Lost Brakes on TT.. Issue solved.

[lawrosa]

The past two times out camping It seemed my TT brakes were not stopping as they were when I first got the TT. I ended up turning the gain all the way up on the controller for the last trip. ( Prodigy P3)

After doing a brake inspection and adjusting all 4 wheels My stopping power was better but still I had gain all the way up. I was able to lower the % to the B2 setting on the controller.

After getting home and pulling in the driveway I felt the TT rims with my hand. The two front where hot hot and the rears were just hot..

Knowing something was amiss , a few days later I took action to find the cause/issue. I was also thinking I may have over tightened the bearings on the front and or adjusted the brakes too much on the front axle..

Well I jacked up the rear of one side of the TT and plugged the harness into the TV. I spun both wheels and had my 8 yr old son help me by sliding the brake lever over. Low and behold the front axles where the only brakes working. The rears were dead..

So climbing under the TT I found two areas of lots of electrical tape and wire nuts. Starting with the front I removed the tape and wire nuts. All was fine there.

( Also note its odd that the wires to the other side of the TT run inside the axle and come out the other side of the axle. I assume so that wires dont get ripped apart from road debris. But how on earth would you fix a break in the wire inside the axle?)

Anyway upon removing the rear axle tape and wire nuts the whole thing just fell apart. All wires were corroded and left inside the wire nuts and I had 4 wires sitting there looking at me with no strands at all..

So I re stripped all wires clean, re wire nutted them , and re tapped.. ( I would prefer to butt splice them and that will be another project when I replace all 4 brakes next year)

Success. All 4 brakes are now stopping with great power. I can now lock up the TT brakes if needed.

Moral of the story? If you have an older tt check the factory wiring before you lose brakes wile driving.. Remove tape and wire nuts and redo all connections for piece of mind..

Many may be surprised at what they find..

Just a story of what happened to me and it may help someone down the road..

Have fun in your travels..

Mike NJ

[Bipeflier]

Wire nuts on an RV are a constant point of failure, whether on brakes or lights. Road debris and corrosion will cause problems.

I remove every wire nut I can find and properly SOLDER every connection when I get a new unit.

I don't like brakes not working.

[westend]

Instead of the typical daisy chain, wire the brakes in a star configuration. If you use a terminal block towards the front of the trailer, the individual wires can be accessed for any future diagnosis.

[Cameo_Phil]

I also had less than optimal braking this year. I took the trailer to an industrial trailer repair facility and they overhauled the brakes and bearings. They likewise found poor connections and shorted wires in the axle housing. They repaired the connections and rerouted the wires on the outside off the axle housing. I now have better brakes than I ever had. It was well worth the money.

[fpresto]

As you mentioned the wires run through the axle and this is a common issue for intermittent issues with the brakes, not your issue in this case. The problem is that most axles are not finished on the inside and the wires can vibrate enough against the rough surface to develop bare spots. This is probable the first place to check if you are intermittently getting faults on the controller.

[Lynnmor]

lawrosa wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:

When you want to improve the braking, rewire with a heavier wire size, they can be run outside the axle using plenty of wire ties.

Interesting... But the wires are heavy gauge up until the braks themselves. I think 10 gauge.. But on the brake side looks like little 18 gauge..

Dont the brakes come with this little wire? Ho would you rewire? I assume the wires go to the magnet...

10ga. is rare, if that is what you have, you are good to go. The magnets have thin wires, but the short length doesn't cause much voltage drop.

[lawrosa]

Lynnmor wrote:

When you want to improve the braking, rewire with a heavier wire size, they can be run outside the axle using plenty of wire ties.

Interesting... But the wires are heavy gauge up until the braks themselves. I think 10 gauge.. But on the brake side looks like little 18 gauge..

Dont the brakes come with this little wire? Ho would you rewire? I assume the wires go to the magnet...

[Lynnmor]

Just an ordinary repair, this stuff happens often. Good you had the skills to do the work. When I bought a new trailer, the wires weren't stripped at one connection and that brake didn't work.

When you want to improve the braking, rewire with a heavier wire size, they can be run outside the axle using plenty of wire ties.