Trailer brakes and battery switch

KKrieg

Another newbie question. I had trailer brakes installed yesterday and part way home they stopped working. We checked all of the wires for loose connections, as well as the 7 pin plug. We were just about to take the hour and a half trip back today, my husband checked the battery switch and found it had a "soft" on position that was blocking the brakes from working. He turned the switch harder toward on and the brakes work. He then drove it over speed bumps and rougher roads and it seemed to hold. Does anyone else have this issue? I was about to yell at the mechanic for not wiring things right!!!! (my nearly bad move).

Sharon_is_SAM

Depending on where your cut off switch is mounted, it can be difficult to tell if it is all the way on. We marked ours with permanent marker to easily align the dial with the on and off position.

KKrieg

Great idea!

tagurit

Typically, trailer brakes are powered by the tow vehicle battery, not the trailer battery. Not sure how the battery switch could affect the brakes. What brake controller do you have?

Sharon_is_SAM

(Edited regarding emergency brake away brake wiring.)

@tagurit, I agree. No different with nuCamp brake wiring. However, the break-away brake wires are not tied directly to the TaB battery, rather they enter the circuit after the battery switch. While under tow, yes the TV will power the brakes, but in the event of a separation of the TaG from the TV, the break-away brakes are powered via the TaG battery and for that reason the battery switch must be kept on while towing.

LuckyJ

@Sharon_is_SAM said:
@tagurit, nuCamp brake wires are not tied directly to the TaB battery, rather they enter the circuit after the battery switch. While under tow, yes the TV will power the brakes, but in the event of a separation of the TaG from the TV, the break-away brakes are powered via the TaG battery and for that reason the battery switch must be kept on while towing.

Agree with the part that the brake are power by the TV system and the brakeaway switch by the battery.

But the brake should not stop working if battery switch is off, only the brakeaway system???
'To me, this is weird, I would have to test and look into mine.

Sharon_is_SAM

My bad. Only the brake-away brakes are powered by the trailer battery. Sorry for the confusion. I wonder if the OP KKrieg had a loose 7 pin. Now that would interrupt the actual trailer brakes.

Above post edited.

LuckyJ

@Sharon_is_SAM said:
My bad. Only the brake-away brakes are powered by the trailer battery. Sorry for the confusion. I wonder if the OP KKrieg had a loose 7 pin. Now that would interrupt the actual trailer brakes.

Above post edited.

This is one of the few possibilities. After chasing a si ilar problem, I eneded up changing both brake puck on mine. In my case, the burn came from a short That happen from a broken wire from my backing lights. I know that @WilliamA had to change his as well, but do not know if he found a reason for them to go bad. But this is only the last option.

First thing is to check for countinuity at the plug when someone apply the brakes on the TV. Then, chasing to the electrical box under the tongue frame and then it is at the brake wires and if all is good, then the brake pucks test for continuity as well and change if bad.

I did found out however at one point that my brake controller was bad. Could not find the problem with a multimeter. Had to hookup a light to it. The light was pusling this resulted in pulsing in the brakes as well. Only a light bulb had the reaction time quick enough to find the pusle. The multimeter could not cycle quickly enough. But in this case, the brake pucks where fine.

Hope this help.