Arrived home a few days ago with a 'new' 32 foot fiver. Had a hitch installed in the truck on the way up and they told me that they could not get the brake control to work. Why they even touched it is a mystery to me as all they were supposed to do was install the hitch. When I don't use it for long periods of time I disconnect it. All I had to do was connect one wire, which I did once I hooked up to the fiver. No lights lit up on the control as usual. Strange, as it worked well will last time I used it. As the RV was sitting near some fire ants (guess how I found out) I decided to pull it about 30 feet away and then work on it. Had to drag it with the brakes locked.

To cut a long story short, I eventually discovered that if I disconnect the RV from the truck, the brakes on the RV unlocked. They locked up again as soon as I plugged it back in. Now what? So took a chance and drove it with the fiver unhooked electrically. That did not last long as I decided that it was too unsafe because I could not stop quickly enough. Stopped at a Camping World and bought a Tekonsha Primus control. Next stop was Home Depot and bought a cheapie VOM so that I could do some trouble shooting. Discovered that the guys that installed my hitch had dug into the wires under the panel and somehow connected both the ground wire and the positive wire on my controller to the positive side of the battery. The Jordan came to life once I connected it correctly, but does not seem to be working right. It was enough to get me home from just north of Dallas to central Mexico.

After all the long sob story above, I have two questions. Anybody have any opinion on the Primus brake controller? Yeah, I know, it's a bit late to ask now that I have already bought it, but am curious. As I still had about 800 miles to go to reach home I was desperate to get the RV brakes working. The next questions is: The instructions tell me to hook it up to the cold wire on brake switch. Simple, right? Wrong! There are six wires going to the brake switch on my truck. I took a look at the Dodge brake schematic, but am still not positive I know which is the cold wire. It looks like I can use either the brown/red wire or the dark green/red wires. Anybody know for sure which one of the six wires to use? Or can I use any of the wires that become hot once I touch the brake pedal?

 

Did your truck have a wiring harness for just the brake controller? If so, the 'cold' wire you need should be in that harness; small, red.

Tony

 

The Primus is a good controller but if the Jordan is working why change it? If the goofs messed with your wiring they might have messed with the adjustment of the cable on the Jordan, causing it to not work correctly. If it were me, I'd do all I could to keep the Jordan.

As for the Primus. Any wire on the brake switch that comes hot when the pedal is depressed will activate the controller.