mbsl5
Dallas
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I have a 1999 27' Fleetwood Prowler bumper tow. Recently I had a blowout. The tire literally exploded, and the flying rubber knocked out my electric brake wiring on the driver side. My friend and I are trying to follow the wiring to reconnect, with great difficulty. I'm hoping someone can offer suggestions for what we can try next.
If we are understanding correctly how these things are wired, there is a red wiring harness that runs down the frame to the driver side wheels that contains a white wire and black/white wire. It looks like they should be (but aren't right now) connected to the front driver side wheel, and then there is wiring from that wheel to the wheels on the passenger side.
Unfortunately, we are not able to detect power from the main power wire. Using a screwdriver style voltage tester, we have tried to get a light from both source wires, with no luck. We know the plug at the truck is good because the running lights, turn signals, and even brake lights are working on the trailer.
We are not sure what to do next, as this seems like pretty simple wiring. We checked the trailer fuse panel to see if there is a fuse for the brakes, but didn't find one. Given that the brakes were working (I was getting a numerical reading from the black box in the truck) when we left home that day, but did not work after the blowout, I can't imagine what else could be wrong except the wiring over the wheels.
Is there some kind of safety feature that disables all the trailer brakes if one is disconnected? To keep it from grabbing one direction? Any comments, suggestions, ideas appreciated.
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bldrbuck
Boulder, Colorado
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Joined: 02/11/2001
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Just use the search function for brakes. The will be plenty of information.
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DuallyMike
PA
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Joined: 10/11/2009
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Try jacking remaining wheel off ground, and apply brakes. If you can't spin the wheel, system should be working. If you're not sure about the wiring, take the other wheel off and look at the wiring there. All wheeels should be wired the same.
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mbsl5
Dallas
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Thanks, but unfortunately we have done that already. Some more info I should have included the first time. We have the trailer totally off the ground, both sides, on jack stands and the trailer jacks. All wheels are off the ground. In spite of the fact we can't seem to get a flicker on the voltage tester, we tried connecting the wires anyway, spinning the wheel, and hitting the brakes. Brakes are not engaging.
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Dr Quick
M'boro, Tn
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Joined: 08/25/2004
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Check to see if you have voltage at the truck connector when brakes are applied, you might have blown the fuse when the wires were cut. You will not get any voltage at trailer unless brakes are applied. If there is power there go to trailer junction box to see which wire is hot and which is ground, so you can trace the hot wire. If power is operable, you should be able to go from brake hot wire to trailer frame, again if brake is applied.
Also for rewiring, brakes are 12 volt DC and you can reverse wires and they will still work. So just make sure that you have two wires going to each brake.
Dr quick
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mbsl5
Dallas
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Thanks Dr. Quick. One more question. Are the brakes on a totally different circuit than the brake lights? I'm asking because the trailer brake lights are working correctly, even thought the brakes themselves are not engaging.
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davidj54
South Alabama
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Yes the brakes are on a circuit all alone. The Blue wire from the brake controller powers the brake circuit. Check between ground and pin 2 of the 7-way connector to begin with to make sure you have power from the TV (tow vehicle).
The black/white wire should be positive and the white wire should be ground.
The positive wire should hook to pin 2 of the 7-way connector and the white wire should hook to pin 7 and/or the frame. The wires should hook to the magnet wires. It doesn't matter which power wire you hook to which magnet wire as they're not polarity sensitive. Then the wires should go from that wheel to the next and then across to the other side and from the wheel on the other side to the other wheel on that side.
Dodge Ram 2500 Mega Cab (Yeah, it's got a Cummins)
2006 Forest River Grand Surveyor GS-280
Prodigy Brake Controller
1000/10000lb Equal-i-zer with 4-way sway control
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mbsl5
Dallas
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Great info. We are going to take another look this afternoon, and we will start with the 7-way. We checked it yesterday, and we got a light on the voltage tester for the running lights and the turn signals, but no light on any of the others, including pin 2. But then for education purposes, we tried it on another TV that we know works, and also didn't get a light on any of the others. But we were just fishing, because we weren't familiar with the wiring scheme on the 7-way. We were grounding to the hitch, not the 7-way connector pin, so maybe our ground wasn't right. I'll try it with the pin and see what happens.
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davidj54
South Alabama
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Be sure to have someone hold the manual brake lever/slide all the way on while checking or you won't see any voltage. You won't see a full 12 volts unless your brake controller is set to 100%.
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jerryspoolman
Corning CA
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Pull the breakaway plug, This will apply the 12volts from the trailer battery to the brakes, If you do not have all 4 brakes, this greatly simplifies trouble shooting the problem. You do not have to worry about the tow vehicle, brake controller and 7 pin connector and cable.
The brakes are not fused from the factory, All 4 brakes are wired in parallel. The magnet coils are a very low resistance, voltage readings might be misleading
I would use a ramp to lift 1 wheel at a time and check to each wheel.
Once you have this knowledge you can proceed with logical trouble shooting.
Just Jerry and Vangie
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