Saturday, October 25, 2014

Tekonsha???

Last week, when we purchased our new Tow Dolly, we hauled it home behind our Motorhome. We had lights on the new Dolly, but I did not have my Brake Controller installed on the Motorhome, so no brakes! This is not a big problem, but I wanted to get my brakes hooked up for when we haul the Cruze. You gotta be able to stop!

I had removed the Brake Controller 5 years ago, as I never thought I would never need it! Ya, right!

The Dolly has electric brakes, so you need to use a brake controller to turn the brakes on. Above is a pictures identicle to our controller that I removed 5 years ago. There are 4 wires that lead into the controller, which I had stored up in the dash. They were still there, so I just had to re-connect the controller. Once I finished, I connected the dolly to the motorhome, but, alas, no brakes! I had to get my fancy electrical tester out, to determine that for some reason, the main wire leading back to the dolly which controls the breaks, for some reason, was dead in the water. Now, it is a long way from the front cab, to the back trailer plug on the motorhome.

First thing I did was run a test wire from the controller back to the plug, which I spiced into the plug. Connected the dolly, and tried it. It worked. This confirmed that I had a bad wire. I made a trip to Canadian Tire to pick up a new 50 foot 10 gage wire to fix this proplem.

At this point, I am about 3/4 finished in this job, and hope to finish it off tomorrow. Once the wiring is all fixed, I will have to set up the brake controller to make sure it does not do silly things, like lock up the dolly wheels every time you hit the brakes! After the brakes are all set up, it will be time to properly fit the Cruze to the Dolly, and see if all the moving parts work right! That was about it for today, other than a nice 5 mile walk on the track!

Till tomorrow...

 

4 comments:

  1. It seems that to "say never say never" is worth remembering. Good work on the re-wiring.

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  2. Nice to get you electrical problem fixed, they can be frustrating at times. Soon you will be ready to hit the road.

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  3. Perseverance is always the winner when it comes to electrical issues. Glad you're getting it all figured out.

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  4. Good thinking to test that controller now rather than on the morning you leave - not that I'd ever wait that long!!

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