5th wheel brake issues

[Deere Dude]

A few months ago I started hooking up my 37' fifth wheel in the plug by the trailer hitch and it worked a lot better that what I had inside the box. As long as it worked better I thought I would try it for awhile. A couple days ago I totally disconnected the in bed plug by taking out the T-connection to see if I could gain any braking. I can hardly believe it's the same trailer it works so much better, just from taking out the T - connection. I really did like the plug in the bed, but after pulling for many years with substandard braking, I'm glad I found this out and will stick with the over the tail gate method. Thanks everyone in TBN to help get my rear in gear to figure this out.

 

[RobertN]

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, my "T" seems to be missing a connection. My truck wiring has 8 wires, and the plug on the back of my receiver receptacle has 8 corresponding pins.

From what I have looked at and ohmed out, it appears the "T" only has 7 wires and related pins. The one that is missing in comparison to the truck harness, appears to be a second ground. It appears the truck has two smaller gauge grounds instead of one large gauge. So with the "T" connected, it was only getting ground from one smaller wire, hence the loss in current, and voltage drop.

I'm still going to see if I can fix that ground, and then use the in-bed connector.

A couple days ago I totally disconnected the in bed plug by taking out the T-connection to see if I could gain any braking. I can hardly believe it's the same trailer it works so much better, just from taking out the T - connection. I really did like the plug in the bed, but after pulling for many years with substandard braking, I'm glad I found this out and will stick with the over the tail gate method. Thanks everyone in TBN to help get my rear in gear to figure this out.

 

[grsthegreat]

You can simply replace thein bed plug. There redially available and can order with the "T" that connects to the trucks wiring harness. i just added one to my F350 last year. Took about 30 minutes to install.