Ford, gotta love them….

So I’ve been having issues with my trailer brakes, seems like ever since I got the trailer the surge brakes would not turn off when I was in reverse, (my driveway is short and steep, and I back the boat up it) well I has the boat in the shop a month ago, I mentioed the problem, they looked into it, and ended up replacing the solinoid on the trailer the disengages the brakes when in reverse, and low and behold it still didn’t work.

SO I suspect something may be up with the truck, but not being able to find my multimeter for the life of me, I can’t prove anything.

Last night serching another forum I came across a post that mentioned that Ford even though I have the 7 pin connector factory installed, decided to leave a few relays off the truck, one namely that sends the reverse light signal to the trailer, the same one the disengages the brakes when in reverse.

Nice, good Job Ford, I would’ve gladly paid you the extra $1 you saved by not putting the part on the trucks in the first place, I see it helped you out financially Thanks Ford for screwing me I suppose you’ll have your way with me again when I hit the parts counter.

Long story short if you are running a Ford pickup, you are probably missing the relay under the hood that turns off your surge brakes when in reverse.

Not justifying Fords decision to leave the part off, but did you ever ask your truck dealer about this problem ??? I work at a dealer, and this seems like it would have been a readily ran into and solved problem, seeing the number of Ford trucks on the road, that are pulling rigs.

big g

I had the same thing on a 2002 F150

Wait until you blow a fuse under the hood and they stop working when you are backing up. That happened a few times when I had a F150. Usually you could figure it out, because if I remember right one trailer light would go out also.

Nope never thought to ask the dealer, I assume it did work because the 7 pin connector works when I use the adapter to run the normal 4 way plug. Owned the truck from day one, and it’s a ’01, this is the first trailer I’ve towed with brakes, so I don’t have any warraty left anyways, normally I fix anything I need myself anyways.

Blown plenty of fuses under the hood, with my old trailer so I’m familar with that now.

So in actuality the brake has always been on when backing the trailer up (uphill anyways) since we’ve had it. I have just been using the pin to deactivate the brakes, but it only works so good, and now that pin is bent, which reminds me to pick another up on the way to the dealership.

are there adjustments that can be made on the trailer that make it harder to engage the surge breaks? I do agree that Ford is ridiculous for leaving out that part..and I also might add uhhummmchevyurrrmm

If I’m understanding this post correctly. The terminal for when the transmission is in reverse is not energized? You’d think the only thing you need to supply for trailering is the ball and mount, round to flat adapter if needed, and brake controller if needed.

Maybe this explains why my friends interior lights won’t work on his trailer when the Excursion is hooked up.

Anything to save a buck.

What next? “Oh, we left out the spare tire, most folks don’t use them. Sorry, were you stranded out there?”

F.O.R.D. = F.ix O.r R.epair D.aily

Funny you should blame the trouble with trailer “surge” brakes on your trucks electrical system. The “surge” brakes on my trailer do not use electrical current. Whats up with that? Maybe a mechanic could explain!

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Funny you should blame the trouble with trailer “surge” brakes on your trucks electrical system. The “surge” brakes on my trailer do not use electrical current.

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You maybe don’t have and electrical soleniod to deactivate the brakes when backing up. Thats what he was explaining. When putting the truck in reverse, the trailer receives power from the terminal when only in reverse to not allow the brakes to activate. Thus allowing you to back up, especially up hill.

Isn’t the relay in the door compartment in the “towing package”, which it’s referred to in the owners manual? I went through this with a 02 F150.

BIRDDOG

At least Ford circles their mistakes….

Impalapower explained the issue, I only need the power to deactivate the brakes when going backwards up a hill.

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Isn’t the relay in the door compartment in the “towing package”, which it’s referred to in the owners manual? I went through this with a 02 F150.

BIRDDOG

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Not sure where this door compartment is… I have to glance through the owners manual a little better, the wife drives the truck 95% of the time now so I only get limited access to it now.

There is I believe one more relay not installed/missing I think the is the towing charge one. SO I think there is actually two missing, which may be the reason you friend doesn’t have lights in the trailer towed behind the excursion, I’m pretty sure that is the one that would affect that.

Btw the relay is about $9 at my local ford dealer.

I dunno, talking with a co-worker who had a 02 Expedition, he said he has some little kit too, but I bough this truck with less than 2 miles on it, I never seen and towing kit, the newer one may have one. I suppose it’s possible I lost it along the way, and the owner’s manual doesn’t state anything specfic about it, unless I’m missing a additional book or something.

Eitherway hopefully I can avoid all the strange looks I got down at Evert’s when my trailer is hopping it’s way backwards, hopefully it rolls like it’s suppose to now.

Buckshot has had a ton of problems with his trailer. He may have some insight into this since he’s been having problems for over a year.

DO you have a PN? I wonder if I need this for my 02 F 150

i encountered the same issue with my ’02 F150 with a factory towing package.

i got a boat with surge brakes (using an adapter to go from the truck’s 7-round to the boat’s 5-flat plug) and couldn’t back up b/c the brakes wouldn’t disengage…quite annoying with a long uphill driveway to back up!

after about a month of manually disengaging my trailer brakes to back up i remembered that the Ford dealer had given me a kit when i bought the truck and mentioned something about trailer brakes. hmmmm…
pull the kit out from under the back seat, and sure enough! there’s a couple of relays inside. plug them into the truck and fa-zah! i can back my trailer up.

the relays in question plug into the box under the hood on the driver’s side. check your owner’s manual.

aside from that, i love my truck. runs great, tows awesome, no daily trips to the repair shop. in fact, i’ve never had it in once for anything aside from old tires and brakes in the 50,000 miles i’ve owned it.

IT works!

Kurt, Have I got a deal for you, come on over I’ll give ya one Heck I’ll even install it. I’m pretty sure you need one if it isn’t installed already. The whole process will take about 15 seconds.

I bought 2, thinking that one was for the brake relay and the other towing charging power, that one appears to be a full relay, instead of the half relay for the reverse lights.

I’m still fairly convinced my truck didn’t have this package you guys had in the ’02.

Nick,

Pulled out the owners manuel, I see there are 2 relays a half relay and a full relay, I see my 5th wire is connected to the center pin which is the trailer back up lights which is a half relay, is this what you have?

I found the full relay in my work truck kit but not the half relay

Give me a shout 469 1306

Two problems I have with your complaint. Number one Ford sends the needed relay as well as the controller adapter wiring with the trucks when new. if you didn’t get it and you bought the unit brand new someone at the dealership dropped the ball, not Ford.

Secondly I take it whoever installed your brake controller didn’t finish the job by testing each circuit in the plug in to be sure everything functioned properly. had that happened you’d not have had this problem or at least would have known about it prior to hooking up a trailer. Good luck!

Ok I have to post a little more info,

In my owner’s manual, looking at the diagram and such of the fuse pannel under the hood. There is are some half relays, some of them are not used, some or not used on every model. I want to say it’s half relay number 103 (I’d have to go check the owners manual, I suppose I’ll post a pic of the later and edit this post)

My ’01 F150 came with the trailer towing package, so I have both a 4 wire plug and a 7 pin female connector. Apparently Ford does not install the relays from the factory that power both the reverse backup light to the 7 pin connector. My trailer has surge brakes so I actually use a 5 pin converter, not all seven, the 5th wire being the backup lights which tells a solinoid in the brakes to release the brakes when the truck is in reverse, otherwise if your trailer is going backwards uphill, the brakes engage like they normally would anytime the trailer is pushing on the truck.

So here’s some pics to help describe this (sorry they are a little big forgot to resize them ) Oh and all I have with me is the Camera phone, so quality is outstanding as you’d expect

This is a pic of the fuse pannel under the hood, you can see the one relay that is circled, that is the one I installed to get the power to the 7 pin connector for the “5th” wire that tells the trailer the truck is in reverse.

Picture of the location of the fuse pannel on my 01 F-150

Picture of the bag they gave me the relays in and the relay, numbers on top of the relay a F57B-14B192-AA, though I’m not sure that matters, I just asked the for the half fuse under the hood on an ’01 F-150, though I’d venture the guess they are probably the same for the 97-04 model years, and that probably includes the f-250’s just the same. Paid like $9 for one, not sure if you can find them anywhere other than a Ford dealer.

It seems it may be up in the air wither or not ford did include these relays or not, so check around.

Both very fair points Riveratt, The ball has appeared to have been dropped several times since the factory and it’s still possible I lost the relay,

***I learned a bunch more since my original post***

I Still think Ford could’ve installed them in the factory, heck it’s a factory installed towing package…

Still better than a Chevy or Dodge (shudders dodge ) I’ll still take me a Ford.

To each their own….

big g