Troubleshooting Trailer Brakes Grabbing and then Operating Normally with Hopkins Agility Controller
Updated 03/05/2012 | Published 03/01/2012
Question:
As a customer of e trailer, I thought to turn to you. Recently put a Hopkins proportional brake controller on my 2007 Tacoma. Hooked up our 2010 Evo E1 at the dealer, preliminary adjust of the brake controller and we were off. Drove trailer home 100 miles all seemed well with the brakes and their action. Trailer sat a week, I greased the bearings from the quick fitting then took the trailer 100 miles out again. Got to my destination, came out again in the evening to move the trailer small distance away to pop it up but all of a sudden had a brake issue. When I apply pressure to the pedal now the bakes HIT or initially THUMP then trailer stops as normal. I tried adjusting the Hopkins, no luck. I still get that initial HIT or quick grab then it stops as normal. Any idea what the heck is going on?. It was working fine, new controller, newer trailer only about 2 weeks in our possession. When I greased the wheel could an inner seal given away maybe? Grease on the shoes? I hear that might be a cause of this. Thank you very much for any help here David
asked by: David R
Expert Reply:
An easy way to eliminate the brake controller from the equation would be to borrow a friends and install it on your setup and see if the problem persists. If it does, the problem is elsewhere, if not then you know the your Hopkins Agility Controller # HM47294 is at fault.
If borrowing another brake controller is not an option you could use a circuit tester like our # 40376 and test the brake output circuit with your trailer connected and see if there is a spike in voltage when you initially hit the brakes. I would recommend doing this on the brake output circuit near the brake controller and if it does not spike do it again on the trailer side of the wiring. If you see a spike there then you know something is wrong with the connector. Most likely it is corrosion, I would recommend inspecting it for corrosion or loose wiring that might cause a short and fix as necessary.
If all this checks out I would check to see if your trailer brakes are out of adjustment. Check out the video I attached, beginning at 4:23 you will see how to adjust trailer brakes.
There is also the possibility that there is grease on the brake shoes. You might want to disassemble your brake setup and clean them as needed.
