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Like PerryB said its electrical current in amps going thru trailer brake magnets that counts. Current can be checked with current checker or inline meter. Could be checked by pulling brake away cord with current meter between charged trailer battery and cable. If magnets pull proper current think about shoe to drum clearance (trailer). Most do not have auto adjust like cars and require manual adjusting.
When replacing trailer brake parts its as cheap to buy new asm. from eTrailer.com as to buy one part.
Thing to keep in mind is that the Integrated Trailer Brake Controller, is just that, Integrated. It acts as a function of the trucks brakes and sends the power to the trailer brakes as deemed necessary to slow the whole unit. It doesn't work in the same fashion as after market controllers that will send full power to the trailer when the lever is pressed. If you brake light with an after market, at some point the trailer will be doing all the braking, but with the ITBC it applies equal braking force to the trailers brakes as called for by the pressure on the brake pedal.
What is important now is to make sure that the trailers brakes are properly adjusted.
My 14 didn't lock them, nor does my 16, but the truck will stop properly with the gain set at 7.5 with my heavy travel trailer.
Read through this folks, I think this guy is onto something.
Unless the brakes are physically not powerful enough to lock the wheels due to a very heavy trailer, these things should be able to slide the tires with the level set to high, the gain set to 10 and the manual slide bar fully deflected. Ford calls the system integrated because its tied into the vehicles hydraulic system for its pressure signal, as opposed to an accelerometer which is found in the better aftermarket controllers. The primary benefit to the integrated system is when the tow vehicle goes into anti-lock mode and starts dumping line pressure, by default the trailer brake output is also reduced.Other than that, accelerometer systems work excellent and their integration/symmetry with the tow vehicle is very good. The only aftermarket units that continually ramp up power (to a preset point) are the time-based units and they are junk. I think Ford has incorporated current limiting technology based on the perceived load, which it gets from the brake circuit impedance. They haven't got their bias rate figured out correctly, and as a result this new "intelligent" system has outsmarted itself. In the thread I linked above, the poster fooled the system by adding a ballast (load) to the circuit which reduces impedance and causes the controller to increase the output.
Hmm just went out to my 2015 to check for the trailer brake settings of low, medium or high and I don't have that option either. Mind you my trailer was not connected.
I've noticed in other threads that there may be a software update for the brake controller. Perhaps I'll see if my dealer knows anything about that.
I had the same problem. At the TT dealer, they jacked up TT wheels. They used the manual brakes and it locked up my tires. Using the brake pedal the mechanic was able to spin my tires easily. There was a voltage problem coming from the truck. (seems to be a common problem the more people I talk to). I took my 17 F150 to the dealer yesterday and they found a "short" in the system. report says it was "19H332-42-E40" what ever that is. The real safety issue is that if ou stop correctly with the manual mode you assume that your brake pedals are working and that might not be the case.
Just got to the campsite, first tow with this truck. Brakes on the trailer do not lock up, but at a gain of 8, the rig has no problems stopping. I can stop with trailer only, but dont recommend it.
07-17-2017, 07:09 PM
