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Trailer brakes work - OEM controller still says "Trailer Disconnected". Now what?

4K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  TurboMustang370 
#1 ·
Trailer brakes work - OEM controller still says "Trailer Disconnected". Now what?

A few of you are probably familiar with my brake controller troubles...

Well, finally determined that the trailer didn't have a ground. Took it to a local shop and they took care of that...but, now the Ford controller still says "Trailer Disconnected" each time I hit the pedal.

Brakes work fine though...I can tell by the way the truck stops. Emergency lever works fine too.

So anybody got a clue what's going on? Is the Ford controller bad?


I've got a Prodigy ready to go in the truck, just been holding off to see if I could get the Ford unit to work right. Looks like I might not have a choice now.

Any suggestions?!?

Thanks in advance!!!
 
#3 ·
Yeah John, it's been a pain! Haha...

But, after messing with it some more today, and getting no where, I just put the Prodigy in there.

And guess what....works just fine now. Wish I had done that a long time ago!!!:doh::crazy::doh:

But, live and learn I suppose.

Thanks again for all those who helped. I really appreciate all the advice and responses to the 58 different threads I posted it seems! :eek:

Maybe someone else that comes along can use all the advice to help resolve their problems.

Again, thanks for all the help!!

:icon_ford:
 
#4 ·
I had a similar problem on a well used single car trailer, I'd get a failure warning each time I hit the brakes. it turned out that the 7 pin trailer connection had corrosion inside it making for bad connection. A new RV plug took care of the issue.
 
#5 ·
There was an artical I came across a while back where they were talking about compatibility of brake controllers with the new disc brakes in some newer trailers. Turns out the old magnetic drum brakes have a low electrical resistance and that is what most controllers are setup to work with. Some new trailers have a high resistance input to the brake actuator on the trailer and this can make the controller show a fault. There are some ways around this issue and most controllers will be changed in the next couple of years to work with both types of brakes.
 
#6 ·
We've had a few problems with different trailers. some work, some dont and we both have the Ford Brake controller. The odd part is our 20 foot bumper pull flat works fine.
My 1969 travel trailer works fine, both have brakes.
Our 25foot goosenck horse trailer and 24 foot lowboy goosneck flat both have problems with running light and brakes. Makes no sense and the trailer company has no idea. We are taking the F350 in Monday to the dealer so they can trace the issue inthe ford wiring.

BTW, the Horse trailer has been totaly rewired looking for the problem and the Flatbed Gosse is Brand new.
 
#7 ·
Here's a story for you.

I had A brand new KZ Toyhauler trailer. On my very first trip the brakes where working. We were driving along, and it would beep and say trailer disconected, but it would usually come back on in a matter of seconds. At our first stop I did the obvious, and I checked the trailer plug and grounds. Everything seemed good. Continued on and it kept happening. We got to our destination, and this time I cleaned all the grounds and checked all the conections. On the way home it still did it. :mad:

I didn't really know who to go to. I bought my trailer in one place, my axles flipped in another, and my fifith wheel plug installed in still another place. Who do I blame? I kept tracing wires, sodered the ground conection to the truck, and still didn't fix it. The problem was it was intermittent so it was hard to find.

I finally got it to flash disconected while I was sitting still. I was trying to test for power at different spots, so I decided to pull the breakaway cable. It smoked the breakaway switch and some wires runing from one side through my axles to the other side. Luckily they were smaller so it didn't affect the heavier wires running from the front to the axles. So I figured I had found my problem, a short inside the axles. I replaced the switch and the wires running across the axles, and figured problem solved.

We started on the next trip and it was fine for awhile. Then we hit some rain and bumps, and it was just as bad as ever. That's when I decided it had to be inside the drums. That was the only place I hadn't checked. I'll have to say it's pretty unnerving to tow 17000k and wonder if your trailer brakes are going to work win you hit them. Not to mention the wife sitting next to you saying what's that beeping mean.:blahblah1:

When we tore apart the drums there was a bare spot where the wire made a bend around a certain area inside. It was the same way on two hubs. To bad we didn't find the problem until the third one. I should go back and reinforce the other two. It's on my to do list. It's been perfect ever since.:thumb:

Just recently I have a quad trailer that started beeping on me. That's the first thing I'm going to check.

Sorry for the long story. I just wanted you to feel my pain.;)

I just wanted to post this in case someone has a simular brake problem.
 
#9 ·
Have you tried a different trailer? I plugged into a friend of mine's dump trailer and he had a bad ground.. the trailer's bad ground blew fuses in my truck so you may want to check that.

In my '06 there were trailer fuses under the dash and under the hood.
just my .02
 
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