Need help with electric brakes on trailer... ford ranger.

[Mattywalton]

hey guys

we recently upgraded all the lights on the trailer to LED lights. I have a 2010 ford ranger xlt and now we are having problems with the indicators and electric brakes. The indictors are very dull, but the driving lights seem to be fine. And now the electric brakes won't work, when the trailer is plugged in the controller detects when u put your foot on the brakes how ever the actual brakes on the trailer are not working. We have hooked the trailer up to a new land cruiser and everything works well, so it can't be the trailer wiring.

Has anyone else had problems with the ford ranger? and any solutions?

thanks

[barney1979]

You may require fords trailer plug adaptor, I know my 2013 ranger required it if I was towing a trailer with led lights.


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[AndrewB]

ditto with barney.

[lethal098]

Have you got a genuine towbar and Wiring??

[Mattywalton]

Have got the genuine ford trailer harness as someone else mentioned this. It has not fixed the problem. Yes the towbar and wiring are from ford. Is there any way I can test if I'm getting power to the plug?

[stockhorse]

Put a "normal" globe temporarily inline on the brake circuit and see if they work then. Do the same for indicators.

[astro66]

i had a 2011 ranger ....plug in harness non genuine ...worked fine with led or normal lights ....i would check all the wiring to the plugs is ok ....try a different trailer to see if its the same...

[aussiebasser]

Ford Ranger won't like LED lights. VW Amorok and Range Rover are the same. Contact your Ford dealer for a fix.

[BeastMaster]

Hi Wattywalton , either replace the leds with normal globes or put a ford adaptor device between the trailer plug and the car plug.The device can be purchased at ford spare parts departments. It will add approx 30cm to the lenght of your wiring Cost by memory was about $60.Personally I liked the leds so went with the adaptor device. This was clearly posted in my rangers manual as a must have if you towed a trailer with led lights, so no surprises.
Regards
Beastmaster

[Force3]

I may be wrong but my understanding is that the adaptor is only required for the PX Ranger. I had the LED problem with my PX Wildtrak but the adaptor fixed it.
The 2010 Ranger will be the previous model (PJ) and I believe it has a different electrical system.
I would be checking the towbar wiring on the Ranger, could be a poor earth connection.

[Feral]

So WTF sort of crappy witing are in these rangers to cause this? Are there other cars with similar issues?
What exactly are your getting for 60 dollars in the adaptor?

[aussiebasser]

Not crappy wiring Feral. Range Rover, Land Rover, VW Amorok, Mitsubishi Outlander all have issues. LED lights don't draw enough current to activate the indicator flasher on some, on others, the Range Rover for instance, it won't recognise the tail lights as working when it goes through it's pre ignition start up sequence. It's all to do with the computers they are running. With my Daughter's Mitsubishi, once you set it up for LED lights, standard trailer lights won't work, so it's all or nothing with them. Seems to be quite common with many imported vehicles. My ute doesn't care, but it also doesn't have sensors to tell me when a globe is blown, or reversing sensors that need to know if a trailer is connected. That may be one of the reasons why some vehicles have two of the same trailer plugs on the back one for the LED Trailer and one for the standard lights.

[Darren J]

Is there any way I can test if I'm getting power to the plug?

with a multimeter. It will also help you to download a copy of the standard 7 pin configuration used in Australia.
Refer to http://www.narva.com.au/products/browse/wiring-diagrams

Usually with a break controller on a 12 pin plug two of the larger 5 pins only are used for a higher current 12v supply, They will have a separate earth and +tive to feed power for the controller.
I believe if you have a 12 pin plug on the vehicle, a standard 7 pin flat will also plug in, for normal trailers. Aside from the supply I mentioned to run the brake controller, all other of the smaller 7 pins are identical use.

I am not aware of why LED will not run without a special adaptor (I always understood 12v to the led light will run it), but from the above info, it appears the case for some vehicles. If any one can explain why/what the adaptors do and why LED's require a special arrangement could you elaborate please.
I have had 3 trailers with LED's, all of them run if you put 12v on them..... Is the Ford plug just an alternate configuration of pins?

in any case, if the tow vehicle plug pins don't have power you definitely will not get anything. If more than one bank of lights is playing up, go looking for a bad earth connection (probably still inside the plug). If there is power on the tow vehicle where it is supposed to be, check the trailer plug. My experience is the trailer itself is more likely to have corrosion or problems, as it is more flexible and prone to strain on wiring etc. Corrosion is particularly more of an issue I find if you have the cast alloy type plug odd in lieu of full plastic. Just my experience, so I tend to stick with the plastic body versions now.

[Darren J]

Here may be a better explanation of the problem, text copied from the Ford Australia Forums.... Sounds more likely you need the adaptor as suggested by owners above, particularly if all else was working prior. Sounds like some vehicles were supplied with the adaptor in the glove box read to go, maybe that was particularar dealers looking after their customers.

Also interesting reading here that may help explain what is happening. Seems a 12v towing supply is a lot more than that on some modern vehicles these days.... http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Towbar-wir...2565577/g.html




the issue is pretty simple, the Ranger uses a CANBUS system that uses the entire electrical wiring loom to do more than just power lights, motors and other things. It also monitors all these items health and tells the body equipment computer if all is ok. This is now becoming quite common on new cars, it's not something that's specific to the Ranger only.

This is not an issue when you add things like a trailer to the wiring system as long as the extra power consumption is taken into account. Ford did that by fitting a trailer tow module to ensure the extra electrical load from a trailer is not thrown onto the CANBUS system. However, for reasons we will never know, they didn't take into account LED trailer lights. As they use very low electrical power, the minuscule voltages the CANBUS system uses, can actually make them flicker.

The solution to the problen, seeing Ford were too thick to think about it, is to add resisters to your trailer wiring. Ford has now figured the error of their ways and offers an "LED Patch Lead". Call your dealer and tell him you have learnt of the issue and that you have LED lights on you trailer and they better supply one for nix or there'll be hell to pay!!!

Give it a go, for $35, the dealer will usually throw it in for the sake of of another happy customer.... And no, on the Ranger the entire tow bar is fitted at the factory on XLT and Wildtrak models, even the removable hitch was inside mine when it arrived at the dealers, wiring was fitted too. All my dealer had to fit was the tow ball!

http://www.fordaustraliaforums.com/f...ws-from-owners

[astro66]

Hehe...plus side of non genuine....they allready fixed the problem...