004 Monaco Knight 38PST. When I got it, it had 6-way round and 4-way trailer sockets (obviously installed by a prior owner, with no brake wire). Also included was a Blue Ox tow bar so I assume a prior owner flat towed a car. For trailer brakes, what I ended up doing was running a 7-way trailer cable (purchased online) all the way from the very front to the very rear. This provided me with a blue trailer brake wire as well as 6 spare circuits in case I ever needed additional front to rear circuits. I also put the 7-way cable in convoluted conduit (also purchased online) for additional cable protection. To fish the cable front to rear, I had to drill holes in the basement compartment walls, as the frame rails are covered and were not accessible. Tedious, but worth it in the end. I installed a new flat-blade 7-way RV socket and used trailer taillight, turn signal and stop light wiring from the former 6-way socket, then connected the blue trailer brake wire to the 7-way socket. Also added a 10 gauge ground wire from the socket to the frame. Also needed an always hot +12volt to the trailer for the winch and winch battery, The battery compartment on the coach is just behind the right rear dual tires, so ran a short 10 gauge wire direct from the batteries to the 7-way socket, including an inline circuit breaker. Did not use the 7th terminal in the 7-way socket, which is often used for backup lights, but can be used for anything.


Connecting the Tekonsha trailer brake controller wiring at the front was a challenge. My coach has a full air brake system with dual air circuits as required by law. The dual brake foot valve (accessible from the front access panel) has 2 brake light switches mounted on it. Easy, I’ll just tap into one of them for a brake signal. No,no,no! After much consternation, I realized the brake switches GROUND the brake circuit. There is NO +12volt connection at the brake switches. I tried using a relay (with a new +12volt feed), but that didn’t work either. Maybe someone else can figure out how to make a relay work. To solve my issue, I went to a truck dealer and bought a standard air brake stoplight switch and a brass T. I T’ed into one of the brake lines, fed a new +12volt feed to one side of the switch and the connected the other side of the switch to the Tekonsha controller. Voila. Everything has worked great since.

Gene M
2004 Monaco Knight 38PST

[vito.a]

Originally Posted by Smaay

it looks as though im in a similar situation as you Vito, could you post some more pictures or email some pics to me on where you ran your wiring. how did you get from the fuse box area to the steering column where you mounted your controller?
as much info as possible will be appreciated. i have 2 weeks to get this figured out, Glamis is calling.

I installed a 20a circuit breaker in a spare fuse location in the front electric bay. The electric fuse box compartment has a hole with a grommet on the upper forward side. I ran the +12v wire out through the hole and under the floor to the steering colum area. I drilled a small hole a few inches to the left of the steering column and ran the wire up through the shroud that covers the steering column.
We actually pulled three wires through the floor next to the steering column, one to the brake pressure switch, one to the 20a circuit breaker, and one to route to the trailer receptacle on the rear.

The time consuming part is the brake control wire routed to the rear trailer hitch area. We routed the brake wire under the drivers side floor along the wire looms inside the left front tire to the bulkhead behind the front axle. It then enters the wire "tunnel" that goes to the rear of the coach just in front of the rear axle. The brake control wire exits the rear tunnel and is routed along the passenger side frame rail along side the engine to the trailer hitch.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/trai...-366077-2.html
Hope this helps.

[Smaay]

Originally Posted by vito.a

I installed a 20a circuit breaker in a spare fuse location in the front electric bay. The electric fuse box compartment has a hole with a grommet on the upper forward side. I ran the +12v wire out through the hole and under the floor to the steering colum area. I drilled a small hole a few inches to the left of the steering column and ran the wire up through the shroud that covers the steering column.
We actually pulled three wires through the floor next to the steering column, one to the brake pressure switch, one to the 20a circuit breaker, and one to route to the trailer receptacle on the rear.

The time consuming part is the brake control wire routed to the rear trailer hitch area. We routed the brake wire under the drivers side floor along the wire looms inside the left front tire to the bulkhead behind the front axle. It then enters the wire "tunnel" that goes to the rear of the coach just in front of the rear axle. The brake control wire exits the rear tunnel and is routed along the passenger side frame rail along side the engine to the trailer hitch.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/trai...-366077-2.html
Hope this helps.

this helps a lot, maybe a pic or 2 of where you drilled the holes to run the wires in to the cab to the controller

[Smaay]

So i drove the coach home last night finally. I can confirm that when the exhaust brake kicks on the brake light come on. so I dont think i want to use the brake light as a control correct?

[Smaay]

So it finally stopped raining for me to get some pics. It looks like i have a straight 6 pin plug that is adapting to the 7 pin. Right before the 6 pun is the blue wire sticking out. I could mount my controller in the compartment right above this which is the inverter compartment.

The big question. The wire for the brake lights here, will it go hot when the exhaust brake kicks in or not?

[vito.a]

If the trailer brakes are activated by the exhaust brake, I'm not sure it's that critical.
This is only IF you have a Tekonsha Prodigy or one of the newer proportional design controllers.
The older trailer brake controllers were progessive over time meaning they applied more and more trailer braking over time as you held the brakes on.
The new ones are proportional to the amount of braking the internal inertia sensor feels.
I have the brake controller mounted next to my left knee. This way I can monitor how much trailer brake is being applied and I can also decrease or increase it. I can even use the emergency stop if needed.

This is going to be more work than mounting it in the rear.

[Smaay]

Originally Posted by vito.a

If the trailer brakes are activated by the exhaust brake, I'm not sure it's that critical.
This is only IF you have a Tekonsha Prodigy or one of the newer proportional design controllers.
The older trailer brake controllers were progessive over time meaning they applied more and more trailer braking over time as you held the brakes on.
The new ones are proportional to the amount of braking the internal inertia sensor feels.
I have the brake controller mounted next to my left knee. This way I can monitor how much trailer brake is being applied and I can also decrease or increase it. I can even use the emergency stop if needed.

This is going to be more work than mounting it in the rear.

yes thats how i had the controller mounted in my Class C. So i understand its operation. I have the Prodigy P2.


Worse case i can run 2 wires up front, the control and the blue wire. Im sure I can get power and ground locally up front

[l1v3fr33ord1]

Smaay-

Interesting. Your coach seems to be wired according to the 2005 Knight manual (link here, page 2-48), rather than the 2004 Knight manual to which I posted a link earlier. The pictures show what looks like a Monaco factory hitch and wiring setup.

Unhappily, the 2005 manual shows both the "blue" and "black" (12V) pins as "not used," which is consistent with having the blue wire hanging there, unterminated.

It does look as if you'll have to do some wiring. If you want to connectorize the black and blue wires, a "Weatherpack" two-pin connector will match what Monaco used.

Below is an attachment that may be of help to you.

[Smaay]

Mark thank you so much for this information, as soon as i get home ill look to see if I have this scenario. In the diagram you linked me, the the wire 102 or 113 will be the control wire (brake lights?)

So ill have to run the blue wire all the way up front and the control wire from the box to drivers area. ground is fairly self explanatory.

what is a good source for the 30A +12 power source? can I just terminate a 12AWG wire with a 30A fuse off one of the big red power wires? or are those always hot? Should I tap into switched power?

[l1v3fr33ord1]

Smaay-

My coach is different from yours, so I can't offer much help for particulars.

On our coach, the 30A circuit to the trailer electric brake controller is not ignition-switched.

[Smaay]

Originally Posted by l1v3fr33ord1

Smaay-

My coach is different from yours, so I can't offer much help for particulars.

On our coach, the 30A circuit to the trailer electric brake controller is not ignition-switched.

thats what I wanted to know. Its always hot

[Smaay]

Just wanted to post an update, Thanks to the link provided by l1v3fr33ord1 above, I was able to make a test light that lights up when the pedal brake is applied. This is currently working. Im taking the coach out without trailer this weekend. Im expecting the test light to NOT come on when the exhaust brakes are activated.

I will update after this weekend.