Trailer Brake Problems

[obski]

This is all interesting. I have never had a problem backing up the trailer with or without the boat when using my Tahoe. This past weekend when we pulled the boat with the motorhome, I had my brother in law launch the boat with his F150 pickup. We found that he couldn't back up the trailer without it locking up. We thought it might be the angle of the tongue on the hitch. We were able to back up with me standing on the back of the truck pushing the boat away to keep it from locking up. It was only for a short distance and it worked, but this thread sheds some light on why it was happening.

[Baddog]

This is all interesting. I have never had a problem backing up the trailer with or without the boat when using my Tahoe. This past weekend when we pulled the boat with the motorhome, I had my brother in law launch the boat with his F150 pickup. We found that he couldn't back up the trailer without it locking up. We thought it might be the angle of the tongue on the hitch. We were able to back up with me standing on the back of the truck pushing the boat away to keep it from locking up. It was only for a short distance and it worked, but this thread sheds some light on why it was happening.

It sounds like a common theme with the Fords. I guess Ford stands for:

F lip

O ver

R etarded

P lug

(eh, close to FORD)

[Rizzo]

Thanks man, I'll give it a search this weekend I hope it's this simple to fix.

Sorry Rizzo, didn't see this yesterday. Our fuse was in the fuse box that's located under the hood. Your owner's manual should have a diagram of what fuse is for what (it seems like on our '01 there's about 3 pages of fuse diagrams ). I don't remember exactly what it was called, but I do remember looking for anything that had to do with either backup lights or trailer lights. We pulled fuses one at a time until we found the right one & sure enough it was blown. That cured the problem for us.

Ummm, FYI, Wakegirl is a girl.

R U sure? I'll take YOUR word for it though... sorry sorry... my bad... I'll try to pay more attention.... and by the way. I never found any bad fuse and flipping the plug... well that doesn't make any sense either on a 7 pin... or whatever number of pins the stock pluggy thingy is. They only plug in one way. I'll worry about it next spring... we're done for the year.

[obski]

I got out my bag I received when I bought my boat this year. There was a bunch of stuff regarding the trailer I hadn't really looked at. In that pile was a metal piece to insert to prevent the actuator from engaging. To be used specifically if you are backing up when hooked up to a plug that gives the wrong signal to the trailer. You of course should not tow with it in as you then have no brakes. Now I know why they include that with the trailer - in case you are trying to back it up with a Ford.

[CarveItUp]

Thanks man, I'll give it a search this weekend I hope it's this simple to fix.

Sorry Rizzo, didn't see this yesterday. Our fuse was in the fuse box that's located under the hood. Your owner's manual should have a diagram of what fuse is for what (it seems like on our '01 there's about 3 pages of fuse diagrams ). I don't remember exactly what it was called, but I do remember looking for anything that had to do with either backup lights or trailer lights. We pulled fuses one at a time until we found the right one & sure enough it was blown. That cured the problem for us.

Ummm, FYI, Wakegirl is a girl.

R U sure? I'll take YOUR word for it though... sorry sorry... my bad... I'll try to pay more attention.... and by the way. I never found any bad fuse and flipping the plug... well that doesn't make any sense either on a 7 pin... or whatever number of pins the stock pluggy thingy is. They only plug in one way. I'll worry about it next spring... we're done for the year.

Check the 7-wire receptacle to make sure you are getting signal on the backup lead. My bet is that the signal is never getting to the receptacle...