brake lights came on, on their own !!!!

[lardy]

Happy New year good people.

I have an interesting one for you !!

i got a call last night from my neighbour to say my rear brake lights were on,
Sure enough they were!

I went into wtf mode and flapped about a bit, started her up and still didnt want to know about going to sleep.....bugger! phoned the previous owner (was good humoured seeing as it had gone 10pm)
said to flip the slide on the electric braking thingy which is part of the reece set up.

Sure enough that cured it ....this is a major concern as coming back to a motor with two dead batteries would possibly make me spit the dummy!!

Q1, Can i cut that thing off? (the electric trailer braking thing)
Q2, Do i have to take the landy to an auto sparks to remove it ?
Q3, Should i bother replacing it as i dont pull a trailer all that much and the reece has all the sparks i require if i did pull a trailer ?

Answers would be highly appreciated as i do 11 hour shifts at the dept of corrective services and am not gonna love it sick if i come out to a duff battery because of this issue,

Thanks guys in advance

[StephenF10]

Is the electric brake controller a Tekonsha Voyager? They have a known problem re turning the brake lights on by themselves. Afaik the problem was fixed a year or two ago and earlier faulty models were replaced under warranty.

Stephen.

[lardy]

Hi Stephen,

not sure of the brand as of yet but let me describe it to you.

A slide on top slides right to left, a knob on the left another on the right, it has a little bulb which goes orange green i think on top, is made of plastic and is black in colour ....

So you reckon too late now for warranty ya think ?
regards andy

[dmdigital]

Sounds like a Hayman Reece, but could be a Tekonsha. If you don't have electic brakes on your trailer then you might as well remove it as its not needed. The unit regardless of make should have a wire spliced to the cold side of the brake light switch on the brake peddle, positive and negative power and a line to the brake pin (#5) of the trailer socket.

[StephenF10]

Hi Stephen,

not sure of the brand as of yet but let me describe it to you.

A slide on top slides right to left, a knob on the left another on the right, it has a little bulb which goes orange green i think on top, is made of plastic and is black in colour ....

So you reckon too late now for warranty ya think ?
regards andy

Sorry Lardy, can't identify it. It doesn't seem like any of the current Tekonsha controllers. Could be an older model or another brand. Does it have any lettering or numbers anywhere?

In any case, as dm-td5 says, if your trailer doesn't have electric brakes (they're mostly on caravans) you don't need it. Remove it and sleep easier!

Stephen.


Stephen.

[dmdigital]

This might help identify it: brake_controllers (http://www.campertrailers.org/brake_controllers.htm)

[Cameron_Def]

Mine just unplugged, no need to cut it out .. maybe yours is the same ?

[JohnF]

Get yourself a battery isolting switch. they are cheap, about $16-. So if you have a future problem just Isolate the battery until you sort the problem out.

[lardy]

It's a voyager alright according to the pics dm td5 offered will confirm prob remove but cheers

[StephenF10]

It's a voyager alright according to the pics dm td5 offered will confirm prob remove but cheers

You could always contact the previous owner and find out where he bought it. Take it back there, describe the problem and say that you know it is a common Voyager fault and ask for an exchange. Even if you have no intention at the moment of towing anything with electric brakes it could be useful in the future.

Stephen.

[dmdigital]

I think you will find there is a plug on the rear of it, so I'd simply unplug the unit. If you still get problems then the next thing would be to check the trailer socket itself for a short and lastly the wires to the trailer socket and the brake switch from the unit's plug.

I was going to install a Tekonsha, but it failed and I couldn't get any service satisfaction. So I installed a nice simple RedArc and this was later transferred from my Disco to my Defender.

[StephenF10]

Almost all caravanners swear by Tekonshas. Unlike the solid-state type (Hayman-Reese?) they have a pendulum that senses the amount of braking force of the tow vehicle and varies the force of the trailer brakes to match. My experience over five years with a Tekonsha has been all positive.

Stephen.

[dmdigital]

The unit failing was only part of the problem, the support - or rather lack of it - was the icing on the cake. I was very unimpressed with the build quality of the unit too.

Actually I'd disagree with your statement: Almost all caravanners swear by Tekonshas.. Since I found in my researching that a lot of people use them, the HR and others. I would also say that the Tekonsha (particularly the Voyager) was the most talked about with problems. That's nothing in itself as people often post problems on the web (e.g. this forum;)) so I wasn't concerned by that. What I concluded was it was like what tyre is best for my Defender? There is no answer its what suites your needs the best.

[lardy]

the wires coming out of the back of it go into a choc block (plastic block with screw holding in the wires) and continues from there, so might just get it retro wired to the origonal state.
the only info i have on it does not show a wiring diagram damn

[ecka]

had the same problem with mine.cured it by placing a diode in the wire that connects to the brake pedal switch to stop power feeding back into the brake circuit.The diode will only allow power to flow in one direction ie from the brake pedal to the brake controller and not back the other way.

[kenleyfred]

My tekonsha voyager started doing the same, well out of warranty. I returned it to dealer who exchanged it for another brand. I was hoping they would upgrade it to the prodigy or let me pay the difference. Still well out of warranty to be replaced no questions was good.
Kenley