Electric brake controller (*&^%^%$$#)

[Kays Supply]

FYI, got a lesson in electric brake controllers today. Long story but the bottom line is, a new controller was installed after a long battle to get my trailer brakes to work. It is a new fangled one with a diagnosis code. It said OL = OverLoaded Blue brake wire. It said a short to ground was the most likely cause in the directions. After several hours tracing and ohming the truck and trailer, BAD GROUND. That is about as far from positve wire OverLoad as you can get. Hope this might help someone else down the line , since there isn't a phone number or address anywhere on the box or paperwork of the new controller, so I could tell them.

 

[Soundguy]

remember.. think like the controller thinks.

overloads likely result in reduced voltage on the brake line.

if there is a bad ground reference or restive reference.. the controller may see a low voltage on the brake line... it's not a super computer. it probably has a couple simple circuits that look for ohms, amps or volts within a certain 'range'.. possibly comparitor circuits. anything out of range triggers a generic error code. lots of causes for out of range.

as has been said on many threads.

MOST trailer lamp or e-brake problems usually turn out to be ground problems.

there is an ongoing thread about this right now.

soundguy