MichaelInCalifornia

2015 Ecoboost with factory TBC.

I rented a trailer (see my other thread) and I'm convinced the trailer had brake issues and looking for comments or criticism. 3500 lb dry weight with little else on board. Dual axle, haven't a clue if both axles have brakes.

I hooked up the trailer, and created a new trailer profile for it and that worked. I selected electric brakes and set a gain of 7 to start with and drove it home. I took it for a shakedown drive and it handled well, but regardless of gain setting, I couldn't seem to notice the trailer doing any of the braking. I set the gain at 10 and squeezed the controller and could not get lock up nor any appreciable drag. I'd get only two bars on the trailer status for brakes. Never more than two bars regardless of how hard I brakes, though I didn't try a panic stop.

My thought is the truck is fine and the rented trailer has mal-adjusted or worn out brakes.

I'm curious though about the gain setting and the bars on the status graph. Is it that the trailer can't accept any more power or is it that the truck won't generate any more power, or is something else going on? I haven't the experience to diagnose.

Comments appreciated...

Martian

Well FWIW, I towed a flatbed trailer with my wife's car on it this weekend (maybe 3-4000?lbs total). It was my first time with a brake controller and first time ever towing anything. I could feel the trailer brake when I set it too high but I couldn't get it to lock up except on dirt roads, which doesn't count. But when I get up on highway speeds, it definitely helped. Before this weekend, I rode with my brother-in-law with the same trailer and a race truck on it, and he has no brake controller. It's easy to feel the trailer pushing the truck at a stop. When I pulled it with my truck and controller, I could definitely feel the brakes.

In short: I was worried because at slow speeds I didn't feel much, but when I actually got moving, it was noticeable and comforting.

Loki 5.0

My factory controller on the f250 also has three level adjustment in addition to gain. Light, medium and heavy. You might check that on the f150 to see if those adjustments are availble.

MichaelInCalifornia

As far as I know, no such setting. There is a setting for electric or electric over hydraulic.

humblerb

I read your other post. It is my belief it was the trailer's brakes. If you set the gain on 10 and manually squeezed the TBC and couldn't feel anything, my bet would be a trailer issue.
The trailer you described was in fairly poor condition (or well-used and not so well maintained).
Also, I hear a lot of people commenting that they are pulling a 5,000# or heavier trailer and they can't get the brakes to lock up during trial runs. That is too much weight to get the brakes to lock up. You should notice it slow down very fast, but locking the brakes on a 5,000#, 6,000#, 7,000# trailer is asking a lot of a trailer brake system.

MichaelInCalifornia

New info: Guy are the rental place says the brakes were serviced two months ago. Doesn't mean it was a competent job though.

Still waiting on the answer about how many bars on my bargraph I should see.

brulaz

Think you should be able to set it all the way to 10 bars if you want.
And get 10 bars out when you hit the brakes.
Might be a poor electrical connection somewhere, perhaps a bad ground in the trailer?

Do know somebody with another working trailer that you can test the truck on?

MichaelInCalifornia

Yes, at some point, but its a 7000 lb gross trailer. I could tow it around the block for a test, but wouldn't go far without a WD hitch. I't a toy hauler, so its dry weight is likely less than 5000 lbs. I'd rather not mess with his hitch configuration.

brulaz

You would just need to plug it in electrically to test how your brake controller is working. Set the controller to 8, say, then apply the brakes and see if it goes up to 8. If it sits at 2, then you will know something is wrong with your truck's controller as that's what happened with the other trailer.

LostSoul

What procedure are you using to test the trailer brake? 25MPH on a straight, level road? manually squeeze TBC without using truck brake?