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Old 02-07-2006, 01:14 PM   #1
JH Sechelt
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M.O.C. #4976
Ford Brake controller Message!!!!

For those of us out there pulling our monties with 2005 Ford trucks with the intergrated brake controller.

Like others, I kept getting warnings on the message board in the center of my dashboard telling me my trailer has become unplugged. that in itself was bad enough but that constant beep that came with each warning was enough to drive you nuts.

Now thanks to this MOC Forums I found the problem. It is not easy just to pop over to our dealer (100 miles away plus a ferry to catch ), it costs too much to go there with every little thing that's wrong, so I try to fix as much as I can on my own.

I had checked all conections, ( juction box under the pin box and all the conections to the brake drums, and could not find any problem.
I was sure my truck was OK as we have pulled our last trailer all over the west coast and never had a problem.

...........anyways after reading as much as I could find on this forum I decided it must be inside one of the brake drums. Now which one?
It seems that most of the problems were found in the right rear drum, so why not. I took the tire and then the drum off and there it was, right there.

The Magenet has two wires going to it and one of them was rubbed right thru to the copper wire. The wires have two little clips that hold them to the actuator Arm, and one had come loose or was never clipped on. The rubbed part of the wire was about 1 & 1/2 " in front of the magnet. It was rubbing on the face of the brake drum right where the wheel studs go thru the drum. Not a hard fix, a little Electrian's tape, Hook up the wire clip properly, make sure nothing is going to rub and put the drum and `wheel back together. Took it out for a 15 mile ride a little while ago and not a peep.

thanks to everyone who takes the time to post on this forum. It can be very educational when we all work together, like we do on Montanaowners.com


John & Dawn
 
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Old 02-07-2006, 01:23 PM   #2
richfaa
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I wonder why that problem happens in the right rear drum most of the time...Just wrote that down on my ask the Montana rep... list of questions...must be a reason why???? Makes me want to have the dealer pull off the right rear drum on the PDI and check it out...
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Old 02-07-2006, 02:03 PM   #3
Charlie
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John-
I hope that it was one of my posts that you read and I was able to save you a major headache. Mine failed while on the road the first trip out and was able to get to a dealer in Oklahoma to get it fixed. Door side rear wheel was my problem also.
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Old 02-07-2006, 02:33 PM   #4
CRUZIN 2
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Mine was the rear driver's side, I fixed it myself and the dealer gave me credit for fixing it, we live 150 miles from our dealer. Larry & LaVonne
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Old 02-07-2006, 03:19 PM   #5
JH Sechelt
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Charlie,

I am sure I read it on one of your posts as well as others. Ours also failed on the first trip ( we camped for a few days when we picked our 2980RL up in late November), but too close to home to take it back. I agree with Rich, Weird so many right rear wheels. Maybe someone should have a talk to that person on the assembly line.

John
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Old 02-08-2006, 10:27 AM   #6
HomeOnTheRoad
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It is nice your built in controller is smart enough to know there is a problem in the trailer brakes and tell you about it.
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Old 02-08-2006, 02:02 PM   #7
hazmic
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I would be interested in what Keystone says about this.My 06 3475 had the same wheel,right rear and the same thing. I am lucky enough to have a Brakesmart controller. It told me also that there was a problem. The deal about this is that the axles are from Dexter and not Keystone. I would say that it's a Dexter problem. I think that the axles that come from Dexter,come assembled with springs. Must be the person that is at Dexter.
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Old 02-08-2006, 02:29 PM   #8
Montana Sky
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Well now I am wondering if this is something I should look into. I have the Tekonsha Voyager brake controller, so far it has not told me anything was wrong but, not sure if it even would tell me.
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Old 02-08-2006, 03:22 PM   #9
Charlie
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Dave-
My brake controller is an older Draw-Tite that I have had on two trailers and in two trucks, one of the first electric controllers available on the market. It is not as sophisticated as the Tekonsha and the display was showing overload and errors. I did not have to rely on the controller at all, I knew when I lost the trailer brakes. It started intemittently and then completely failed. When the wire shorted on mine, all the brakes failed at one time. No fuses were blown, just lost the brakes. There will not be a question if you are having a problem behind you.
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Old 02-08-2006, 03:58 PM   #10
JH Sechelt
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Montana Sky,

Does your controller show a Green light or anything when the trailer is connected
and turn red when it is not? The Ford one shows a little green trailer on it when a trailer is
connected and everything is OK, it turns red when the trailer is disconnected. Apparently it is very sensitive
and even shows a wire grounding out. On my Lariet it is connected to a message center on the dashboard and will tell you if the trailer is disconnected or if there is a different problem with the trailer braking system.
Ours started out saying the trailer was disconnected and as the wire shorting out became worse it changed to say
(trailer fault), meaning that there is something wrong with the trailer's braking system.
So far I'm pretty impressed although having a faulty brake system in the trailer when it is brand new was a bit of a bummer.I don't think it is a huge problem with the Montana's, I,ve only see a handfull on this forum and I'm sure Keystone sold thousands of these units. Something to watch for when doing the brakes on the monty. There is not much room inside the drum if the wires are not tucked into where they belong.

Take Care
John
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Old 02-08-2006, 04:19 PM   #11
Montana Sky
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My brake controller does have a little green light the comes on when the coach is connected, as I apply the brakes it starts to turn from green to red. The harder I brake the darker red it becomes, when I let off the brake it goes back to green. When I disconnect the coach from the plug in the little green light goes out. I guess if there is no light while plugged in that would indicate there is not a complete circuit between the controller and the brakes. And as Charlie said, one will know if the trailer brakes are not working as you find yourself standing on the truck brakes.
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Old 02-09-2006, 02:43 AM   #12
richfaa
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The brake controller on our previous Tv never showed a problem but the Ford Controller did (same TT) one wheel was not braking.The Ford Controller picked it right up..If there is a handful of reports of the problem on the Same wheel on this forum I would assume there are many, many more out there with the problem who are not on this forum..I will ask the montana rep about this at the RV show..Agree that it is the Axle manufacturer problem..not keystones.
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Old 02-10-2006, 11:03 AM   #13
bwney
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We're having the same problem with our 3400 and Ford f350. All was good from Texas to Orlando, Florida where we started getting error messages.

I took the right rear tire off this morning, and the hub is a little more difficult to remove than I want to tackle in this campground. It's not like some cars where you can take off the tire and pull the brakedrum. The outer bearing and retaining hardware needs removed, too.

If I was sure which wheel it was....
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Old 04-01-2006, 12:51 PM   #14
bwney
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Our Brake problem is fixed! Our 3400 has been at he dealer for about 6 weeks (roof repair, my fault). When I left it, I had a few other things to be fixed, the biggest one being the brake controller constantly erroring.

They put a tester of some type on, and everything checked out. They didn't pull any wheels, but let me me know the problem is almost always with the Ford Controller. I was skeptical.....

When I went to pick up the trailer Friday, I insisted they pull the wheels. They agreed, grudgingly. 3 out of 4 grease seals were blown, and grease coated the pads, magnets, and drums. Nothing ran out, wheels and hubs were clean on the outside. The right rear was exceptioanlly bad, grease was packed solid between the shoes and magnet.

Montana stepped up, and agreed to replace all 4 complete brake assemblies. Trailer only has 3500 miles, hadn't even occurred to me yet to grease the wheels. I haven't owned a grease gun in 20 years.

On the 50 mile drive home, no brake errors. Had to adjust the brake controller from 9 to 6.5. It was good day.
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Old 04-01-2006, 04:01 PM   #15
HomeOnTheRoad
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It is not just wires in the drum on the right rear. I have had lotsa tire problems over the years and most have been tires on the right rear. I wonder why.
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Old 04-01-2006, 05:01 PM   #16
JH Sechelt
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Brant & Sylvia,

Glad to hear everything is fixed, sounds like someone at the factory got a little carried away with a grease gun. I am sure you could blow the seals if you put too much grease in the wheels. We just did a 3400km trip to California and back and not a single peep from the brake controller. that was a good feeling, the brakes worked perfectly. The only problem on the the whole trip was a 12v wire came loose in a connector ( under right side of the trailer ) going to the rangehood and light over the counter. Undid the bottom cover behind the kitchen slide when we got home and pulled on the wires going to the connectors and found the broken wire right away, easy fix.

HOTR

So far the Misson tires look Ok. No worst for wear.

Take care J & D
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Old 04-02-2006, 08:24 AM   #17
sreigle
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by bwney

Our Brake problem is fixed! Our 3400 has been at he dealer for about 6 weeks (roof repair, my fault). When I left it, I had a few other things to be fixed, the biggest one being the brake controller constantly erroring.

They put a tester of some type on, and everything checked out. They didn't pull any wheels, but let me me know the problem is almost always with the Ford Controller. I was skeptical.....

When I went to pick up the trailer Friday, I insisted they pull the wheels. They agreed, grudgingly. 3 out of 4 grease seals were blown, and grease coated the pads, magnets, and drums. Nothing ran out, wheels and hubs were clean on the outside. The right rear was exceptioanlly bad, grease was packed solid between the shoes and magnet.

Montana stepped up, and agreed to replace all 4 complete brake assemblies. Trailer only has 3500 miles, hadn't even occurred to me yet to grease the wheels. I haven't owned a grease gun in 20 years.

On the 50 mile drive home, no brake errors. Had to adjust the brake controller from 9 to 6.5. It was good day.
Sounds like your dealer just doesn't want to deal with it. I have yet to read anywhere of this kind of problem being the fault of the controller. I read one where it was the fault of the wiring in the truck's connector but every other situation was with the trailer. The cause is that the Ford controller is a smart controller that identifies and clues you to a problem. Your dealer needs to wake up and take a look at the trailer, in my opinion.
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