Trailer Brake Controller Connector (4 Viewers)

[RET2]

Think you just found your issue.

 

[CharlieS]

Just spoke with Redarc support. Learned the following:

• Yes, the controller continually pulls a tiny charge from the battery as it is in "standby" mode. Even when the vehicle is not running. The activates the Blue wire.
• When you connect a trailer to the Land Cruiser the Blue wire senses that and wakes up the controller. During this start up is when my "problem" is being detected. (I pointed out that the green flashing lights happen as soon as I plug the trailer into the LC even though the LC is not "on" or in accessory mode or anything. The LC has been sitting, engine off, while I finish up the hitching process (WD bars, chains, etc.) the I plug it in. Straightaway the Redarc starts doing its green blinkies. I can look in through the driver side window and see it. The car is still off with no doors opened.
• The other anomaly is that when I tested the red wire it went from 0 to 25+ volts when I applied the brakes. It did not stop at 12 as it should have on a 12v system. So something is definitely wrong with the Red wire circuit.
• The tech support guy did say that the way I spliced into the Tekonsha harness will work if I did the splicing right. At the moment, I am suspicious of something else happening on that Red wire. Like maybe some feedback coming from the trailer or whatever. So probably no need to overnight a new harness. I probably could not get it in time anyway.

I may eventually replace my mess with the proper harness but I first want to make sure I don't have something else strange going on with the trailer or the trailer connection.

To others who are more electrically oriented, is there a diode or something that can be added to prevent his trailer from back feeding 25 volts back to the tow vehicle?

 

[RET2]

Where in the heck is 25v coming from in a trailer would be my question.

 

[CharlieS]

If I read his other post correctly, it is coming from a solar charging system on his camper. He said that he had to manually disconnect it on the trailer side to resolve the issues of back feeding from the camper. If it was me, I'd want to poka yoke that setup (idiot proof). Great question though!

 

[RET2]

If I read his other post correctly, it is coming from a solar charging system on his camper. He said that he had to manually disconnect it on the trailer side to resolve the issues of back feeding from the camper. If it was me, I'd want to poka yoke that setup (idiot proof). Great question though!

25V? Crap, sounds like he doesn't have a charge controller on the panel. Time to rewire the trailer. Trailers are a problem waiting to happen in one way or another.

 

[linuxgod]

Thanks, @afgman786. I'll re do all the testing tomorrow AM. I have a suspicion that I may be getting voltage from my trailer that is throwing things off and causing the Redarc to go into the green blinkys mode. Our new trailer has solar directly connected to the battery and therefore we are supposed to leave the battery connect switch (controls whether the trailer battery is connected to the tow vehicle) in the disconnected position. The battery is maintained and charged all the time by the solar panels. I noticed this afternoon that I had the switch in the wrong position. We'll see tomorrow now that I know how to use my fancy multi-meter. Definitely a learning process.

Interesting. My solar panels run through a charge controller which steps the panel voltage down from 18-19V to the 13-14.6V range. I never disconnect the battery or the solar panels when I hitch up, and under normal circumstances you shouldn't need to either.

What type of charge controller does your trailer have between the solar panels and the battery? It sounds like your panels are wired in series and generating 24-36V. If you don't have a charge controller then you're cooking your battery as it should never go about ~14.6V. But that seems unlikely. If you do have one then it sounds like it's most likely a positive ground charge controller, which is fine if your trailer is isolated (and nothing in it tries to use the chassis as a separate ground) but might be wreaking havoc when you connect your trailer to the truck.

 

[Dan Higgins]

I am sorry, folks. There is no icon for egg on the face so you'll just have to imagine it. Maybe these work: The 25v is not real. I was using the multi-meter incorrectly. Stupid. But that is what can happen when you are in new territory and in a hurry. Thanks to @afgman786 for pointing this out to me.

Geoff, the solar panels and controller are the stock setup from GoPower that Lance uses. And, yes, it is typically reading ~13.7. It will get up to 14.7 when we have been using it more and drawing down the power. (I'm currently using an older AGM battery and will likely switch to lithium in the Spring.)

So I expect there is voltage coming from the trailer as a result of the trailer battery disconnect switch being in the "connected" position. But enough to mess with the Redarc? I did get an email from Mark Bruce at Redarc overnight. He said the blinking green light sequence that I am seeing (I sent him a video) tells him that the TowPro is trying to calibrate but may not be able to see the trailer. He wants me to verify whether or not the TowPro is receiving a signal from the brake light trigger. I will head over to the trailer this morning (when our Air Quality Index here in Bend, OR gets below the "Dangerous" rating of 434!)

 

[linuxgod]

You should not have to disconnect the battery when you tow. I have the same Redarc and I leave my Lance trailer battery connected. My solar panels stay connected as well. I'd be very curious if you disconnect just the solar panels/charge controller if this issue goes away.

Regarding battery voltages:

• 14.8-15V is equalization, which should only happen monthly and should only happen to wet cell batteries. Not all chargers support this
• ~14.6V is bulk charge. The precise max value depends on the battery. If your battery is low in the morning you'll typically see this for a couple hours.
• ~14.4V is absorption charging, which should happen for a while after bulk charge until the battery is nearly ful
• 13.6V is float charge... "trickle" charging if you will.

Some chargers only have 2 or 3 stages, some have all 4.

Note that a recently charged battery might show >14V if you hook up your multitester. That doesn't mean it's fully charged though, there's a surface charge that you need to dissipate to get the real battery state of charge (SOC) by applying a load to the battery for a bit

 

[Dan Higgins]

Another SQOD. I understand that if I attempt to clean off the 7-pin socked on the LC I need to be careful about the fact that at least one of the wires is hot. If I remove the back wire on the battery then that problem goes away, right? I paid Toyota to clean out that plug when I had it in for service but I'm not sure the guy knew what I wanted or what he was doing. So I am thinking of attacking it with a stiff brush, making sure the pronged are in good position and then applying some dielectric grease (again). Once again, though, I don't understand electrical stuff so I want to be sure I don't short something out or whatever.

@linuxgod, thanks for the info on the solar setup. I remember some of that but my mind doesn't capture detail like yours does! 99% of the time my solar charger is reading the proper trickle charge. In fact, it is operating correctly. It is not the most advanced controller but it appears to be working. I do know that on the Lance trailer forums there was some confusion about the implications of the solar being wired directly to the battery. But the only consideration that has had for me is that I covered the panels with a blanket so they were not producing energy when I swapped out the stock battery for the AGM that I have.

I'm heading over to the trailer in the next hour or so and will re-test the various connections with the multi-meter in the proper setting this time.

I also plan to replace my spliced wiring with the Land Cruiser specific wiring harness from Redarc. But it will take some time for it to get to me. And it is not clear that it is the cause of this issue.

 

[linuxgod]

@Dan Higgins , FYI I have a pair of 40A breakers on either side of my charge controller. I can manually trip them if I need to do any maintenance up or downstream of the controller. They're knock-off BlueSea breakers and were about $20 a piece IIRC. No cardboard needed(tm).

There is probably a fuse for the trailer wiring you can pull. Yes pulling either the + or - battery cable will also suffice. It's 12V so you're not going to kill yourself if you submerge it in water, but you might pop a fuse upstream I suppose.

 

[Dan Higgins]

Update. Good news - I can’t reproduce the problem. Bad news - I can’t reproduce the problem. Taking the trailer out next week. We’ll see if the problem comes back. Thanks again to everyone for your patience with my fumbling around.

 

[CharlieS]

Aside from the LC controller issue you should check your trailer Solar this week and see what type of Voltage the panels are putting out. 14.7 is high for general charging even for AGMs and will shorten the life of your trailer battery. That is up in the equalize area but most AGMs don't like being equalized. Check your charge controller display and see if it has adjustable profiles that may need to be tailored to your specific battery profile. You can find your battery charging suggestions on the internet usually. I made sure to do this as well as add a temp sensor to both my vans solar systems in hopes of being more efficient and keeping the batteries alive as long as possible. Good job learning this on your own.
Eric
Hoping that 25 Volts was a bad read as you would probably hear your battery boiling.

Maybe that depends on the AGM? Odyssey tech told me 14.7 volts is ideal for the one I have.

 

[CharlieS]

Redarc bcdc 1225 for the auxiliary battery, and a diode on the alternator circuit for the starting battery.

 

[Dan Higgins]

Aside from the LC controller issue you should check your trailer Solar this week and see what type of Voltage the panels are putting out. 14.7 is high for general charging even for AGMs and will shorten the life of your trailer battery. That is up in the equalize area but most AGMs don't like being equalized. Check your charge controller display and see if it has adjustable profiles that may need to be tailored to your specific battery profile. You can find your battery charging suggestions on the internet usually. I made sure to do this as well as add a temp sensor to both my vans solar systems in hopes of being more efficient and keeping the batteries alive as long as possible. Good job learning this on your own.
Eric
Hoping that 25 Volts was a bad read as you would probably hear your battery boiling.

Thanks! 14.7 stuck in my memory but I may have been off by a couple of tenths. It wasn't higher than that. The GoPower controller is set to the AGM setting. Normal reading is 13.4 or 5 or something close to that. The only time I happen to see it higher is when we have been using the battery overnight and it has dropped a fair bit (never more than 60% in our limited use.) As for the 25V reading. That was "clueless user" error.

 

[RET2]

Thanks! 14.7 stuck in my memory but I may have been off by a couple of tenths. It wasn't higher than that. The GoPower controller is set to the AGM setting. Normal reading is 13.4 or 5 or something close to that. The only time I happen to see it higher is when we have been using the battery overnight and it has dropped a fair bit (never more than 60% in our limited use.) As for the 25V reading. That was "clueless user" error.

I'll take that kind of error because 25V could have proved catastrophic. Glad it's working out.

 

[Dan Higgins]

Just came from the trailer and the solar controller is sitting at 13.4. That is what we essentially always see. Also, I connected the cable and everything was good. I don't know if it is making a difference but because I use an extension for the cord my process now is to plug the extension into the LC which is always a bit awkward given the location of the LC's plug. Then I connect the extension to the trailer where I can make it fast, smooth and clean.

On a slightly different note I showed the blinking green light sequence on the TowPros dashboard control button to Mark Bruce of Redarc using a video. Here was his answer:

"The video indicates to me the TowPro is trying to calibrate however may not be able to see the trailer? We need to verify whether or not the TowPro is receiving a signal from the brake light trigger?"​

 

[Dan Higgins]

So the latest in my continuing saga. Still having the issue intermittently. Today I received the recommended wiring harness from Redarc. This one has plugs on both ends rather than the bare wires that were on one end of the harness I originally received with my TowPro Elite. (Thanks to @afgman786 for suggesting this though what I received is different than what he had.) Mark Bruce at Redarc support recommended I consider using this. The idea is that I can replace all of my lame splicing into the Tekonsha harness and plug this directly into “something”. So that is the question. Where do I plug this in? Also, is the white wire with the “eye” on the end intended as ground and if so where should I connect that. Here is a pic of what I received.

 

[afgman786]

So the latest in my continuing saga. Still having the issue intermittently. Today I received the recommended wiring harness from Redarc. This one has plugs on both ends rather than the bare wires that were on one end of the harness I originally received with my TowPro Elite. (Thanks to @afgman786 for suggesting this though what I received is different than what he had.) Mark Bruce at Redarc support recommended I consider using this. The idea is that I can replace all of my lame splicing into the Tekonsha harness and plug this directly into “something”. So that is the question. Where do I plug this in? Also, is the white wire with the “eye” on the end intended as ground and if so where should I connect that. Here is a pic of what I received.
View attachment 2452508

Yes that white wire is ground. If you remove the panels to get to where your tekonsha is plugged in. You'll unplug that harness and the white end will go straight into that. There is also a bolt under the steering wheel that goes into a metal bracket, I used that to ground the white wire.

I can get the pics tomorrow for you if no one else has em handy.

 

[Sasquatch1]

Not sure if this helps but it may show you where you are now, and shed light on what is being suggested as a change.

 

[Dan Higgins]

Thanks, @afgman786! I would hate for you to need to pull apart your dash to take pics! The last time I had it apart I saw that the harness I spliced into had a white plug that plugged into a socked on the left side to the left of the steering wheel. I am hoping it is as simple as unplugging that and replacing it with the white plug on the end of the RedArc harness I just received. Also, thanks for the tip on the White cable and where to ground it. If this works it will certainly simplify things. If the problem continues to show up we at least will know that it is not my splicing! BTW, if anyone needs this Redarc TPH-021 harness they were out of stock at Redarc but I was able to get it through eTrailer. Though at eTrailer it shows as a different part number. But what was delivered is the Redarc version as the picture showed.

Also, thanks, @Sasquatch1. You are correct. The picture on the left side of the PDF is what I attempted to do. I am guessing (hoping) that the issues I have had are a result of my poor (or absence of) splicing skills!

I plan to attack this tomorrow.