What Would Cause Blue Ox Patriot Supplemental Braking System to Lock Up Trailer Brakes

Published 12/02/2019

Question:

I was towing my fiat 500 2017 and I had set my patriot 11 brake system. After towing for 7-10 miles my tire pressure monitoring system was reading high temp and pressures on my tow vehicles front tires. I pulled over and the brakes were smoking and smelling. I checked the patriot and it was pressing on the brakes. I turned it off and readjusted it. Waited 30 minutes for the brakes to cool down. It worked ok on the drive back home. What could have happened and how do I prevent this?

asked by: Carl P

Helpful Expert Reply:

I've spoken with Blue Ox about this issue before and they told me that in the rare situation where the Blue Ox Patriot # BLU37TR locks up a towed vehicle's brakes the problem is in how the Patriot is set up and not in the unit itself.

She said in most cases the reason is the seat is adjusted too far forward or the arm of the system has been adjusted too far out.

In very rare situations they have seen an internal A04 error code in the unit causing the system to need to be replaced entirely.

expert reply by: Jameson C