2003 F-350 7.3L pulling Hart LQ horse trailer (approx 14,000#). Situation: Because of rising trans temp, we made a decision to return home from a Labor Day horse riding trip to Missouri. We were two hours from home. At one point, I decided I needed to pull over NOW to cool things off and I made a rather hard stop on Interstate, not an emergency stop, but put good pressure on brakes. Pulled over to side of road, trailer brakes locked up, brake controller light goes out. Checked all connections and fuses. Nothing seemed out of sorts. Had to unplug trailer brakes to free up brakes. Drove home with no trailer brakes. Not good.

Took truck to RV Center. Purchased new brake controller: Prodigy. Also purchased new plug for trailer brake line. Installed both. NOTE: original trailer plug on this trailer looked very dark inside each plug channel, kind of charred.

When getting new trailer brake plug installed, everything worked except running lights. Discovered that fuse #38 was blown. Replaced fuse. All well.

Took trailer out yesterday for weekend horse camping trip. Got only 10 miles from home, Prodigy starts flashing a code that means there is a short in brake wire at idle. Called RV Center. Guy says if I still have brakes, don't worry about it. Reluctantly, continued trip. Within 1 mile, Prodigy flashes new code. This one indicates loss of power to trailer brakes! This code flashes intermittently. Now, I'm worried. Turn around and go back home.

We have another, smaller horse trailer. Transfer horses to small trailer and travel 90 minutes away for some trail riding. No odd codes from Prodigy. No issues. However, on way back home we turn on lights. No running lights on this trailer now!!! Upon checking this morning, fuse #38 was blown again. Replaced fuse, running lights work on smaller trailer.

My opinion: The Hart trailer has a trailer brake wiring issue. There is a short in a wire. Or, a wire is somehow exposed and is touching something. Or, the trailer brakes won't fully release.

My question for you folks here is what are your ideas of the cause of this issue? Do you concur with my thoughts? What other culprits could there be that I'm not considering?

 

Sounds like you are onto the problem, next problem is where...

 

A trailer that the band program at the highschool has a similar problem with the brakes. My prodigy shows a short at idle on the brake wire. I still have brakes but it still worries me after reading this thread. That is why the trailer is getting rewired from front to back including the brakes.

 

Prodigys did have a wiring error with the early releases of the firmware... it is possible in the second person's case that this is the issue, rather than a true hardware error.

 

I know about the error in the firmware, but I did take my truck to my local rv dealership the first time I pulled the trailer with after getting my Prodigy. They had me back up to a new trailer and plugged it in and it never showed a short. They dealer was willing to switch one of there Prodigys with mine to make sure it wasn't my contoller or my truck.

 

Do you have regular bulbs or LEDs? It sounds like there might be a crossed filament or maybe a bad ground. In my trailer, before I reworked the ground wire, when I turned on the parking lights, it would turn on my brake lights and controller, and when I hit the brakes, I lost turn signals, and running lights on the truck.

 

I have regular light bulbs.

Also, I am not aware of the issue mentioned with Prodigy and early releases of the firmware.

We have two horse trailers. The Prodigy is not signaling any error codes when we pull the second trailer. Again, I really do not know what this firmware issue is, but it would seem to make sense that the issue would surface when pulling both trailers. Am I correct here?

 

I would think so, but I'm not positive. It sounds like in your case you have a hard wire issue, probably in the trailer Time to send it out for some diagnoses I would think. You have a good trailer repair center nearby?

 

Take empty trailer to RV service shop. They have a tool to plug intr your truck to test your 4 5 or 7 pin to make sure everything is ion goofd working order. This will give them ampear readings too to see if you have a weak wire. They can also use that tool on your trailer to see if you have issues there. They should do it for free too. If they refuse to do it for free go to another shop.

 

Thanks, guys. We do have a good RV shop nearby. That will be my next stop.

 

Got the trailer back from the trailer shop. I was told that one of the brake wires from the rear junction box to a brake was loose. Now that it is good-N-tight, I should be good to go.

We have a week-long vacation coming up the first week in Oct., so this weekend was to be a shakedown overnight trip to a nearby horse camp. If all went well, we'd be set for the longer trip. And, this coming Monday I'm having a few mods done to the F-350, so I'm excited.

Unfortunately, things did not go well at all. Twenty minutes from home we started to get the "SH" error code on the Prodigy again. This time I figured maybe it was just the Prodigy being too sensitive. I ignored the code and drove on. Within five minutes the trailer brakes suddenly grabbed, then let go. Just a little, but enough to know that something just happened. I had hardly uttered the words "this isn't good," when they did it again, and again and then locked up! This gets your attention when you are at highway speeds!

We pulled off the road and I unplugged the trailer from the truck. Home we went, another weekend trip ruined and back to Square One. It looks like we are going to cancel our vacation, too. Even if a mechanic says he has this fixed, I wouldn't feel good about making the first trip with a "fixed" trailer a 6-hour trip from home. I'd say there's a 50/50 chance that this trailer is getting ready to be traded in.

 

Just Want To Double Check That You Have Traded The Controller Out? I Know It May Be Redundent But My Prodigy Was Not One Of The Ones That They Had Known Issue With And It Went Bad After 4 Years. The Rv Shop That You Bought It From Should "loan / Trade" You One For Testing Perpose. I Would Trade Out The Unit And Drive Around Just Like You Were Heading For A Trip. See What Happens

 

Actually, I have NOT traded the Prodigy unit out. The reason why is that we have a second horse trailer that does not have a LQ. We use this trailer for shorter trips and the Prodigy has worked flawlessly with this trailer. Last weekend when the overnight trip was spoiled, we drove the second trailer Saturday and Sunday to go riding elsewhere. No issues. Same story over Labor Day weekend when that camping trip was cancelled. So, I am reluctant to believe the brake controller is at fault when it does a fine job with the other trailer.

 

Do both trailers have the same number of braking axles ?

 

Probably Most horse trailers under 18k are two axles. I was never a fan of Hart trailers