Silverado Integral Brake Controller

[problemchild]

Most of what I read on forums suggest that these either work or they don't, but mine just works poorly. I have been blaming the trailer, but I recently towed another trailer, which has always required backing down the controller with other trucks, and it was the same.

I am considering installing an aftermarket unit, but don't want to spend $300 to have it the same poor performance.

Does anyone have specific experience with problem solving, or measuring output at the trailer connector?
Can this be something as simple as a poor ground?

Thanks in advance.
2015 Silverado with factory installed brake controller.

[Jim Edmonds]

Suggest you trouble shoot it first. You'll need a 12v voltmeter like Harbor Freight $5 one, four small electronic jumper wires, a 20ft extension cord, an old male plug zip cord and a couple of inches of tape.

The extension cord is in lieu of an assistant to read the voltmeter at the rear bumper, Ha.

Use two of the jumper wires to hook the 20' extension cord male plugs to the bottom two tabs on your 7pin truck's trailer connector. Before you hook them up, wrap tape around the jumpers on the 20' extension cord male plugs to make sure they don't short and cause a worse problem.

Separate and strip the insulation from the old male zip cord wires. Plug it in to the extension cord and put them through the open driver's door onto the seat. Use the last two jumper wires to connect the zip cord wires to the HF voltmeter. Set to a scale suitable to measure 12v and turn on.

Start the truck while standing outside. Push the brake pedal. Full hard should be about 12 volts. Half hard should be about 9 volts or so. You may have a continual one volt reading the truck computer uses to check if the brake cable is plugged in.

There might be slight differences in the voltages which is OK.

This measures no load voltage. The loaded voltages may be different. These are from my 2020 Ram 3500. If you have an aftermarket inertial controller use the manual control to check.

YMMV Have fun.

Jim Edmonds
Phoenix AZ
RF01 FF
RF95 FC
MV Agusta F3 track bike.

[Jim Edmonds]

BTW, The bottom two connector tabs assumes the connector is in the standard position. If it has been rotated you'll need to confirm which tab is ground and which is brake. 8^)