Electric Brake Issue

[Chadb]

2017 21 ft BH
New member here. Please don’t roast me if I’m posting this in the wrong section.
My camper has always pulled fine. No issues at all. When I hooked up to pull it over spring break the electric brakes on the camper locked up. I unplugged the harness from my truck and the brakes released. I bought another brake box module for inside the truck and the brakes still locked up when harness is plugged in. My question is what are these wires hanging down and is something missing? It looks like something was ripped out but I don’t recall what, if anything, was there. See pics below. Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. [ATTACH]

[/ATTACH]

[rider77]

It sounds like something is shorted and your applying full brake constantly, or the break away is tripped.
All your doing with trailer brakes is powering a magnet in the drum. Nothing more. Braking force is dedicated to how much power the magnets are getting thus how much magnetic force they generate.
The wiring should be cleaned up but needs slack for suspension travel.
Are all 4 tires locking up?

[Chadb]

It appears all the tires are locking up. The break away wasn’t tripped. Like I said, when I unplug the trailer wire hook up the tires unlock and roll freely. When I plug in the 7 pin and power is applied the brakes lock up. The wires hanging down look like something has been ripped out but I could be wrong.
I hooked it up to my wife’s Suburban, which doesn’t have an electric brake box installed, and it worked just fine. That’s what makes me think the issue is with the wires hanging down. It just looks like something is missing.
Thoughts?

[charliez]

It's hard to tell in the pics what the wires are. They could be tank level stuff. They WILL BE bad connections if you don't get those pinch on connectors off. Those things are junk and WILL corrode and fail eventually.



It could be a problem on how the controller is wired. Start with the things you have done recently and work back. Did you get a controller and a plug in ready to go connector for it or did you make up all the connections yourself under the dash? That's where I would start. verify that, then move to the back an verify that you connected all the wires to the 7 pin connector correctly and that none of the terminals inside it or the trailer pigtail have loose strands touching the wrong terminal.


Unwanted voltage is being applied to the brake terminal.

[Spdracr39]

On the Suburban with no brake controller there is no power going to the pin for the electric brakes. That's why nothing happens when hooked to it What type of tow vehicle do you have? Is the brake controller OEM or after market? If after market what brand and model? A porportional after market controller that is mounted too far out of level could do this otherwise you may have a short in the truck harness. there should be no meaningful voltage going back there without the brakes being applied. The factory controller sends a tiny amount of voltage through the system to verify the trailer is connected but it sounds like you are getting a full 12v at the 7 pin and that should never happen even at full braking. The first place I would check is the back side of the truck 7 pin connector.

[rider77]

The Sub has no brake controller, thus has no means of activating the trailer brakes.
You’ll need to get a meter and measure the voltage from ground to the trailer brake pin in the trucks 7 pin connector.
I’m betting something is shorted between the brake and 12V hot wires or your controller has failed.

[Chadb]

I typically use my Nissan Frontier to tow the camper. I have an after market brake controller installed. I don’t recall the name brand right now. The truck is plenty capable and the brakes worked fine up until they suddenly didn’t. I’m aware the Suburban doesn’t have electric brake hook ups. I’m not new to towing at all. I’ve been towing trailers, boats and campers my whole adult life. My question was really about the wires hanging down. It looks like something was ripped off the camper in between those two wires. I’m going by Camping World today, which is where I bought it from, and looking under a few campers like mine to see if anything is supposed to be there. If something is missing then I’ve found my problem. If not then hopefully between them and the info you guys have given me here I can figure out the wiring/electric issue.
I appreciate all the responses and info.

[charliez]

I don't think anything is missing and I don't think anything is disconnected to your brakes. The brakes will not be applied until power is sent to them. Your TV is sending power constantly so something is not wired correctly or the power wire on pin 4 is touching pin 2 that provides power to the brake coils when the controller is activated. The stuff that's hanging down looks like tank sensor stuff. There's always extra wire and sometimes that doesn't get tucked up well.



I think if you would open up the pigtail on the camper or the back of the tow vehicle and look at it you may find your issue. All it takes is one hair loose from the stranded wire to be out of place and touching.

[rider77]

There’s nothing missing. The trailer break circuit is very simple. A 12V hot and ground to each magnet from the tow vehicle brake controller.

[Chadb]

Thanks for the info guys. From the looks of all the campers I crawled under today at Camping World I would agree that it’s just extra wires hanging down.
My next step is to get another vehicle with electric brake hookups and hook it to my camper and see what happens. That will tell me if it’s my truck or the camper. It’s looking more and more like it’s in my truck.
I’ll keep you guys posted. Thanks again.

[rider77]

Originally Posted by Chadb

Thanks for the info guys. From the looks of all the campers I crawled under today at Camping World I would agree that it’s just extra wires hanging down.
My next step is to get another vehicle with electric brake hookups and hook it to my camper and see what happens. That will tell me if it’s my truck or the camper. It’s looking more and more like it’s in my truck.
I’ll keep you guys posted. Thanks again.

Do you have a meter to test 12V DC electrical circuits? You can get them cheap, it would almost be a necessity for a problem such as this.
You also wouldn’t have to worry about tracking down another vehicle for testing.

[Pappion]

Originally Posted by Chadb

Thanks for the info guys. From the looks of all the campers I crawled under today at Camping World I would agree that it’s just extra wires hanging down.
My next step is to get another vehicle with electric brake hookups and hook it to my camper and see what happens. That will tell me if it’s my truck or the camper. It’s looking more and more like it’s in my truck.
I’ll keep you guys posted. Thanks again.

Many times when electronics fail they short out. The PWM Brake controllers FET may be shorted and delivering 12v constantly. A (temporary) short in the trailer brake wiring to ground might have overloaded the FET. IMHO: Double check the trailer wiring. Hopefully the problem will not spread to another TV.

[Chadb]

So I hooked my brothers truck up to my camper yesterday. The brakes DID NOT lock up so the issue is definitely with my truck.
I’ve already tried another brake control box and that didn’t fix it so now I have to look into all the wiring. I will try to get to that today. Thanks again for all the great information. This was my first post here and the response has been great.

[waterjosh]

Believe it or not there is a "East Coast" and "West Coast" style wiring, I ran into that issue when I installed the factory harness on my nissan frontier, I would take and test each prong of your 7 pin plug before anything else. If I remember right it was the brake and charging pins that were flip flopped