2019 Ram 1500 Trailer brake presets

[troush118]

Hello all. I have a 2019 Ram 1500 with the integrated trailer brake controller in the dash. Coming home to Pennsylvania from Tennesse hauling our car trailer loaded with my jeep we got the trailer brake disconnected warning in the dash and lost the brakes. Finally determined when I unplugged the battery for the brake away on the trailer the brakes came back. The trailer works fine on my uncles 2018 F250. Recently borrowed a dump trailer with the brakes and same issue of no trailer brakes connected when I plugged that trailer in as well. Checked grounds on the truck. Checked the wiring harness connections going back to the trailer plug. Then the dash popped up to go to vehicle settings to set up trailer. That's where I found the four different "presets" for different trailers. "Trailer 1" has no functioning brakes even when set to light electric which is what I have. "Trailer2" through "trailer 4" all have functioning trailer brakes that were set to light electric at the time. Moved the trailer a few days later now "trailer 1" and "trailer 2" do not have functioning trailer brakes.

Is this pointing to my trailer brake controller going bad or a different issue?

Checked fuse 30 I believe it was for the ITBM and it Checked out good on side a and b. All other connections for lights, turns, ajd constant are functioning just not the brakes.

 

[RamCares]

We regret to see that you're having these concerns with your truck. If you're thinking of having this looked at by your dealer, let us know. We're available via direct message and can help with this process.

Callie
Ram Cares

 

[TampaLaramie]

I have a camper that weighs 7500#. It’s a 2018. I’ve searched around the internet because I had a similar issue. Couldn't get a straight answer. I would get frequent dinging of “trailer brake disconnected” in the dash under 45mph very frequently, most of the time back to back. Very annoying. I checked all my connections with the harness and pigtails to the module and controller, all good. I ended up replacing the entire 7-way on the trailer side and it’s better. Not completely gone though.

Waiting for others to chime in here. I feel that the stupid electric pulses checking ohm on itself is not completely accurate.

My camper is fine above 45mph. When I need the brakes after slowing down into a town is when it’s intermittent. IMHO it’s the trucks electronics, not a connection because it goes away when im faster. Driven about 3,000 miles on maybe 8 trips with it. Consistently the same speeds.

 

[troush118]

Interesting. Mine chimes in brakes disconnected I notice mainly when I go to reverse, however, even when it doesn't chime on the dash I never have control of the trailers brakes. Unless I just found out I set it to trailer 3 or trailer 4 preset. Then the brakes work great all the time.

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[TampaLaramie]

Interesting. Mine chimes in brakes disconnected I notice mainly when I go to reverse, however, even when it doesn't chime on the dash I never have control of the trailers brakes. Unless I just found out I set it to trailer 3 or trailer 4 preset. Then the brakes work great all the time.

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I haven’t experimented with trailers 1-4. But yes when it thinks it’s disconnected it doesn’t even try to send power down the wire. I have all trailers always set to “heavy electric.” I think Ram is the only truck that has the different “light” and “heavy.” All other trucks is just one setting. I don't want to max out the light setting when it can send more power in an emergency and you won’t have time to click through the settings. My gain is normally around 3.5-4.5 but that’s adjusted with the life of the trailer brakes.

 

[troush118]

I was not sure what the difference between the light and heavy was either. So I haven't messed with it and just kept it at the default of light. When experimenting to get them to work it did not matter which of the four "types" of brakes I chose. None of them worked on Trailer 1.

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[6of36]

Have you actually gone through the settings, and set up the trailer to be trailer 1, or trailer 2, or are you just randomly switching the setting on the dash to 1 then 2? You have to make adjustments for each trailer, then save it as trailer 1, or 2. Then when it is set up you recall those settings by picking 1,2,3,4. The way you are explaining it sounds like you may not have gone through the setup process.

 

[troush118]

They were all defaulted to Trailer 1,2,3, and 4. And each was set to light electric which works for our trailer. That was the only setting I saw in the radio menu for setup.

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[6of36]

Read the manual for how to set up. I don't remember the set up and am not driving a Ram right now, but remember there was a set up procedure.

 

[troush118]

Read the manual for how to set up. I don't remember the set up and am not driving a Ram right now, but remember there was a set up procedure.

Just read through the manual and it states the exact thing I had said. To set one of the four brake types and that is it. Which can be done through the radio or through the dash cluster. Is there a section that I am missing? I had all four trailer presets the same exact way (light electric) and only 3 out of the 4 presets did the brakes actually work.

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[6of36]

Just read through the manual and it states the exact thing I had said. To set one of the four brake types and that is it. Which can be done through the radio or through the dash cluster. Is there a section that I am missing? I had all four trailer presets the same exact way (light electric) and only 3 out of the 4 presets did the brakes actually work.

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I totaled my truck over a year ago so it's been a while, and I don't remember. I just remember that you could set 4 trailers, and once they were set, you just picked whichever trailer you were using, and it would use that setting. Try deleting all settings and reload them just for 1 trailer.