Prodigy break controler and pulling a car trailer

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
173dave

173dave

Active member
Joined
May 29, 2012
Posts
40
Location
Oregon
I have a 38 ft diesel pusher that has air breaks and a jake break. When pluuing the car trailer every time the jake brake kicks in, the trailer breaks come on very hard causing the tires to smoke..

My question is; using a brake controller and having the jake break on does not seem to be working very well. Is there anyone out there that has experience and/or suggestions for me?
 
your jake or compression brake must automatically trigger the brake lights; that is what is applying the trailer brakes. There must be a way using a diode or something, to fix that problem.
EDIT: I have a solution. Mount and wire up a second switch on the brake pedal. Wire the prodigy to that. Now the trailer brakes will come on when you want them to.
 
You also have the Prodigy setting too high if the brakes are locking up on the car trailer. 
 
skyking1 said:
your jake or compression brake must automatically trigger the brake lights; that is what is applying the trailer brakes. There must be a way using a diode or something, to fix that problem.
EDIT: I have a solution. Mount and wire up a second switch on the brake pedal. Wire the prodigy to that. Now the trailer brakes will come on when you want them to.
Click to expand...

The prodigy is an inertial controller. It is triggered when it senses the tow vehicle slowing. It is not triggered by the brake lights going on. You just need to turn down the gain.

Joel
 
The Prodigy is supposed to be wired to the brake pedal switch so that it won't come on from inertia alone.  My guess is that yours is miswired or is lacking a diode and the brake light voltage is back-feeding into the Prodigy via the brake switch. I've attached the Prodigy wiring diagram
 

Attachments

  • Prodigy-controller-wiring-generic.pdf
    30.4 KB · Views: 9
I have never seen a brake controller that does not need a brake pedal input to activate.  (in auto mode!)
 
In reading this posting again I would think when pulling a heavy load like a car hauler it would be desirable to have the trailer brakes come on when the jack brake is on.  I could see the car trailer pushing the rear end of the MH when under heavy jack brake on a fairly sharp curve.  As I said earlier and others have said you have the gain set too high on the Prodigy.  It should be set so as not to lock the brakes when the manual control is fully activated.  A prodigy that is set up correct should never lock the trailer brakes. Most postings I read about problems with a Prodigy can be corrected if the controller is set up correctly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,117 (members: 24, guests: 1,093)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,933
Posts
1,387,736
Members
137,683
Latest member
chaderic
Back
Top Bottom