Anybody else notice when you disconnect your trailer that the truck knows it's disconnected but still keeps the truck in tow mode and still applies the auto break unless you manually scroll into tow settings and turn it off?

Seems strange

 

Yeah, I have noticed that I have to switch to "No Active Trailer" or it keeps adding miles to the last trailer selected.
Kind of frustrating, as my '11 also knew when I unhooked the trailer, but stopped the trailer miles.

 

It's a bug, it's been mentioned here a bunch. It only does it with some trucks or some of the time with others.

 

I just did a quick tow to see how my old setup would work on this truck. It did show no active trailer when i disconnected.

My question is where do you see tow mileage? Would that then be seen when not connected....ie: i towed about 2 miles, where would i go to see that 2 miles?

 

IIRC you can select a specific trailer and that leads to the accumulated mileage.
I need to sit in my truck to be sure, my procedural memory is lousy...and I am still learning this vehicle.

 

In the middle of the cluster (the area were you can select digital speedometer and whatnot) there is a category for towing, it's in there.

 

I did go through the setup quickly, don't remember the mileage in there. But only did a couple miles. I really had to turn down the gain on the controller, never locked up brakes on blacktop with trailer before! always found a gravel type road to set brake controller, and that was 11 years ago for current tt and old truck. It will be a nice tow. It will not break a sweat with my current 27 ft tt.

5th wheel in my future. yayyyyy

 

Lately towing my CTL, I get a "trailer disconnected" alarm in the cluster. The brakes won't work but the lights on the trailer do. Anyone read about or had this problem? I have an XL truck.

 

I noticed with my fiver that if I shut the truck off and unhook the trailer, it will keep accumulating miles until I select "no active trailer". If I leave the truck running and unplug the trailer, it recognizes that the trailer was disconnected.

 

Some truck do it automatically. But my thinking is your supposed to manually select no active trailer otherwise you don't know if it becomes disconnected because you don't get get the trailer disconnected message. Like driving down the interstate with big trailer and the plug comes undone then you try to brake and have nothing. With a trailer disconnect message you can slow to the shoulder to reconnect before you suddenly come up to a traffic jam

 

Usually a "trailer disconnected" message while the trailer is still connected indicates an electrical problem with the trailer's braking system. The Ford brake control monitors the electrical "condition" of the brakes (it "looks" for continuity and shorts) if an issue is sensed, you get the message and the system is shut off to protect the controller and truck. The system is really sensitive, so it doesn't take much to set it off.

The most common cause of this in order of probability are: A loose connection in the trailer's 7 way plug, a broken wire or a short to ground in the pigtail or the trailer wiring itself. Next is a worn magnet that is shorting. Several years ago I came across lots of trailers that had tiny little worn spots in the wires that ran thru the axle causing a short that the truck sensed. That was a real PITA to find, but once discovered, that was the first place we looked when this specific brand of trailer came in with this issue.