Brake controller

[kwstaton]

I need help figuring out what is wrong with my brake controller and who to take it to to get it fixed. Yesterday, we purchased our first Trailmanor, a 2008 2720 and I drove to Shreveport from Houston to pick it up using my 2006 Toyota Land Cruiser. Last week, I had a Tekonsha Voyager brake controller installed by U-Haul. When we got the trailer hooked up, as soon as I first applied the brakes, they felt very jerky. I was able to get up to the 25 mph required to do the manual set for the brake controller, but by that point, it had worsened to the point where my car was almost lurching when moving forward without applying the brakes. No adjustments I did on the brake controller helped and by this point, all of my vsc and check engine warning lights were on. I pulled over and unplugged the trailer from my car connector and was able to find a nearby auto shop that installs hitches. They pretty much refused to look at it, but were able to disconnect the brake controller (my car was prewired and they disconnected it at the plastic clip under my dash). We then plugged the trailer back in so that I could have brake lights, and then I drove it back home to Houston. At this point, I'm not sure if I take it back to U-Haul, or do I need to get it in to Toyota? Do I need to tow the trailer there to make sure things work properly? Or could this be a problem with the Trailmanor brake system?

I'm not at all mechanical, so any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kimberlea

Take it first to Uhaul.

Without looking at it, I can think of a couple of potential problems:

- it is miswired. Uhaul should check their work. I would take the trailer along, since it occurred when connected.

- my Prodigy has an option to choose different type of brake systems, but it is not hooked up so I don't recall the specifics. Check the Voyager manual and make sure settings are correct for your vehicle.

Hope you get it straightened out. This stuff can be frustrating.

[Kidkraz]

Not knowing how the initial adjusts were made to the controller, it may have been adjusted completely wrong. When the dealer installed mine, his directions on the adjustments were completely wrong. Read the directions on setting it up and see if that makes any impact, if not do as Mister P say's. take it back to a u-haul dealer.

[Bill]

If I understand what you are saying, the trailer brakes were being applied even when the tow vehicle brakes were not being applied. I suspect that the connection to the tow vehicle's brake lights is wrong. Some foreign cars have what us called an upside-down brake light connection, meaning that the connection point is hot until the brakes are applied, rather than cold until the brake lights are applied. I don't know if a Land Crusier is one of them - we need input from someone with a Land Cruiser, but it would account for the trailer brakes coming on when they shouldn't. Anyone?

At the bottom line, though, this can only be a wiring problem. The controller has a couple diagnostic lights - what do they say?

Not to be a wet blanket, but the Voyager is a time-delay controller, which was not a good choice. You might take a few minutes to read the tutorial on brake controllers in this forum's technical library, at

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=2830

Bill

[kwstaton]

Yes, it did feel like the trailer brakes were being applied without applying car brakes, so maybe it is an upside down brake light connection. How do vehicles like this work with trailers? Is there some sort of converter to make it work?

The brake controller never showed any warning lights. This particular one only has one light on top. It was green showing connection with trailer and it flashed as the directions say it should when doing the manual set, but nothing else happened with that light.

I read the tutorial (thanks for the link). It says that the Voyager is a pendulum based inertia controller. Is that not adequate for my needs and should I ask them to replace it with Prodigy?

Thanks so much for you help.

[Bill]

My mistake, and I apologize sincerely for causing you a bit more heartache on top of what you already have. The Tekonsha web site describes the Voyager this way:

"As braking power is applied, the LED changes color gradually from green (completed circuit) to red, to indicate relative braking power". This is the classic description of a time-delay controller (bad!), and I wrongly assumed that is what it meant. In reality, the word "proportional" should have caught my eye. As a proportional controller, the Voyager is fine.

At the same time, I note that Tekonsha offers a wiring adapter for your Land Cruiser, which means that the truck does NOT have an upside down connection. Assuming that your installer used this adapter, it should have worked properly. (There should be a paper tag on the adapter with a part number - you could check it against the part number on the Tekonsha site.)

A brake controller has 4 connections - 12 volt DC power in, ground, braking power out to the trailer brakes, and a connection to the tow vehicle's brake lights. The purpose of the brake light connection is to tell the controller when you step on the brake pedal, so that it can begin braking the trailer. If you are getting trailer braking without stepping on the pedal, then either

1. the controller itself is bad, or
2. the brake light connection is connected to something other than the brake light, or
3. there is a wrong connection in the wiring to the 7-pin connector at the back of your Land Cruiser.

With regard to number 3, did your Land Cruiser come with a 7-pin connector? Or did someone add it? And note that there is no such thing as a 4-pin-to-7-pin adapter that will work. Actually, I don't think the problem lies here, since you could kill the problem by unplugging the controller while leaving the trailer plugged in.

It is easy to check the controller itself - just ask the installer to unplug your Voyager, and temporarily substitute another Voyager. If this fixes the problem, then you keep the new Voyager. If the problem remains, then the installer has to find the wiring problem and fix it. Any U-Haul shop that installs hitches should be willing to do this - you don't have to drive to the original shop if it is far away.

Good luck, and again, my apologies for the scare.

Bill

There are 4 pin to 7 pin adapters that work, as long as the vehicle has the remaining wires terminated at the rear of the vehicle, as my Ford Expedition does. Bill's statement is correct that you cannot make 7 wires out of 4 if the vehicle only has 4 wires.

Fortunately many vehicles come with 7 pin wiring harnesses (or 6 plus a caveat for mine). When owners choose a tow package they specify if they want 4 or 7 pin connectors in the back.

The caveat on my Expedition is that the 12v power from the battery terminates at a connector under the left passenger door. You have to split the wiring cover and splice a wire into the connector and run this wire to the power wire on the 7 pin connector. The only other option was to replace the wiring harness from this connector to the rear of the vehicle, including all the rear lighting connectors (that wasn't going to happen!). Why Ford did this, versus running all 7 wires to the rear, is a mystery only they can explain.

Owners should search the Internet for their vehicle wiring if a different connector is needed; there are a lot of sites that provide details such as I needed for the Ford.

[kwstaton]

Thanks so much for your answers and help - you are very easy to understand which helps so much for someone who is new to all of this.

My car was pre-wired with a 7 pin connector, although I've never used it before towing the Trailmanor.

I will check with Uhaul tomorrow to see if they did install the adapter. It took them over two hours to find the harness wire under the dash, so I think they'll remember working on my car.

One question I have, that is probably very basic for all of you, is that if the TM plug was inserted in the wrong alignment, could that have caused my problem? I'm asking because the plug looks like it got dragged on the ground at some point - not enough to damage the internal plug and the rubber is intact around the wiring, but the surface is ragged. The previous owner made a mark on the plug and he told me that the mark should always be at the 12 o'clock position. This was how he plugged it in when I picked up the trailer, but I don't know if that's how it was replugged in after the shop disconnected the brake controller. Is it possible that his marking doesn't match the connector on my car? If so, how do I check different rotations to find the one that is correct?

Thanks again for your time and for sharing your knowledge.

Kwstaton - if the previous owner had to mark the plug for correct orientation, then I would consider the plug damaged and should be replaced. There is no way to be certain they marked it correctly without checking all the wiring connections. I would not rely on an unknown mark for something important as trailer wiring and braking.

Time IMO to do some homework. There can be some variation in wiring, but 7 pins in the US are pretty consistent. Go to http://www.etrailer.com/faq-wiring.aspx and review the information there. Buy a new plug and wire it so the connecting plugs match your vehicle. You can use a voltage tester to see what each female plug position does on your vehicle. Have someone activate the brakes, turn signals and brake controller on your vehicle, and you will see voltage. Make a diagram and wire the new plug to match. You will see a slot on the vehicle female plug that is supposed to allow the male plug to only fit one way. That's why it is there, to prevent incorrect wiring connections.