Trailer Brake wiring issues/tow rig wiring

[Bones]

Good Morning all. This will be my first post as a Heartland owner and first time Rv'er. We just purchase our Gateway 3650BH the other day, very thrilled. We stayed the night and a few things popped up but nothing to loose sleep over for me. However, about more than halfway on our three hour trip back home my Truck, a 2014 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel, starting telling me to check trailer wiring. I pulled over and checked the pigtail and everything looked good. I looked in the box mounted by the pin box and all the wiring looks good as well as the wires going to the axle. I should mention that I have everything from the factory installed for the fifth wheel setup including the wiring in the bed. Every time my truck would tell me the trailer has a problem and was disconnected I would look in the mirror to see if the lights were on and they were. The problem would get worse as the trip would continue until we got home.
Does any one have any suggestions as to where I can start my check to see what may be causing the problem or has had some experience as to where I can check in electrical department for a possible problem? I find it very odd that the lights are staying on and I keep getting messages about the trailer brakes.

 

[danemayer]

Hi Bones,

Congratulations on your new Gateway and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's lots of useful information here along with a great bunch of friendly and helpful people.

One thing I'd suggest is to check the trailer breakaway cable and switch. Make sure the plug is fully inserted into the breakaway switch. If it's intermittent, the brakes may be coming on at the trailer. Also, when the problem happens, you might carefully feel the breakaway switch to see if it's hot, which would indicate a short.

Others will probably chime in with additional thoughts.

 

[jnbhobe]

Try plugging into the plug on the bumper

 

[dbbls59]

I would look at the trailer plug itself. Is it dirty or corroded. Try spraying some WD 40 into the plug.

 

[cookie]

A few years ago, before disc brakes, I had an error message telling me to check the wiring.
Turns out it was a short in the magnet at the brake.
Just one more thought.



[h=2]Testing Brake Magnet Resistance[/h]

Further testing can be done with an ohmmeter. Using the ohmmeter function on the multimeter, check the resistance between the brake magnet wires. If the resistance is not within the specified range (see specifications below), then the magnet will need to be replaced.


[h=3]Brake Magnet Resistance Specifications[/h]

10 and 12 Inch Brake Magnets	7 Inch Brake Magnets
3.0-3.8 Ohms	3.8-4.0 Ohms

Peace
Dave

 

[Boatman]

I concur with comment concerning brakes causing your problem. It is very possible you have a short or a broken wire in your trailer brakes.God luck on getting this resolved.

 

[Bones]

This was a thought as well. I was going to inspect my truck harness too for issues

 

[Bones]

Thanks. I'll save this task to last after I vet some wiring inspection. I hope it is an easy fix

 

[Bones]

No corrosion in the plug harness or receptacle I'm going to keep looking into the harness. I'm hoping it is an easy quick fix but not so sure.

 

[JohnD]

Do your brakes still work when this is happening?

Try manually deploying the brakes with the dash switch.

And next time this happens . . . try turning the brakes off to see what happens as well . . .

 

[Bones]

Do your brakes still work when this is happening?

Try manually deploying the brakes with the dash switch.

And next time this happens . . . try turning the brakes off to see what happens as well . . .

No they didn't I even tried turning the gain down and they still came up with the fault. All of this happened when I was driving in the rain as well so I am not sure if any of that played a roll. I will try the manual override the next time I take it out. Got the rig home and I am inspecting the wiring box and it did have moisture in it and some wires appeared wet. I am letting things dry out then I will redo the wire nuts and seal them up to help prevent moisture intrusion.

 

[cookie]

One more thought came to mind here.
You may want to check the wiring at the axles of the coach.
There are splices at each wheel.

Peace
Dave

 

[Kbvols]

Bones

Have you checked for power at the truck plug with a circuit tester? had similar issue with my brakes last week. They were working fine we stopped to pick up supplies and when we started up had the check trailer brakes message and no brakes to trailer. The trailer emergency brakes worked, checked pig tail, junction box, wires at hubs and axles all were ok. I was certain the issue was the trailer then checked for power at the truck plug connection using only the brake controller and had no power. I took my truck to dealer and they determined there where 2 fuses blown?? Seemed odd to me since it took them 3 hours to determine that. Anyway when I hooked the trailer back up all was fine. I towed the trailer about 45 miles and worked.


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[Crumgater]

This is your first outing, right?
That will make it harder to track down... lots of good suggestions, above.

We had the same message come up on our F350's dash - "trailer wiring fault" followed by sporadic "trailer disconnected" messages. They would flash on and off, never staying on, so we never truly lost trailer brake (thank goodness!). Our problem was a wire from a disconnected front jack (we had just upgraded to the 4-point ground control leveling system). The wire was long enough that as we hit various bumps in the road, the wire would rattle around, and occasionally the bare end of it would touch the frame. Re-wrapping the end of the wire with a full insulated nut took care of the problem.

So... I'd be checking the plugs (as you have) and then go searching for a loose or broken wire... a good fault detector / no-resistance meter will come in handy.

You might also see if the truck dealer can pull the fault and give you any more information on the error code. They might be able to determine if it's on the truck side or the trailer side of things, which narrows it down a little, at least.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Keith, if you had 2 blown fuses in your TV...then you have 12V B+ wire going to ground in the trailer. It's possible that you have an issue with the wiring....if you had a plug installed at the rear of the bed. As you know the underhood fuse box (UBEC) fuses are only for the trailer. It's the same with all trailer lighting.

 

[dave10a]

In addition to what has been posted, use dielectric contact grease in the receptacle. That grease is readily available in most hardware stores.

 

[Kbvols]

Keith, if you had 2 blown fuses in your TV...then you have 12V B+ wire going to ground in the trailer. It's possible that you have an issue with the wiring....if you had a plug installed at the rear of the bed. As you know the underhood fuse box (UBEC) fuses are only for the trailer. It's the same with all trailer lighting.

Thanks Bob. I was kind of thinking that. It seemed to be fine the short distance we pulled it afterward. We since left the trailer in TN for a few weeks and go back next weekend. Idk sure hope there is no issue when we return home as I am certainly no wiring expert. Seems odd they were fine for close to 300 miles then when we stopped quit working.


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[Wharton]

Check with your controller mfg. We have a Prodigy and get a not connected frequently, they told us this is normal for a diesel(intl 4700), been like that for years and never a problem.

 

[Bones]

Update..... It would appear that there could have been a contact issue with the pigtail and the receptacle. I checked out all the wiring and it all looked good. When I checked out the connection from the truck to the pigtail I noticed that it has some slack in that it can be pushed in a little more then what I may have pushed it. I made one successful trip since putting in dielectric grease and making sure the plug is in all the way before leaving.

Thanks for all of your assistance.

 

[johnott]

Bones; I have 2014 Dodge 2500 diesel towing 2011 Big horn. I HAVE THE EXACT PROBLEM you described Going nuts trying to figure it out. Have you for sure solved the problem?? How do you apply this dilectric grease? Is it a spray? JohnOtt P.S. Thank you