Crazy thing happened when leaving today-check your brake controller if this happens

[Piggy Bank]

We had a crazy thing happen today when leaving.

We hitched up, had everything connected, and were pulling from the campsite to the main road to depart.

Going super slow.

It felt like we hit something/ran over something, and we heard a noise.

I wasn't sure if we had left a stabilizer down, or had an errant item under the trailer we had run over. I got out to investigate. Husband backed up, tried again, and the same thing happened.

We realized that the Trailer Brakes were engaging.

We checked the connections and 7 pin and breakaway and those looked good.

Then husband realized that the brake controller inside the tow vehicle had somehow been bumped and the slide setting moved to be all the way on. Light was red.

Changed this and fixed the problem.

But we were really puzzled.

Hope you all can file this away in the back of your mind in case it happen to you.

Happy Trails.

[GammaDog]

Scary!

What type of brake controller do you use? I’ve had a Tekonsha Prodigy P2 for about 10 years (first for a different trailer and truck).

[GCinSC2]

Does your controller have a parking brake function?

Don’t laugh I accidentally found that my MaxBrake has a parking brake function. While test driving a different trailer for brake function I set the gain to 100 and hold pedal for longer than ?? Sec and boom! Parking brake. It is in my manual as a tool to prevent trailer movement while loading think flatbed not RV I assume.

[Piggy Bank]

Originally Posted by GammaDog

Scary!

What type of brake controller do you use? I’ve had a Tekonsha Prodigy P2 for about 10 years (first for a different trailer and truck).

That is the brand we have as well. Not exactly sure of the model.

[OTRA15]

The first thing to do when leaving a site is to check the manual operation of the trailer brakes . . . as in . . . right away, within 2-3' of starting to move the trailer. The rig's speed should be only 1-3 MPH, so that you can stop immediately if the trailer brakes are not working correctly.

The above practice would have caught the problem IMO. On a steep site facing downhill, this will prevent a worse accident if the trailer brakes are NG.

Peter

[Paprika]

"set the gain to 100 and hold pedal for longer than ?? Sec and boom! Parking brake. It is in my manual as a tool to prevent trailer movement while loading"

Good way to burn out your brake magnets, I'd think. It's widely recommended that one should never use electric trailer brakes as parking brakes. In fact, my trailer's breakaway switch has a label warning against doing this.

[GCinSC2]

It’s a feature I’ve never used and agree it’s a what we’re they thinking feature.

But it took an experiment to find it.

But that MaxBrake has showed up as take offs from trucks and resold right quick on tdr1.com a Dodge forum.