Trailer Brake Controller Issue

Originally posted by lostagain I agree with GlueGuy, the problem is more likely in the truck.  There is probably a small circuit board in the brake controller that has a crack or something in a solder trace/line or some other conductor/connection that opens and closed, thus, having intermittent continuity.  For you, it is a safety issue b/c if the trailer is not sensed by the controller while driving, you are going to find yourself with much less braking capacity.

The trailer sense on our F-150 doesn't care if the TBC is connected or not. Even if I connect a trailer via the 4-pin connector, the truck "knows" that a trailer is connected. So the truck can sense the additional load of the lights, and lets me know via the dashboard display. Whatever that sensor is seems to be at fault (especially if all the lights work correctly).

I would think that the problem is not with the trailer or necessarily the wiring. It seems the issue is that whatever your TV uses to "sense"the existence of the trailer is at fault. If there is any way to adjust the sensitivity, or maybe just flip a switch to tell your Ram that the trailer is connected, that could be an approach.

So, here is  the story.  We have a 2017 RP-179 HRE.  Our TV is a 2017 Ram 1500 pickup equipped with a built-in trailer brake controller from the factory.  Everything worked great until our last trip.  We hooked up the trailer as usual and checked the trailer brakes before departing and all was well.  We stopped at a rest area about 70 miles down the road.  As I reentered the Interstate, I noticed a message on the dash display stating the trailer was disconnected.  I stopped at the next safe place and found all physical connections were good, trailer lights worked properly, but the trailer brake controller would not sense the presence of the trailer.  After fooling around for about 20 minutes connecting and disconnecting the cable to the trailer and turning the vehicle on and off the trailer brake controller indicated that the trailer was connected.  The trailer brakes worked properly.  All was well until we stopped again and turned off the vehicle.  When we restarted, the dash display again indicated that the trailer was disconnected.  We repeated the cable connect/disconnect procedure until the display indicated the trailer was connected.