kpratte
Southern NH
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I've got a Tekonsha P3 that I've used on previous travel trailers and have a weird issue with my new trailer where everything appears setup correctly but obviously isn't. I've tested the brakes by doing the manual override at 20mph and they don't lock up.
The issue I have is I'll be slowing down to say 10 or 15 mph and as I'm slowly down towards the end I'm letting up on the brake pedal causing I'm not coming to a stop. Just about at the time I completely release the pedal, the trailer brakes seem to grab harder and sometimes will lock. If they don't lock, we get a hard release of the trailer brakes.
At first I thought it was the P3's boost which I had in the past run at B2 and I end up dropping it to B1 and dropping the output of the P3 which seem to help the issue.
So is this a case of too much power or a fact that the trailer is literally a month old and the brakes are new or something else?
- Ken
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KZCRAZY
USA
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Could it be too much gain or your breaks need to be adjusted?
Just a thought.
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BarneyS
S.E. Lower Michigan
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It sounds to me like as you slow down and let up on the brake pedal enough to make the brake lights go off. Then the lights go back on again which activates the boost feature which applies the trailer brakes again at the boost level you have set. This would cause the reaction you are getting.
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RCMAN46
NorthWest
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What does the readout on the P3 indicate? Does the voltage go up? You can also monitor the current with the P3. I had a P3 that would go to 12 volts which was beyond the my gain setting of 7.5 volts. This would happen when I was backing the trailer into my shop. Also sometimes when I was in city traffic. Tekonsha replaced the P3. So far the replacement has not done this.
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kpratte
Southern NH
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Thanks for the info. Looks like I have some things to check on our next trip on Columbus day.
- Ken
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wittmeba
Virginia
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Sounds to me like an adjustment issue. If the actuator arm in the drums is moving too far, it may not release correctly.
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tnd2
Tidewater, Va
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Im new to the P3, I upgraded to the P3 when we bought our TH. I believe im having a similure issue. When in traffic and light on the brake, or if im on the brake coming up to a stop the display will show 1.0-1.3 volts decreasing as speed drops, then it will ramp up to 3 volts for a second then drop back to 1 volt, if its a long stop it may do this several times. This happens on all boost settings, but I cant remember if I tried no boost, this is on 2 different trailers, a triaxle new TH and a old dual axle car trailer(well maintained). The effect is much less on the car trailer but it may be due to the TH's mass and the car trailer is a very light load.
Im running the voltage setting at 11.5
Please post your findings, and i'll do the same as I learn what's going on.
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RCMAN46
NorthWest
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tnd2 wrote:Im new to the P3, I upgraded to the P3 when we bought our TH. I believe im having a similure issue. When in traffic and light on the brake, or if im on the brake coming up to a stop the display will show 1.0-1.3 volts decreasing as speed drops, then it will ramp up to 3 volts for a second then drop back to 1 volt, if its a long stop it may do this several times. This happens on all boost settings, but I cant remember if I tried no boost, this is on 2 different trailers, a triaxle new TH and a old dual axle car trailer(well maintained). The effect is much less on the car trailer but it may be due to the TH's mass and the car trailer is a very light load.
Im running the voltage setting at 11.5
Please post your findings, and i'll do the same as I learn what's going on.
If you are not moving and hold the brake on for more than 5 seconds the P3 will go to 25% of the gain setting as a holding feature. (This is covered in the installation instructions that comes with the P3) If the P3 detects any movement it will revert back to normal operation.
Sometimes during very light braking the P3 may not detect deceleration for 5 seconds and it will go to 25% but this results in deceleration thus it reverts back to normal operation. When the one I had was acting up it would go to full output (12 volts) and not the 25%. Also it would do it long before the 5 seconds (more like 0.5 second).
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tnd2
Tidewater, Va
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RCMAN46 wrote:
If you are not moving and hold the brake on for more than 5 seconds the P3 will go to 25% of the gain setting as a holding feature. (This is covered in the installation instructions that comes with the P3) If the P3 detects any movement it will revert back to normal operation.
Sometimes during very light braking the P3 may not detect deceleration for 5 seconds and it will go to 25% but this results in deceleration thus it reverts back to normal operation. When the one I had was acting up it would go to full output (12 volts) and not the 25%. Also it would do it long before the 5 seconds (more like 0.5 second).
Thanks for the info, I hadn't thought that the unit may not realize the rig is still moving, makes sense since it works off inertia and light braking might be too little for it to read. Off to read the owners manual...
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kpratte
Southern NH
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So, we took the camper out on Friday night and it had all the same problems as before.. On our way up to camp I dropped the output and dropped it all the way from 12 to 9 and still had the problem.. I moved it to B1 for boost and then finally shut the boost off. Around then I started to watch the display a little more (it was getting dark and could see it better) and noticed that under braking it would show a level of 2 and then jump to 4. This would be when I was having issues. Other times it would be fine.
Other thing was we had some windows open and could hear some metallic brake noise during braking.
So at this point I thinking that I have two issues: the P3 acting up and one or more of the brake drums not adjusted correctly.
- Ken
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