trailer brake saga (a short story)

[eblanks]

Last winter I finally found the perfect tractor. Well perfect for me anyways, it's a 67 Ford 3000. Despite it's appearance it runs great and I love it. I borrowed a two axle trailer from a buddy of mine and in my rush of excitement never even considered the need to operate the trailer brakes. My 02 Tundra has the towing package but no brake controller. I loaded the tractor and headed off down the road. I had never pulled anything heavier than a pop-up camper. With a trailer weight of over 1000 lbs and tractor weight at 3700 lbs this was a lot more than I was used to. The truck brakes would stop me, but were very sluggish. I took my time, kept my speed low and following distance high and made it to the farm with no problems.

Recently, I decided I needed to bring the tractor back to my house for yearly maintenance and my bush hog needed a weld job. So with the hog attached to the tractor I loaded it up and headed home. Oh boy, I did not count on how much extra weight the bush hog would add. I had a terrible time getting the truck stopped. I made it home safely but decided I needed a brake controller badly. I purchased the highly recommended Tekonsha Prodigy and a wiring harness that was said to fit the 02 - current year Tundras. I literally pulled the entire dash apart trying to find the plug that every piece of literature said would be right there near the emergency brake. It did not exist. Finally I found a Tundra web forum where I was alerted to the fact that the 02 Tundra's do not have this plug, it wasn't until 03 that they started and Tekonsha's web site is wrong. So I spent the next day in near 100 degree heat out in the driveway wiring up the generic harness Tekonsha provides. With all the wires connected and the brake controller showing signs of life, I plugged in the trailer plug and ... you guessed it, nothing. No connection. For the next three days I would get out of work as soon as I could and rush home to troubleshoot the problem. Finally on day 3 I was prepared to rip apart and trace every wire that had anything to do with the brakes on the trailer and found out that the ground wires coming out of the trailer brakes had corroded from their connections and come loose. After getting permission from the trailer owner, I added new wire connectors, completed the ground to the trailer and success.

The maintenance is finished on the tractor and she fires right up, in the heat of the North Carolina summer I don't even have to use the choke and she fires right up. Just waiting on getting the bush hog welded and all should be right with the world. I just wonder what will go wrong next ???

[Skyco]

Glad you got those brakes working---thats the smart thing to do. Besides not being able to stop well without them you could also have received a ticket if LE caught you without the brakes working...not to mention how bad a civil suit could have reamed you if you had gotten into an accident and hurt someone!
Can you tell I'm a really big fan of trailer brakes

[LoneCowboy]

Wait, I thought toyota never did anything wrong.
It's taken me 10 seconds on about every American made truck (all 3) for the last 10/15 years or so to hook one up.

[MikeD74T]

In over 40 years of utility trailers the overwhelming majority of trailer wiring troubles I've experienced were bad grounds. MikeD74T

[sperry]

I just installed a Voyager brake control in my 02 Chev 2500hd and what a difference. Braking is just great with my trailers now. Took just a minute to install and well worth it!

Sperry TYM 300 HST KUBOTA 7610 HST EXMARK LAZER Z 60"

[MarkLeininger]

Originally Posted by eblanks

I just wonder what will go wrong next ???

I'd check the pads on your truck. Doesn't take long with that kind of load to wear them out prematurely. I know what you're saying about trailer brakes. We used our horse trailer for awhile without brakes when we first got it. It feels really scary when you hit the brakes and the only thing that slows down is time as you're heading for someone's bumper.

[eblanks]

Originally Posted by LoneCowboy

Wait, I thought toyota never did anything wrong.
It's taken me 10 seconds on about every American made truck (all 3) for the last 10/15 years or so to hook one up.

I can't blame this one on Toyota, unless they gave Tekonsha the wrong info. I sent Tekonsha an email telling them of my issue and they insisted the plug would be right there above the parking brake. They even included a photo which I printed out and took out to my truck. It simply was not there. Web forums indicate others have had this issue as well.

[LoneCowboy]

How could that not be Toyota's fault?
Every Big 3 pickup truck for the last 15+ years has had a plug there waiting to go in, takes 30 seconds.
Certainly it's their fault.
design flaw (or overlooked "feature")

[Farmwithjunk]

I had a '00 Tundra and it DID have the plug right up above the emergency brake pedal. Took all of 5 minutes to rig a brake controller. I can't imagine 2000 models having it and later models NOT...????

[Mike058]

You may want to take the Tundra in for a brake inspection. I imagine you were probably standing on the brake pedal at some point trying to slow everything down. If the front brake pads were due for a change before, they would really be needing to see retirement now. You don't want the piston to start grinding into the rotor. Just something to think about.