Trailer Brakes are Very Weak Even After Adjusting Them

Updated 02/20/2024 | Published 07/15/2015

Products Featured in This Question

Dexter Electric Trailer Brake Assembly - 10" - Right Hand - 3,500 lbs

(299)

$83.92

Digital Multimeter with 42" Long Test Leads - LED Display

(2)

$22.25

Question:

my trailer brakes on my travel camper are not strong enough to stop the camper. It is a 2010 26 ft camper. I know that power is getting to the trailer brakes because I jacked up trailer and had my wife apply the brakes in my truck and they stopped the spinning. But as I travel the stopping power is weak. I also tried adjusting the brakes and needed to turn 15-20 clicks to make contact to the drum but that had little effect to my stopping power. What should I do from here?

asked by: Brett D

Expert Reply:

Since the trailer was off of the ground it would not take much voltage to stop the wheels from spinning so they may be getting power but they may not be getting enough power due to a short or wiring issue.

But 9 times out of 10 weak trailer brakes indicate that the brakes need to be adjusted. Since you adjusted the brakes and that did not help it could be time to replace the shoes. If enough of the pads has worn away they will not be able to adjust out far enough to make good contact with the drum. When brakes are adjusted properly you should hear a slight but constant drag of the pads on the drum when the wheel is turned. Also you can check for grease on the brake pad surfaces and on the inside diameter of the drum where the pads touch. If a seal has blown (which our guys see in the shop here on trailers that have the hubs greased with a grease gun) then that could explain things.

To see if the brake controller is putting out enough voltage you can first turn up the output power all the way. Then test the brake output pin on the vehicle side connector using a multimeter such as # PT89ZR while someone applies the manual override on full. You should be getting 12 volts or so. If you are not getting 12 volts then there could be a problem with the controller. I have included some links on testing and troubleshooting brake controllers for you.

If the controller is working properly then make sure the vehicle and trailer side connectors are clean and free of corrosion inside where the wires attach and outside on the pins. Inspect the wiring to the brake magnets and fix any pinch or damaged wires. the brake magnets should be grounded to clean and corrosion free bare metal surfaces.

Take a look at the magnets themselves and if you can see the copper windings coming through they will need to be replaced. To further test the magnets you can follow the other help article I have linked.

expert reply by: Michael H

Carl

7/18/2020

Just bought a new toyhauler its 40ft and weights 13700 empty I'm having brake issues I have my factory brake controller turned up to 10 and I barely feel them working took it to the dealer they adjusted them checked the voltage which is 10 volts and still not working right my truck is a 2019 dodge ram 3500 could my brake control be bad???

Chris R.

7/23/2020

You should be getting more than 10 volts at full power, so it's possible something is going on with the brake controller. Did the dealer say anything about this? With a pretty new truck like this my best advice is to actually bring it back to the dealer (I know.....) and have them take a look again - for some reason the unit isn't sending back full power to the 7-Way.

Carl

7/23/2020

@ChrisR I'm a dummy my truck comes with brake control settings for light electric and heavy electric which I didnt know it had till I did some research. Thanks for the feed back

Chris R.

7/28/2020

@Carl Perfect!

Ricky

2/20/2024

I know I'm kind of reviving a long-dead horse here, but I'm having a similar issue on my 24ft flatbed, and have had this since I bought the trailer new. The difference is, other people have used my trailer and complained they had to turn their controller almost completely down so the tires didn't lock up. So it's working properly for them, but even empty on my truck it will not lock the brakes even using the override. I almost thought it was my factory controller that seems to apply braking force depending on how hard you press the pedal, but I just bought a 15k dump trailer and now I have to reduce the power when pulling it empty to keep from dragging the tires off of it. Any ideas on where to start? Now I'm truly stumped that it works normally on other vehicles than mine, but my dump trailer functions normally.