Troubleshooting Trailer Brakes that are Weak

Updated 08/24/2017 | Published 08/23/2017

Question:

4 wheel trailer with 7 inch brakes and Curt Triflex. Vehicle is Dodge Ram 1500. The electric brakes seemed a bit weakfoot on the trailer late last summer and I want to make sure I fix anything if needed. The Controller unit seems to be functioning fine from the internal tests I followed in the install manual. It recognized the trailer as connected, etc. All of the truck plug pins and trailer plug wires function as they should Tests so far: I removed the wire cap and separated the two blue wires at the controller and then put an ammeter in series. With vehicle running, trailer connected, I push the manual control slider on to full and get a reading of exactly 11 amps Amps increase as slider moves. However without touching the slider with Output knob on highest number, and then pushing on the vehicle brake pedal all the way, I only get a few tenths of an amp. Should the two procedures above not yield the same result? What is my next diagnostic step?

asked by: David

Expert Reply:

Your Triflex controller is a proportional controller which means that with the brake pedal it's only going to apply braking power if it senses deceleration. If you are sitting still when you performed this test (most likely) then the controller won't send a lot of amperage/voltage to the trailer brakes.

Most of the time when what you described occurs it's that the brakes need to be adjusted.

I have included a link to a video to the right that should help. Fast forward to about the 4 minute mark to see our installer adjust the brakes.

expert reply by: Jameson C