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[RC] Help--no brakes! - Mary Krauss

Summary: I've pulled a 36' steel stock trailer for over a year with no trouble. However, during the past few months, the braking has gotten weird.

It began on a descent near Yakima, WA, when I limped into a gas station, certain we'd gotten the most dramatic flat on the planet: "whomp, whomp, whomp." No flat, just a worried mare with a cut on her forehead. I fiddled with the brake controller, seemed set right, pulled out, better, but far from perfect.

Since then the problem is getting worse. By adjusting the controller I can get it less bad for a bit, then it gets horrid again. Mostly the problem occurs when we are going down a steep grade--which is about all there is around here.... After two harrowing trips over the pass on Mt. Hood, I'm about to hang up all notions of driving to rides--all of which are at least 5 hr. trips with big passes....

What I've tried: adjusting the controller a billion times; having the brakes checked at the trailer place in town (competent people who had no trouble with the trailer when towing it with their vehicle); having the guy at the hitch place drive the trailer, unloaded. He says perhaps we've "glazed" the brake. I can tell he also suspects I don't know how to adjust the controller. However, after HE adjusted the controller, I had even worse problems.

The trailer people think the controller is bad, the hitch guy (who installed the controller) thinks the brakes are bad....

Questions: would buying a Prodigy controller solve all my problems? Could my truck's brakes be the problem even though they perform normally when we're not towing? (Pads still 90% on truck and trailer-- I'm not big into using my brakes!)

All help and advice welcome!!!!!

Mary K.


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