Big Horn brakes - Help

chardel

Active Member
When I picked up the unit I pulled it back home very carefully and did not notice anything regarding the brakes (had never pulled 5th wheel before). I did not really have any problem stopping but did not have to do any unusual maneuvers. I had a Hensley Tru control brake controller installed just prior to picking up 5th wheel. I had it at a local auto repair place for a week after taking delivery to do a couple of small things and for my driveway to be finished prior to bringing it home. The owner said that it almost felt like the brakes were not working on the big horn but thought that maybe the gain needed to be adjusted on the brake controller. I turned it up and drove it home and again did not feel like the big horn was pushing the dodge at all. I brought it home and parked it and have been doing little maintainance things getting ready for our trip to our daughters this winter. Just to check, I called Hensley to see how I could check to see it brakes were being controlled by the controller. I finally hooked up the truck today to check and found that there is no response from the brakes on the big horn when brakes on the truck are applied. Hensley said when hooked up controller should show 10 to 12 amps when brakes applied. When I applied brakes 1 to 2 amps showed. All of the other settings on the brake controller seemed fine. Hensley said with low amps, wires to brakes are probabley not hooked up or broken somewhere. Anyone have any thoughts. I don't want to have to pull unit back to dealer as it is 200 miles away?
 

billd

Well-known member
It is also possible that they are out of adjustment. You can take it back to your dealer and request strongly that they fix them. Or if the dealer is a long way away you could ask for an independant moblie repair person to look at them.

On mine they were way out of adjustment.

Bill
 

nhunter

Well-known member
I would start at the back of the truck with a multimeter and check for voltage there. Then if there is voltage there go to the junction box on the trailer. There will be a few blue wires in there: 1 from the truck, 1 from the breakaway switch and 1 from the brakes. There should be voltage going to the brakes and then keep tracing to the brakes themselves. You will need to keep the brakes applied with a quick clamp or something similar.
 

snuffy

Well-known member
Get someone to apply the brakes while you listen to each wheel and see if you can hear the magnets humming. That should give you a clue.
 

Pulltab

Well-known member
Does the brake controller have inertia braking? If so then the movement of the vehicle will cause a higher amperage to be applied to the brakes to slow it down. At a stand still little amperage would be used as it is not needed.
 

fishn2dmax

Well-known member
PullTab hit the nail on the head.
You will need to move the controllers manual adjustment to max, then check the amperage. If the amperage is in the correct range with the manual brake ( max), then the problem may be in the way you have the controller adjusted or with the controller itself.

I'm thinking something is wrong with the controller adjustment. If you had no brakes at all, trust me, you would have noticed how hard it was to bring that trailer to a stop with just your trucks brakes.
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
When I first had our Prodigy hooked up I had no brakes. I was a rookie coming down a mountain pass and believe me that was no fun! I found out that some Prodigy's on GM have to be wired "direct". Dealer ran a jumper wire somewhere and it all started working. Don't really know what he did but you may be having a similar problems on your controller.
 

big tom

Member
I picked up a 3055RL in Elkhart in July, whenI left I had no brakes. I stopped at a truck stop and adj. them, still did not work. When I stopped in Ky that night, I checked by axles with elec. meter and found a bad spice on the ground wire. So when checking, do not ground meter to frame, mine checked OK that way, use trailer ground wire. Also, you can fix splice yourself but use waterproof splice, these wires are exposed to water.
 

chardel

Active Member
Thanks for all the replys. I checked for the humming at the wheels when DW applied brakes - good - humming there. Checked by applying the manual button and the amps went to 12 - 13. Checked with Hensley today and they confirmed that you have to be moving for the regular brakes to show the higher amps and that checking with the manual button is the proper way to check at rest and we went over the proper adjustment procedure again so we are feeling better about the brakes. Another learning experience.
 

nhunter

Well-known member
Atta boy Pulltab. I got a Ford so the trailer brakes run off of hydraulic pressure. Never thought of that.
 
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