I rented a Travel Trailer. After warming up the brakes, I set my Prodigy to 6.0 and tested the manual brake. It worked fine. The next time I looked down at my brake controller (during braking) the numbers start to rise, then the display changes to "PL". The manual says that is power loss during braking. I had the local camp plug their tester to my truck. It says the brakes are working, but only tests during a stand still. This happens during normal braking. When I use the manual now, I get a pulsing action. The Prodigy goes back and forth between numbers (1.2 to 1.9) and "PL" during manual braking. Any ideas, what this could be?

Thanks Much!

 

OK, I took that trailer back and we hooked up a similar trailer (although slightly lighter) and had no issue with the brakes. Is there any reason a lighter trailer would brake differently?

I am going to talk to the rental mechanic on Monday, to see if he knows what the problem was. I will post the results(if there are any), just because someone else might run into it sometime.

Happy Easter all!

 

Could be a ground problem on the trailer causing it to not push as much current as it wanted too. That's just a guess. Chances are with a trailer electrical system the answer is "ground" about 90-95% of the time.

Just a thought

 

Thanks for the post! Grounding could well be the issue.

I only was able to speak to the rental manager. He stated the mechanic found a problem with the 7 pin connector on the trailer. He did not say exactly what the problem was.

This does not match what the Prodigy tech rep is telling me. Basically, they said it is a power to Prodigy issue, not a trailer issue. Although, I think a grounding problem in the trailer would be hard to isolate from the truck, since it only happens while moving.

Just for information purposes. The messages from the company are below, and were much more informative than the manual that came with the Prodigy.

This is the response I got by leaving a message on the Prodigy website from the Prodigy Techincal Service Representative.

Message 1:
The P.L that you are seeing is a power loss into the control. You can check this by turning the power up full on the controller and holding the manual slide over. Put a volt meter on the black and white wires and watch your meter. If the voltage drops on it, then you know you have a bad connection on the black wire or the white ground wire or possibly small gauge wires.
If it doesn't drop, then I would suggest replacing the controller. It has a lifetime warranty and can be replaced anywhere that sells the product.
If I can assist you any further, please let me know.
Have a good day !!


Message 2:
Good Morning;
The P.L is still saying that the control is losing power going into the controllers from the vehicle. The factory wiring on these newer trucks are good and this is what they recommend using so I wouldn't change anything there. Just check the wires going into the control. Maybe the plug is loose or one of the wires has come loose in it or something like that. If you can't find one, exchange it anywhere that sells this product, it has a lifetime warranty, and see if it maybe is the control.
Let me know how you come out.
Have a good day !!

 

I had a similar problem with my Prodigy on my '99 f-150. It turned out that the brake light switch was bad on the brake pedal. I also agree though that a poor ground is the number 1 cause of trailer/ brake control problems.