Troubleshooting Trailer Wiring Not Showing Connection Consistently on 45 ft Fifth Wheel

Question:

Good morning I am needing some advice. We have a 2021 3500HD which we have used to pull a 32ft fifth wheel, a 30ft boat and a utility trailer. No issues with trailer brakes for these trailers. We recently traded in the fifth wheel for a 45ft one and issues are intermittent. Truck recognizes the trailer but trailer brakes are intermittent. We took the trailer in for it to be looked at, they found and fixed a couple of. They now can hook it to a different truck and trailer brakes work but they still dont have power with our truck. We took the truck in and they find nothing wrong with it,!. So we have a truck that has trailer braheon other trailers but this 45ft one and we have a trailer that has brakes with different trucks! Obviously something is wrong. Do you think this controller just doesnt have enough power for this length of trailer? If so what do you recommend? Thx

asked by: Kim

Expert Reply:

Do the brakes perform differently if both trailers are connected vs. just one of the trailers? It's possible that your trailer wiring connectors just don't like each other for some reason between the truck and the trailer. I would check to make sure all of the pins are clean and not bent or damaged.

Sometimes there's issues if the gauge of the output circuit is too thin. I would make sure you have at the very least 10 gauge wire like part # 10-1-1 for this circuit on both trailers.

expert reply by: Jameson C