I don't want to recreate the entire thread from the f150gen14 forum, however I feel we've gotten to a dead end over there. Seems a bunch of people (including myself) are having some fairly random problems with the truck not recognizing the trailer, and hence not activating the brakes at all. It has happened to me both from initial hook up, and from dropping out at some point while driving. It's incredibly frustrating and unsafe. I've tried cleaning the connector contacts, sanding them, using conductive grease, re-hooking up etc...sometimes it works, sometimes not. I just had it into the dealer and they replaced the brake control module, we'll see if it works when I head out next weekend. I have had the trailer checked and the brakes work 100% fine, others have brand new trailers so we are sure it's on the truck end.

Anyone in the same boat? I don't want to wait forever for a fix, selling the truck might be the only option.

Truck is a 2021 Ecoboost, HDPP.

 

Did you also clean and grease the connector on the back of the 7-way plug, the one down the line a bit from that, and the ground connection at the frame??

 

sounds like he did

 

Was vague on what was cleaned, sanded, and greased, may have only been the contacts on the license plate side of the 7-pin.

Inquiring minds may never know.

Come back OP!

 

Hey Guys, sorry was MIA for a few days. I only cleaned, sanded and ggreased the trailer connector. The truck end looked sparkling clean and brand new as it should be. Maybe I'll crawl underneath and poke around for other loose connections today. Presumably the dealer did that when I took it in. They said they couldn't recreate the problem with their tester, however replaced the Brake control module anyway. Unfortunately our trip got cancelled this weekend so no news as to whether anything is different.

 

Typically with issues like this I assume the issue is on the trailer, have you tried connecting to another trailer or using a test plug to see if the issue is with the truck or the trailer?

 

I have to wonder if a test plug will work. The Ford brake controller does nothing below 11mph. Maybe if the back wheels were suspended or on a dyno or something it might work.

 

Keeping in mind I have a '19 but when I'm just idling down my blacktop driveway I can skid the trailer tires if I use the manual squeeze tabs. You're correct about little braking below 20mph using the truck and trailer brakes in "normal" operation..

 

after i posted, i looked around trying to remember where i learned that...but i couldn't find it.

i can say however many times when i'm slowing to a stop, i can feel the trailer brakes release at around 10mph or so...sometimes...

 

Mine is doing the same thing. The break works great, then it doesn't. Taking it for service this week

Ill update after the service