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thecatsandi · 08-13-2007, 10:01 AM

What make and model TV do you have? The GM products do not disconnect the battery line when you turn off the ignition. Ford Does, Dodge not sure.

To reset and re-sync. disconnect your batteries on your trailer for about 5 mintues with the umbilical disconnected. Just turning off the master disconnect may not do it.
Re-connect the batteries, connect the umbilical, turn the gain boost whatever they are calling it all the to its highest setting. manually actuate the brake to full several times. your should hear the pump cycle.
turn your boost/ gain back to normal. everything should be fine now.

sequoiacoast · 08-13-2007, 10:07 AM

I have a Chevy. That's pretty much what I did to re-sync. Did leaving them connected overnight trip out the actuator?

thecatsandi · 08-13-2007, 10:16 AM

that should not have affected the brake. It does drain down your TV battery though.

letsgo123 · 09-01-2007, 07:59 PM

hAVING JUST READ THE ENTIRE POST, I take it no brakes again, one item that hasnt been discussed is a broken ground providing you with a BACK FEED.
Keep in mind that a ground can look good to a light load (1 or 2 amps) but disappear to a high load (10amps or more).
The voltmeter that, you are using will ,NOT detect such a condition, even though you have taken a ground to the chassis, the open or brocken ground will prevail.
Solution, a new green ground wire has to be terminated at every point of grounding starting at the trailer hitch ending at the trailer batteries, even if the old ground looks good, use it and put a new ground on top of the old ground DONOT disconnect any of the original grounds.
Another point to look at is the trailer plug/truck , the trailer plug is female, squeeze your thumb and first finger together,then push a calling card between thumb and finger, that is how the plugs compression fingers shoud fit for good conductivity.

good luck
drive safe

sequoiacoast · 09-01-2007, 09:56 PM

Okay, I have to ponder the last post for a while, but I have new problems:

I am off on another journey and I have had issues. The first of travel the brakes work fine and about an hour to two hours later there is no brakes and no pump function. We disconnect the trailer battery and have brakes again. This happens a second time later in the day. At this time I also add some brake fluid, as it is just at the bottom of the "neck".

We have succes for a few hours and we end up in a situation where we have to manuever to get out of a parking place. There is some tight turns and long brake periods (extenda-hold) which result in the brakes staying locked up. We turn the brake controller down which briefly allowed us to move about 20 feet. At this point the brakes were locked and holding so we disconnected the battery- I felt the trailer relase the brakes- and again everything was fine, for the remainder of the trip= 3= hours.

I am at a loss. It seems to be a wiring thing or a faulty pump. It works great and suddenly stops. We can't figure why.

We're now in Portland, OR and will be for the next 5 days. Thoughts??

letsgo123 · 09-02-2007, 10:10 AM

if you put in the replacement pump as posted earlier then its a wiring fault and I would be looking for a back feed , there is a wiring junction point that is short circuiting, having said that the most logical point to check first is is your fuse/circuit breaker panel (with the solid buss bar), look for long terminal screws or a loose strand of wire at a terminal point, taped joints that are loose, eg. crimped stak-on terminations or couplings try to pull them appart.

good luck
drive safe

uwe · 09-02-2007, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sequoiacoast

Okay, I have to ponder the last post for a while, but I have new problems:

I am off on another journey and I have had issues. The first of travel the brakes work fine and about an hour to two hours later there is no brakes and no pump function. We disconnect the trailer battery and have brakes again. This happens a second time later in the day. At this time I also add some brake fluid, as it is just at the bottom of the "neck".

We have succes for a few hours and we end up in a situation where we have to manuever to get out of a parking place. There is some tight turns and long brake periods (extenda-hold) which result in the brakes staying locked up. We turn the brake controller down which briefly allowed us to move about 20 feet. At this point the brakes were locked and holding so we disconnected the battery- I felt the trailer relase the brakes- and again everything was fine, for the remainder of the trip= 3= hours.

I am at a loss. It seems to be a wiring thing or a faulty pump. It works great and suddenly stops. We can't figure why.

We're now in Portland, OR and will be for the next 5 days. Thoughts??

Tanya,
All I can suggest is for you to check the wiring once again, and if indeed everything checks out on that end, then you either have a bad brake controller, or the hydraulic brake pump unit is bad. There's not much to this system, really, just some wires, a pump and a brake controller, on the electric side.
There is no reason other than faulty equipment for you to have this much trouble with the system. What does the manufacturer or dealer say to all of this?
My system has been working flawlessly for several years now. It is a joy to use and tow with. You should expect the same results and nothing less.
Maybe it's time for a few very pointed calls to the dealer that sold it to you, the installer, and perhaps the manufacturer. None of these three should want you to drive around with their product not functioning correctly.

sequoiacoast · 09-02-2007, 02:02 PM

Thank you for your responses. I will be checking each of the wiring connections for anything that may have come loose.

Just to re-cap my saga:
I am on my second pump. The service at Active is awesome. I went straight to them rather than the place I bought it from. They sent my pump and paid to have my old one sent back to them.

I re-installed the new pump and it worked flawlessly on three 8 hour trips and a few short ones.

The first time it had a problem was a month ago and was corrected by disconnecting the breakaway battery and re-starting the pump. The brakes worked fine throughout the rest of that trip which was over a road requiring a lot of turns and braking.

On this trip it has required two re-starts and had one episode of acting like the brake-away was pulled. After disconnecting the 3rd time, there wasn't an additional problem for the rest of the trip.

I will check the connections and the screw terminals. Unfortunately, I won't know if I fix the problem as the brakes function for hours at a time before they quit (out of the blue). Well, I'll know if it doesn't happen for the remainder of the trip... although my confidence is seriously shaken.

I can't call Active until Wednesday with this holiday weekend in my way.

letsgo123 · 09-06-2007, 01:19 PM

This short story will give you a little insite into what you could be dealing with. I have a 1928 hot rod with a chevy engine , when first put on the road the thing started and ran like a charm but as soon as i turned the engine off and tried to restart while hot , the starter motor would not turn over while hot ,this went on for weeks, it turned out to be a bad ground at the engine block, heat can creat a high resistance, and a poor wiring joint is a resistor , resistance causes voltage drop, so instead of 12.6 volts (which I hope you have) your voltage could drop to maybe 10volts or lower, the pump motor may not even run at 10volts, (voltage is critical) remember this motor is turning a hydrolic gear pump that is generating 1400psi.

good luck

sequoiacoast · 09-06-2007, 01:49 PM

Thank you letsgo, that makes a lot of sense.

I have reassured that all grounds are tight in the ground bar. I replaced one crimp connector at the brake-away switch- it looked a slight bit iffy. My battery had shifted in it's box and rubbed through the insulation on the hot lead, so I replaced that and resecured the battery with more heft. I also took the grounds that go to the frame and removed rust, dirt, residual paint... etc.

So I leave tomorrow and will know if any of those efforts have an effect. I also checked all the connections at the umbilical and to the pump- all looked good to me. The only thing I can't do is check the TV and brake controller for wiring insufficiencies. It looks too complicated for my tiny brain.

CaddyGrn · 09-06-2007, 02:43 PM

Tanya,

We sure hope you have a safe journey! I can't believe you still have brake problems! Boo....

I hope your problem gets solved once and for all!

Claudia

3Ms75Argosy · 09-06-2007, 06:45 PM

Tanya, I was going to suggest that maybe your seven pin plug/socket had a loose connection, but then remembered that the pump will only go into lockdown with the breakaway pulled..... maybe the brakeaway switch has a loose connection that gives a false "breakaway" signal (which would be a break in connectivity) to the pump, triggereing a lockdown?
Stabs in the dark...

on edit, you said you replaced a potientally loose crimp at the breakaway switch..... could be?...
Marc

CaddyGrn · 09-07-2007, 08:20 PM

Tanya,

Looking at your thread... you have already done this... but Don said to double check all the ground wires! We had one that jiggled loose and it gave us some weird intermittent problems once.

Claudia

sequoiacoast · 09-10-2007, 08:45 PM

Thanks guys for the well wishes and more suggestions! I don't want to beat a dead horse but maybe down the road all this will help someone. It's already helped me because it is a diary of symptoms and "fixes".

We Left Portland after I had cleaned up the grounds and re-made a connection to the brake-away. (Incidentally the B/Away works as it should when pulled and replaced) We got all the way to the turn off for HWY 20 in WA (at least 4- hours down the road with some Seattle traffic) without problem. However, as we got off the freeway and waited through two rounds at the red light we got locked-up. I had to jump out and disconnect the trailer battery to release the brakes.

For the rest of our journey we had to keep from stepping on the brakes at stoplights- we crept, put it in park, or used the e-brake to keep it out of "extenda-hold". We think this is where the problem is. Why, I don't know yet. It seems that instead of releasing in the extenda-hold mode it goes into a brake-away situation. My brake-away switch is new... ?

I'm home so I will go try to replicate the trigger to the problem and see if it does the same thing while parked outside. This trip was too busy to do all that's needed to sort this out. And BB is two weeks away so I have to get on it!!

letsgo123 · 09-11-2007, 04:43 PM

I'm going to stick my neck out, based on what has been posted so far,
I dont believe you had (have) 2 defective hydrolic pumps , one maybe but not two.
SO YOU HAVE AN INTERMITTENT SHORT.
If you can provide the manufacturers schematics or better still phone the manufacturer and ask ( if everything is wired correctly what kind of short circuit or 12.6volt backfeed would cause the brakes to lock up), then you need to put a volt meter across the suggested circuit and leave it there so the next time it locks up, you can instantly confirm or rule out the BACK FEED THEORY.
you also need to have a amp meter in line with the 12.6volt brake feed to confirm that the current leaving the in truck brake controller is the same as that entering the pump motor, also confirming that when the brakes lock up that there is no current in this curcuit ,causing the lock up, also confirming that the brake controller isn't at fault.
hope this makes sense.

GOOD LUCK

sequoiacoast · 09-11-2007, 09:09 PM

Thanks again! I will call Active and ask them that specific question. However, this is what I got today:

I called Mike at Active and he is sending me a new pump. It is the latest and greatest in their line (which replaces the old one I bought). He is also sending me a new brake controller (Free) that will definitely work with this new unit.

He said the new pump has a better way of holding the pump secure (without bolting through wood and screwing down) and the inside, where the circuit board is, has a better design of keeping the wires put. He thought it might be a loose wire inside the unit where the circuitry is located.

So Thursday I will have a new pump and controller. I will ask him about the short circuiting and back feed.

3Ms75Argosy · 09-11-2007, 10:27 PM

Wow - good service, but makes me wonder about using the used unit that I have. Hope this helps solve all your issues!
Marc

2airishuman · 09-11-2007, 10:42 PM

again it's great they keep sending ya more parts...

but the system shouldn't need rebuilding 3 times.

i started wondering about the controller as an issue way back.

on the fords, prolonged pedal pressure at zero speed triggers a release of the trailer brakes....

i think this is to protect the circuit board.

yours seems to lock up with prolonged voltage via the brake pedal 2 controller...

so it will be interesting to see IF the brake controller they've selected for you to use solves the problem...

stay safe and take some pictures of the bits

cheers
2air'

sequoiacoast · 09-12-2007, 10:19 PM

I have read about another actuator that releases the trailer brake at a standstill. When at a long stop, the ActiBrake goes into "extend'a hold" mode, which applies the brakes, as it would in a brake-away situation, and shuts the pump down in cycles, all the while maintaining brake pressure. So the pump runs for a certain time then shuts off.. and repeats. In a properly working system the extend'a hold quits when your foot leaves the brake, or if in a brake-away, until the trailer battery is disconnected or runs too low to keep going.

****

I asked Active, Letsgo's question. He said it was a VERY GOOD question and I should tell you so! So thank you again!

He said two things (other than the pump itself) could make the pump lock down the brakes: A short in the blue wire, which is responsible for communicating the brake signal to the brake controller, or corrosion in the brake-away switch. He said he just heard that the brand "Tap" switches were reportedly having problems with a trickle leak of voltage. (have a tekonsha) He told me to check that there's no voltage coming from the switch when inactive.

I will need to purchase a voltmeter- I gave it a shot with a crusty "multimeter" I found in the garage. It read nothing while inactive but moved slightly when the pin was pulled.

I don't see any other bad connections. I looked at the blue wire and did some additional grinding on the trailer frame to be sure there is enough bare metal for the grounds.

I am hoping the brake controller makes a difference.

2airishuman · 09-12-2007, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sequoiacoast

... When at a long stop, the ActiBrake goes into "extend'a hold" mode, which applies the brakes, as it would in a brake-away situation...

hope my post didn't confuse the issues for ya...

and not that it has anything to do with your situation, but my reference was to the ford brake controller and actibrake combo....

i watched an a/s tech call a ford tech and discuss how the new (in 05) controller would work with the disc set up.

the answer then was at zero speed the voltage supplied was zero using the manual lever...

so no brakes, unless pedal pressure is applied.

this has been discussed several times including the official notification posted here...

http://www.cvsa.org/resourcecenter/d...tin2005-01.pdf

there is also apparently some issue with how setting the 'gain' may/may NOT work in all situations...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/atta...4&d=1181629985

again NONE of this may relate to your frustrating situation...

it may very well be a mystery short or multiple parts failures...

but others have had issues getting this smoothed out too...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f439...ler-30440.html

and other threads under actibrake or towcommand...

i'm very satisfied with the kodiac/actibrake/ford combo...

clearly setting up each model controller can be a challenge...

see ya camping soon!

2air'