2018 3350DS Brake Issues

[chrisb9381]

Hi all, I'm the new owner of a 2018 Wilderness 3350DS. We took delivery of it in March of this year and have had nothing but issues since. First our fresh water tank fell out while on a trip. Fortunately the underbelly and wiring was there to keep it from coming completely out and causing serious damage or hurting anyone. That was fixed but took about a month to replace. Ever since that happened we've had issues with the brakes not working, or at the least not sending a signal to the truck (2017 Ram 3500 with factory brake controller). When traveling, at just about any speed, the truck stops receiving signal from the trailer that it is connected. During this time I have no trailer brakes. It's a very intermittent and usually only happens in short bursts at varying lengths of time from starting a trip. sometimes we're an hour or more into the drive before it happens, other times it's 20 minutes. This is very concerning to us as it's a safety issue for our family. Our dealer has had the trailer on multiple occasions, for up to a month one time, and seems to think it's the trucks fault and not at all related to the water tank falling out even though that's when the problem started.

Has anyone else experienced brake issues like this? If so what fixed it?

 

[Domi]

Hi and Welcome to the Forums.

I had the exact same secario happen to me last year. My fresh water tank slipped and I did the repair to it and pulled the underbelly. When we took our next trip the break controller kept reporting that the breaks as being connected and disconnected without any timing.

Once we got to the campoground I looked at the wires that come out of the bottom of the trailer and go into the axels for the breaks. On one of the wires I found a spot where it had rubbed against a bolt or the frame and the wire was shorting to the frame. That was what was causing the intermittant shorting of the break controller.

The fix fro me was to get some new splices and cut out the bad wire and splice in new. Covering it with electrical tape would fix it good enough for a single trip but I would not trust it for a permenant fix.

Make sure to check all 4 wheels for this and also try and tie up the wires so they do not rub again. It took some looking to find it but I an pretty sure that you will find a rubbed wire is the cause or your problems.

Good Luck,

John

 

[chrisb9381]

Thanks Domi, I plan to get under there and check it out myself since so far I've just had the dealership do everything. What concerns me is they just replaced the brake wiring harness too so there shouldn't be anything left that is damaged.

I'm also reading that a lot of people are having issues with the newer Ram factory brake control that may be causing the issue so Dodge will be looking at that this week too.

 

[DCD2017]

Hi,

I had a similar issue with my brand new 2017 BC trailer. The brakes were being intermediate on my Ford factory brake controller. Sounds like you have a short or chaffed wire somewhere in your trailer brake wiring. My issues was a pinched wire inside the brake hub. Replaced the wire and fixed the problem. Recommend you check your brake wires for rubs, pinches, chaffing.

Good luck,
David

 

[chrisb9381]

Ok checked everything I could this past weekend and nothing was frayed, chaffed, loose, etc. not sure what to do now other than start dumping money into an aftermarket brake controller or trying to re-wire the axles.

 

[carl.swoyer]

Ok checked everything I could this past weekend and nothing was frayed, chaffed, loose, etc. not sure what to do now other than start dumping money into an aftermarket brake controller or trying to re-wire the axles.

I'm having a similar situation.
I'm going to test the DC voltage at each wheel and inspect for shorts on the RV. If the DC voltage matches what my break controller display reflects then I'm going to replace my break switch. Occasionally my cruise control will shut off. So I'm thinking a sticky switch.
2005 Silverado HD Crew cab long bed LLY Duramax Allison Transmission. 234,000 miles.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Domi]

The OP in the original post said that the fresh water tank fell out and was caught by the wires and the underbelly. You have looked at the exposed wiring, is it possible the chaff point is up under the covering of the belly now? Not sure how you would troubleshoot this short of pulling down the liner under the trailer. You might be able to try and pull the wires down from the bottom and see if there is a rub spot, but if it is well up there the only way to get access is to pull the belly liner.

If you can ever get it to fail when you are parked you could unplug the trailer from the truck and take a multimeter and check the resistance from the plug break contact to the frame of the trailer. I am pretty sure that the resistance should be an open (or a very high resistance) and if it is a short you know it is on the trailer side of the plug. You could do the same thing on the truck to see if the intermitant is on that side. That would atleast tell you which side the problem is on.

That is how I would try and proceed. As one of the posters said the wires were chaffed in the break area which you cannot see unless you remove the wheel (which I did not think of when I had my issues at all).

I hope you find it. Please keep us posted. Someone else might also hav a suggestion depending on what you find.

John

 

[danemayer]

The Dexter manual might be helpful. Dexter Axle Brake 600-8K Complete Service Manual, 3rd down in this folder.

 

[CoveredWagon]

These issues are one of the many reasons I decided to have disc brakes installed on our rig.

 

[chrisb9381]

The dealership replaced the trailer brake wiring harness that runs in the underbelly, and they replaced the 7 pin as well just to be sure.

The OP in the original post said that the fresh water tank fell out and was caught by the wires and the underbelly. You have looked at the exposed wiring, is it possible the chaff point is up under the covering of the belly now? Not sure how you would troubleshoot this short of pulling down the liner under the trailer. You might be able to try and pull the wires down from the bottom and see if there is a rub spot, but if it is well up there the only way to get access is to pull the belly liner.

 

[cookie]

If the dealer replaced the wiring harness and now you do not have braking then it would be a good idea to check their work.
The umbilical cord (7 pin plug) goes to an electrical box. Open that box and their should be a sheathed cable with a blue and a white wire in it.
Check that the blue wire in that sheathed cable is connected to the blue wire coming from the umbilical cord. Verify that the white wire is connected to a group of other white wires.

Peace
Dave

 

[chrisb9381]

I checked all of the junction box connections this past weekend and everything is tight. The problem is that this happens so intermittently that it's very difficult to troubleshoot.

If the dealer replaced the wiring harness and now you do not have braking then it would be a good idea to check their work.
The umbilical cord (7 pin plug) goes to an electrical box. Open that box and their should be a sheathed cable with a blue and a white wire in it.
Check that the blue wire in that sheathed cable is connected to the blue wire coming from the umbilical cord. Verify that the white wire is connected to a group of other white wires.

Peace
Dave