A-TEAM
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- Jun 14, 2019
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Whoo Hoo 1st post!
So before I picked up the 19 I had a 4th gen 17 RAM, and was using a cheap CURT brake controller that my camper dealer installed as part of the deal. I took out the harness and the CURT when I turned in the 17 and installed it into my new 19. It always worked fine in the 17 and the plug was the same so it was an easy swap. Thats when trouble started. As soon as I plugged in the cheap CURT discovery, the cluster started giving errors and telling me to service the "electronic stability control" and I would lose cruise control as well. Also the controller would not operate the trailer brakes unless I manually squeezed the slider on the controller. Not ideal at all. The message about "service ESC" would come and go, but it would always come on if I plugged in the trailer. I pinned out the factory wires just to ensure they didnt change from the 17 and they were the same. After reading here I found a thread of someone who used a Tekonsha P3 controller and it worked fine. So I ordered that and removed the curt and installed the P3 an low and behold all my issues went away. Everything works fine and as it should now with the trailer brakes, and the RAM is happy too, no more errors. So moral of the story is the new RAM does not seem to like cheap analog controllers. At least mine hated it and it would freak out the RAM computer. Went with a high end quality controller and no issues. Just wanted to share my experience so someone doesn't waste their time/money like I did getting it working! Since I tested the factory wires here is the color code if anyone wants to hard-wire a controller in and not buy the harness:
BLUE - Brake wire to trailer harness
GREEN / WHITE (thin) - Stoplight (brake switch on vehicle)
BLACK - Ground
TAN / RED - POWER 12v+
So here is how you hard wire a standard controller:
RAM > CONTROLLER
BLUE > BLUE
GREEN / WHITE > RED
BLACK > WHITE
TAN /RED > BLACK
Hope someone finds this useful :-D
So before I picked up the 19 I had a 4th gen 17 RAM, and was using a cheap CURT brake controller that my camper dealer installed as part of the deal. I took out the harness and the CURT when I turned in the 17 and installed it into my new 19. It always worked fine in the 17 and the plug was the same so it was an easy swap. Thats when trouble started. As soon as I plugged in the cheap CURT discovery, the cluster started giving errors and telling me to service the "electronic stability control" and I would lose cruise control as well. Also the controller would not operate the trailer brakes unless I manually squeezed the slider on the controller. Not ideal at all. The message about "service ESC" would come and go, but it would always come on if I plugged in the trailer. I pinned out the factory wires just to ensure they didnt change from the 17 and they were the same. After reading here I found a thread of someone who used a Tekonsha P3 controller and it worked fine. So I ordered that and removed the curt and installed the P3 an low and behold all my issues went away. Everything works fine and as it should now with the trailer brakes, and the RAM is happy too, no more errors. So moral of the story is the new RAM does not seem to like cheap analog controllers. At least mine hated it and it would freak out the RAM computer. Went with a high end quality controller and no issues. Just wanted to share my experience so someone doesn't waste their time/money like I did getting it working! Since I tested the factory wires here is the color code if anyone wants to hard-wire a controller in and not buy the harness:
BLUE - Brake wire to trailer harness
GREEN / WHITE (thin) - Stoplight (brake switch on vehicle)
BLACK - Ground
TAN / RED - POWER 12v+
So here is how you hard wire a standard controller:
RAM > CONTROLLER
BLUE > BLUE
GREEN / WHITE > RED
BLACK > WHITE
TAN /RED > BLACK
Hope someone finds this useful :-D
