Thread: Electric brake controller question

I was reinstalling my cruise control today after sending it away for checking , and I decided to remove the old electric brake controller.
Last time I disconnected it from the battery I noticed that the brake lights did not work.
When I had a look today, I found that the brake light switch power wire had been removed and replaced by a power wire from the brake controller. The ONLY thing I can think of is that the controller is always on even with the ignition off, so the brake lights and therefore the controller works even with the ignition off. Of course the contoller has to also have a wire from the switched side
BUT WHY? is there some law that says the electric brakes on a caravan must work even with ignition off?. Normally the brake light switch is only powered at ign 11 ie ign on.
BUT you would have no boost with engine off, no power steering, so the fact that the trailer brakes still work would be immaterial one would think, and the least of your worries if you were moving with ign off.
Took me a long time to sort it out as the power wire was a different colour to the wiring diagram.
Regards Philip A

The EBC is powered all the time, the brake light switch triggers the brake lights to come on and also closes the switch in the brake controller to tell it to apply the trailer brakes.