Toad Brake Lights don?t work when applied from motor home.

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SPSchaller

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Oct 8, 2007
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37
We?ve discovered an issue with the brake lights on our toad.  When the brakes are applied on the motorhome, the toad?s brake lights don?t come on unless the Brake Buddy activates, pressing the brakes on the toad.

We have a 2005 Fleetwood Bounder 33R (new to us) on a W22 chassis. It has towing connections for both Blue-Ox (7-wire) and Roadmaster (4-wire). Currently using a 7-wire to 6-wire Blue-Ox cable to connect to our Toad (2017 Fiesta, newly set up for towing by our local RV dealer.) There is a small box spliced into the wiring near the motorhome?s towing sockets that I suspect is a converter of some sort, though what ever label it has is unreadable.

All the signal and running lights (Head & Tail) work on the motorhome.
All the signal and running lights (Head & Tail) work on the toad.
Turn signals work on the Toad and the MH when activated from the motorhome.
Running lights work on the Toad and the MH when activated from the motorhome.
Brake lights on the Toad work when triggered by the Brake Buddy.
However, Toad?s brake lights don?t illuminate when brakes are applied from the motorhome (they do on the motorhome).

The brake lights worked normally when we left beloved CW and drove (1hour) home. A few days later, we?re set to leave and this issue is noticed. Have checked fuses, those that I know of, but they all appear to be good, and I would expect there to be issues with the respective vehicle is fuses were involved? then again, maybe not. There is clearly something I don?t understand about this set up. Any guidance would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Btw? love this community? most of my RV knowledge originated here?

 
I think your lights are working properly.  The toad probably has a brake light relay installed so that when  the ignition is off, the brake lights only come on when the brake pedal is pressed. You can test if this is the case by trying the brakes from in the coach while the ignition switch is on in the towed.
 
Whether this is normal or not depends on how the toad lights are wired.  You should also verify that the Stop/turn pins on the 7-pin connector are in fact powered when the coach brake lights go on.

If your toad has separate brake and turn lighting, it's possible that your toad was wired to only use its own brake lights and there is no connection to the 7-pin for brake lights.
 
We usually test the MH/Toad tail lights with the ignition on the Toad set to ACC (so the steering wheel can turn while towing) and the MH running. We tested the setup this afternoon with the MH off and the keys out of the Toad. Same results... It may in fact we designed to work this way, but I could swear (or my wife could as she's the one that view's 'em from the rear) that the brake lights came on when we tested them before leaving CW.
I plan to go talk to the tech that installed the base plate to get a better idea what type of system he installed. We didn't get a lot of paperwork after the fact.
Thanks. Will update when we know more.
 
On newer vehicles with multiplex (sometimes called digital) wiring for running lights, it can be easier to avoid messing with the car wiring and just let the cars on brake light system handle the brake lights. Since he knew you would have the brake system to activate them, the dealer tech may have taken the easy way out. Nothing wrong with that except you have no brake lights unless the toad brake is in place and functioning. Which should always be the case!
 

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