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Old 03-10-2004, 11:44 PM   #1
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Sound of one brake pinging

This evening I heard a pinging from the rear curbside wheel on my 1970 29 footer. Just one brake seems to be doing it. It stops when I pull the plug from the truck so I assume that it is not impinging on a live circuit on the trailer. I use a prodigy brake controller. Still I cannot understand why one would ping and the rest would not. I beg an experienced streamers opinion. I am fulltiming out in New Orleans and have to move every other day or so. Therefore my situation is somewhat urgent. The pulse seems to happen every couple of seconds. Is a pulse normal operating behavior when it is in use, and does a brake controller operate all four wheels together? I am ignorant of how this thing works.
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Old 03-11-2004, 09:01 AM   #2
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Suggest that you pull all 4 wheels and see what gives under the covers.

Replace the adjuster springs. They have a great failure rate after 20 years or so.

You didn't say what brake controller you have.

Also Airstream did not make a 1970 30 foot trailer. Post your serial number and many of us can ID it for you.

When you are asking for help, knowing "exactly" what you have is a good beginning.

Andy
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Old 03-11-2004, 06:55 PM   #3
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The codes on my plate are OT352FJ and 129TOJ238.

With the truck off and the tecumsa prodigy without power I still I hear this rythmic pinging from the rear curbside wheel. I don't know if I am going to be able to pull all four wheels as I am living like a gypsy in uptown New Orleans for the next two and a half months. Any work I will be doing will be on the street. Does one wire come back and brake off to feed all four wheels or do four wheels get four wires from the controller? This would be helpful for isolating the fault. I guess ill just go after sticking my multimeter probe into wires. Could it be a chafed wire laying against the frame. I don't know where the current is coming from.

Thank You,
August
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Old 03-12-2004, 09:55 AM   #4
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August

You have a 1970 29 foot trailer made in Jackson Center, Ohio.

One wire, plus a ground feeds all the brakes.

Andy
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Old 03-12-2004, 02:38 PM   #5
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I found out what it was. When I cut the wire to the pinging brake, I heard that it had really been coming from both sides but was to slight to hear from the other side. Then I looked and it is the prodigy brake controler that is doing the pinging. I umplugged it and it stop. Maybe it is normal op-erating and I never observed it before. Or maybe the little computers in their have gone squigly or they are getting deceptive signals. THese are all questions I will be asking the tecomsa prodigy people.

Thank you for the info Andy

August
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Old 03-12-2004, 02:52 PM   #6
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August:
I am not an expert by any means, but I remember reading someplace that the Prodigy control causes a ticking or pinging in the trailer brakes every second or so when the trailer is hooked up to the vehicle towing it. Apparently the Prodigy is designed to check the status of the connection to the brake and this noise is the result of an electrical pulse sent through the circuit to make this check. You might call Prodigy and get information on this - whether or not it is true, I am not certain. Also, if you are certain there is no power through the brake control to the brake magnets and you are still getting this noise, I would check the the breakaway switch to make sure it is not leaking. Without power through the control to the magnets, this is the only other way power could get there that I can think of. Good Luck. Jeff
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Old 03-12-2004, 06:08 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally posted by pjlingl
August:
I am not an expert by any means, but I remember reading someplace that the Prodigy control causes a ticking or pinging in the trailer brakes every second or so when the trailer is hooked up to the vehicle towing it. Apparently the Prodigy is designed to check the status of the connection to the brake and this noise is the result of an electrical pulse sent through the circuit to make this check. You might call Prodigy and get information on this - whether or not it is true, I am not certain. ...Jeff
I have read other posts on this and another site that refer to this noise from brake controllers testing/checking the circuit.
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Old 07-30-2007, 02:03 PM   #8
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Ping

hi- you are right, the pinging sound coming from the brakes is a design feature of the Prodigy controller. I too wondered about this, and this is what a Tekonsha tech told me in an e-mail: "The pinging you are hearing in the brakes is caused by the diagnostic test pulse produced by the Prodigy. This controller sends out a pulse looking for 3 things: a complete circuit to ground through the brake magnets; the inductive load of a brake magnet; and the correct resistance of at least 1 magnet. Once it sees all 3 things it will then display the "C" on the display panel." Always nice to understand these things, a big thanks to Danny Dunn at Tekonsha, and Tom of these forums!
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