After swapping out the axles, springs and hangars, wheels and brakes on my dump trailer for heavier ones I hooked up for a test drive. The brake controller still set at 10 from the last time towing I slid the handle over and the brakes were fine, set off on the test drive and lowered the controller to 4 as the trailer was empty. After the test drive as I neared home I once again tried the manual handle all the way over and next to nothing happened so I drove around slowly trying it all the time and still not much brake action. Later I took all the brakes apart cleaned and inspected them, readjusted the brakes and his morning I test drove again, YUP still the same.. Puzzled I turned the controller all the way to 10 then used the manual handle, bingo brake action back to normal. I didn't realize that if the controller is turned down and you use the manual handle for max braking you will only get the max the controller is set for, lesson learned.

 

I had a dot inspector do me that way an I had to explain that to him.....he was new to the job...

 

To revive an old thread but has anyone noticed that if you change the attitude of the truck the brake controller operates differently? Now it makes sense for if the truck is going up or down a hill but I added airbags to my 2011 recently and noticed right away that the trailer brakes hang on for a split second after truck brake release when setting off, almost like a "hill holder" situation.