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Glad you were able to diagnose and fix the problem quickly. I think I will add some sheathed wire and electrical connectors to our supplies in case we might need it.
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Yeah, carrying some wire and connectors (as well as the needed wire stripping/crimping tool) is a pretty good idea. And don't forget to bring a little multimeter too...voltage and amperage measurements may be the most commonly done tests but I got to the heart of the problem today in a jiffy by using the ohmmeter function.
I forgot to mention in my post above that I sorta accidentally got a clue that helped speed the diagnosis. On the way back from my last trip, I had to use the brakes fairly heavily to stop at the end of a very long, rather steeply descending off-ramp that in turn was at the end of a steep 2 mile descent on the Interstate. I took that off-ramp to enter a rest area and while I was chowing down my sandwich I decided that a quick check of the trailer's bearings might be in order...I do this at least once a trip to make sure the bearings are not running hot. Well, lo and behold, I found the driver's side bearing was easily 20 to 30 degrees hotter than the curb side bearing...the curb side bearing was just a bit warmer than ambient while the driver's side was pretty uncomfortably warm to touch. Normally the hotter bearing/hub would be the one to cause me concern but I
had just made heavy and sustained use of the brakes so I sorta expected both sides to be substantially warmer than ambient. That got me really curious so I did another stop at the next rest area (about 70 miles down the road) and this time I basically coasted to a stop using the tranny for braking...used the wheel brakes just to finally stop from about 20 mph. And this time, both hubs were the same temperature...and both were just a teensy bit warmer than ambient. That's when the lightbulb came on in my head that my TM's curb side brake was most likely inop...and an inop brake could be the cause of the Prodigy's erratic display (until that point I was strongly suspecting the Bargman connnector).
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Have you ever tested your break-away switch? I was thinking that maybe we should test ours. Hopefully it's not like an airbag that you can only use once?
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:-[ Yeah, inadvertently
the night I brought my trailer home. :'( It was after dark and I was trying to use my brand new Powermover to put the trailer in my garage (I have a very steep driveway so a Powermover is an absolute necessity). Because of the darkness I didn't notice the breakaway cable got wrapped around the Powermover's wheel...which shortly caused the cable to be yanked out of the breakaway switch. Sure enough, it did what it was supposed to do...locked the trailer's tires up so tightly the Powermover just was spinning its drive wheel and the trailer wouldn't budge. Took me several minutes to put 2 and 2 togther and get a light to inspect the breakaway switch. Then it took me about 10 minutes of frantic searching before I finally found the blasted breakaway cable wrapped around the Powermover's hub. :P Shoved the breakaway pin back into the switch and then all was well again...finally got the trailer into the garage and then went and had a beer! Although I was afraid I'd ruined the switch...or the brake magnets as they'd had 12 volts applied to them steadily for about 15 minutes, neither seems to have been hurt.