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New Mbryson tow pig...”Sweaty Betty” - 2010 F350 V10

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rholbrook

Well-Known Member
Location
Kaysville, Ut
Run through your trailer wires everywhere it goes through the frame or some other metal. Make sure that the wires running from each side of the brakes are clear of any nicks. I have seen a wire in the middle of the axle have a small nick in it causing all kinds of issues. We tend to drag axles over things and if the wires aren't tucked up properly, they can get nicked up. Remove all the trailer grounds and clean them up real good. Verify that the wiring to your trailer battery is all good and connected properly. The truck powers that when connected but if disconnected, the batter powers it but if it isn't connected properly then it can cause a fault.

I know some of these things would usually pop a fuse but I have seen crazier things.
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
rholbrook said:
Run through your trailer wires everywhere it goes through the frame or some other metal. Make sure that the wires running from each side of the brakes are clear of any nicks. I have seen a wire in the middle of the axle have a small nick in it causing all kinds of issues. We tend to drag axles over things and if the wires aren't tucked up properly, they can get nicked up. Remove all the trailer grounds and clean them up real good. Verify that the wiring to your trailer battery is all good and connected properly. The truck powers that when connected but if disconnected, the batter powers it but if it isn't connected properly then it can cause a fault.

I know some of these things would usually pop a fuse but I have seen crazier things.
Click to expand...


Did all that last night. Being a long trailer and a PJ (they run electrical through tube or conduit when they can) there's a lot of wire so I'm SURE there are areas that could still be affected by a short. The "normal" areas (chafing potential) have been checked a few times. The trailer wire runs down the side rectangular tube to the taillights then back up to the axles (with two white wires ?--was looking for a "chase" on a wire but didn't find one). My running lights and turn signals are totally fine. The only way to know for sure would be to rewire it (probably smart to do at some point--Where's Panos?). The brakes DID work for the commute this morning. I'm sure it's a short of some kind?

Bonus was that when I woke up this morning, I didn't have transportation to work other than the truck that was still attached to the trailer. I'm knocking out about 6 hours today. Bonus with that was that I was able to put the truck on a scale with the empty trailer.... any guesses?
---My '99 7.3L PSD F250 shortbed crew was 7780 lbs.
---28' PJ trailer with wood deck
 
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glockman

glockman

I hate Jeep trucks
Location
Pleasant Grove
One of my super duties had a ton of corrosion on the back side of the plug on the truck. The actual plug is two pieces. The harness side plugs into the back of the plug body, that is where the corrosion was.
 
Hickey

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
Location
Grantsville, Utah
glockman said:
One of my super duties had a ton of corrosion on the back side of the plug on the truck. The actual plug is two pieces. The harness side plugs into the back of the plug body, that is where the corrosion was.
Click to expand...
That's a good spot to check. Take it apart and hit it with some electrical parts cleaner and then dielectric grease.
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
Not much corrosion but a very small amount nestled in the heavily greased plug. I bypassed the “in bed” plug and have a connection that’s working.

I’m taking the Tekonsha just in case
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
......and we had intermittent brakes on the way down to Moab. Still some work to do. The trans downshifts pretty aggressively and paired with the brake it’s awesome.

Truck did pretty well on the hills, up and down. Crested Thistle at 60 but that was after I got pinched and slowed down to 40ish. Can’t complain about that. Did 65 over Soldiers in third gear (?). Display says 7.0 mpg since we left Woods Cross. I fueled in Wellington with over 1/4 tank. Display said I had 108 miles left (or something like that) so I assume I could get to Green River? With the brake controller being gah, I thought we should just mosey down the highway rather than tinker with it to much.


(Check engine light is the evaporative code still. I think I’ll need a new PCM to fix that?)

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Greg

Greg

Strength and Honor!
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
On GM trucks, there's a vent for the evap. system that gets plugged and sets off the the CEL. It's easy to pull and clean, then reset the light and it goes away. What code do you get?
 
T

Toad

Well-Known Member
Location
Millville(logan)
I dealt with a similar trailer brake issue just a few weeks ago. My Ram would say check trailer connection. My chevy has a regular old controller and the display on that would flash. Sometimes brakes worked great sometimes not at all. Checked wiring. Cleaned grounds. Replaced trailer connector. Replaced vehicle side on my chevy. My issue ended up being with the magnets themselves on the trailer brakes. The surface of my drums were the magnets come in contact were also grooved. I ended replacing drums and entire brake plates. No more problems.
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
Just got home and am happy to report I had trailer brakes all the way home. Truck performed quite well. I always forget how steep the Helper hills are. I mostly didn’t have issue maintaining speed up the 55 mph curves but did get bogged down to about 50 mph at one point. 6.4 mpg on the display for the whole trip.

My wife rode home from EJS 2019 with me rather than the kids in her Lincoln. She commented that she thought the gooseneck was WAY better than any of the bumper pulls. The truck is really a great truck. Good price and good bang for the buck.

Oh, fun fact on the integrated brake controller. If you plug in a Tekonsha, the truck won’t even crank to start. If you unplug the Tekonsha and the integrated controller, remove the battery cable for about 5 min, it will start UNTIL you plug in the Tekonsha.

Big Sarge happened to have his 2017 (?) Power Wagon nearby and we plugged into that dog. It had similar issues with my trailer that my truck did! Progress is good! I knew the green, yellow and brown wires were what they needed to be. White is ground on my trailer and was in the right spot on the connector cover..... wait, there’s a wiring diagram on there! Nice! The red and black leads were reversed. Switch those and I’ve got a connection on the display of the truck!

Bart was right! Wiring was “fixed” by previous owner? Good to go now!
 
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Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
Glad you got it fixed. I'll never understand an owner that changes a truck wiring to match an existing trailer, but then again my dad did it twice. BTW, there were 2 hills on the way home that my train dropped to 50 mph, but I wasn't pushing it.
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
Just got a new PCM yesterday. Despite knowing a couple of the service writers at Performance Ford, I’m over that place. We need a place for some minor warranty stuff on the Lincoln so we’ll give LHM Truckland a shot on that?

Evans Automotive in North Salt Lake has been fair to me and my kids on a few issues I couldn’t take care of in the past. They confirmed diagnosis of a bad PCM and replaced it yesterday. I have about 50-60 miles on the truck with new PCM now and haven’t had a check engine light yet. Here’s for hoping.

Despite the heavy loads this thing gets thrown at it, I like the truck quite a bit. On a hill, with load, and trying to pass someone and duck back into the climbing lane, I do wish for a turbo but otherwise I’m very happy with the V10 and the coil spring front axle.
 
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