On the way home from my next to last camping trip (which involved traveling over about 10 miles of fairly potholed, pretty bumpy gravel roads), I made a lunch stop in the rest area at the top of Vail Pass (elevation 10,600). Since I'd been climbing a 7% grade for about 10 miles, I let the engine run for a few minutes to allow it and the the tranny to cool down while I chowed down on my sandwich. Shortly after I stopped, I noticed the display on my Prodigy Brake Controller intermittantly changing from "C" (connected) to "NC" (NOT Connected) This really got my attention as I was going to be making a 6 mile descent of a 7% grade as soon as I left the rest area. So, I reseated the Bargman connector between trailer and Tundra and did a quick visual under the trailer for obvious problems...saw none. Got back in and the Prodigy was now steadily displaying "C" so I proceeded onward...and the display stayed a steady "C" all the way home.
Then on the next camping trip (my most recent one), I found the Prodigy's display was pretty regularly (about every 5 minutes or so) changing from "C" to "NC" but when I tested the brakes (with both the manual override switch and the brake pedal) it seemed I had functional trailer brakes. So I continued the trip and even came back over the top of 11,991 foot high Loveland Pass which has lots of sharp turns and 6% grades. Although the rig handled the return trip just fine...and I seemed to have more than enough braking power...this constant switching between "C" and "NC" was really bothering me.
So today, I jacked up the trailer to adjust the brakes and investigate the wiring. On the street side (driver's side) wheel, I found I had about 2 ohms of resistance for the brake magnet, which is about right. But when I checked the resistance of the wiring going to the curb (passenger) side brake magnet, I discovered infinite resistance...an open circuit! Which meant I was getting braking on only one side of the trailer!!
But when I scooted over to the passenger side and checked the wires going into the brake magnet, I found I had the expected 2 ohms...which meant that the brake magnet was fine. This was a great relief as it meant I
wouldn't have to pull the wheel and drum to replace anything.
So, clearly the problem was somewhere in one (or both) of the wires that run along the axle to connect the two brake magnets. As I started clipping off wire tires I discovered that
both of these wires had been severed by blunt trauma...they had been majorly pinched between something and something else and my guess is one of the somethings is the axle's swing arm and the other something was a part of the frame. So I got some 16 GA wiring and replaced both of the wires that tie the two sides of the brake system together. With the brakes freshly adjusted and both of them working, I was impressed with how much braking force I had!!! And the Prodigy's display showed an unwavering "C"!!!
My hunch is that these wires got smooshed at some point when I was bumping up/down the gravel road and if they didn't completely come apart then, they did somewhere later on my trip home. And because the total resistance was now higher, the Prodigy's connection detection circuitry was having a hard time deciding if I did or did not have connected brakes.
Sooooo, if you happen to do any travel over really bumpy roads...or if your brake controller's display starts acting weird, I strongly recommend you get under your trailer and do a very careful inspecton of your wiring to include doing a resistance check with an ohmmeter.
Found I had Broken Brake Wires
Threaded Mode
