192 towing pull

When mine was doing that it was because one of the wire connectors for the brakes had broken.  The connectors they use aren't very good.  I reconnected the wire and it fixed the issue.

Be careful with the star adjustment. These are self adjusting brakes so shouldn't really need the start turned to tighten them. And if you overtighten them it can be very difficult to get them to release. There is a locking tang on the start that acts like a ratchet so it only tightens. You have to gently pry the tang back before you can back off star, and the star points are hard to turn in reverse.

I would definitely check that the weak brake is getting good current to it's magnet before doing anything else. As others have said, the rpod spice connectors are junk. The magnets themselves can also be bad.


For this test a clamp on DC ammeter is very handy, Allowing you to check the current flowing to each side with your brake controller activated. They are wired in parallel.

Once you are sure the brakes are getting close to the same current then go out and follow the Lippert brake burnishing procedure to get them set up right. You can find that online. That will greatly enhance their performance and help make them operate consistently.

In mine I could never get the right brake magnet to take the same current as the left so it was always weak. I wound up reconnecting the brakes in series rather than parallel, which guarantees that they get the same current, and then turned the voltage up on the controller to compensate. Problem solved.

You can buy a multimeter with DC current capability for under 40$ now. In Amazon or elsewhere. Well worth it. Be sure the clamp on ammeter function does both DC and ac, and keep it away from the magnets themselves or they will throw off the readings.

If you must use just a straight voltmeter you can disconnect the crummy "insulation displacement" type connectors at the suspect brake and be sure you're getting voltage to that point with your brake controller manually activated. That won't tell you if the magnet itself is good but it tells you something. If your meter has a resistance measurement you can check the ohm reading of the magnet while you have it disconnected. I don't recall the resistance it should have but it's in the Lippert manual. When you reconnect use good self sealing crimp connectors with glue filled heat shrink on them, and toss than old insulation displacement ones. Give them a good tug after crimping to be sure they will stay connected.


Also, I would suspect the brake which still has paint on it, not the one that doesn't. An operating brake should get hot enough to burn the paint off. When you get done wiring burnish the brakes, or that cold one will never work as well as the other one.

If the left trailer brake is engaging and the right isn't then the trailer will veer to the left at the hitch which will rotate the tow vehicle to the right If that's what you're experiencing and the right brake isn't getting hot then most probably you have a disnnected right brake.

In mine the right brake was connected to the wires to the left brake so more prone to become disconnected, and also longer wire runs so more resistive kisses, which kept that magnet from ever getting engaged as much as the left one until I rewired them in series. I even tried having only the right brake connected and burnished again so it would get hot enough to burnish properly.

If you do rewire in series be sure to turn your controller gain all the way up to try to compensate for the series connection.