This is the first time I have used my Prodigy since I bought it and I cannot get it to recognize the brakes on the trailer. I only get the two dots that indicate not connected. I have a 97 PSD with the tow package and got the connector specifically made to fit the truck. Plugged it all in and it powered up fine, but won't recognize trailer. The lights on the trailer look fine so I'm kind of confused. I thought about the 30 A high current fuse in the distribution box that controls the electric brake feed, but it looked fine as well. Anyone have a similar problem or any ideas? I'm not quite sure if it is the truck or the trailer since the trailer has sat for a while, but don't know how to rule out either one.

 

First check the ground of you haven't already. If they are good crawl under the trailer and look at the brake wires, most likely one of them is broken and not completing the circuit. I had the same issue when I pulled a borrowed trailer. I made the repair and everything worked as it was supposed to.

Good luck and let us know what you found.


Toyman

 

I agree with Toyman and would add that the hole where the brake wires pass through the baking plate is a good place to look for a chafed wire. Another place is where the pigtails for the brake magnets are spliced to the trailer?s wiring harness. There is probably another splice near the A frame of the trailer where the wires coming from each wheel and the lights attach to the seven pin plug?s pigtail.

Teconsha makes a neat tool called a trailer emulator that can help quickly identify whether the problem is on the truck end or the trailer. You plug it into the seven pin plug on your truck and a series of lights will light on the tool as you activate each circuit. It also has resistors built into it that simulate the trailer brake loads so that you can check the trailer's reaction to the load. It will also detect if your truck wiring is not in the correct order on the plug pins. That could be your problem if you haven't used this trailer and truck together before. It's about $25.00. You can do the same thing with a meter, but it won't simulate the brake load and the emulator is way easier and quicker to do.

I had a problem with one of my tow vehicles that came with the factory towing package like yours did. When I hooked up the trailer or the emulator, it would blow two of the tow package fuses in the van. I traced it out and couldn't find a fault. I finally took the rear section of the vans wiring harness off of the van at the plug behind the rear axle, disassembled the whole thing including unwrapping the wire bundle. Found no problem. Put it all back together and it worked fine.

Gene

 

I had already checked all connections/wires and couldn't find a single thing wrong. So I stopped at a trailer place on my way to pick up the bobcat, thinking I might need trailer brakes on the return trip. They came out and chekced all connections at the plug. Then they told me that the two wires for the brake circuit were probably reversed in the adapter I was using to get from the 7 pin spade to a 6 round connector. We took apart the adapter, switched the two wires and everything worked perfectly. This would explain why I had all kinds of lights on the trailer but no brakes!! Thanks for your help.