Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr176
I would try cleaning the 7 pin connector on the trailer and maybe add a little dielectric grease.
Something I learned with my 2017: Even though the truck will say "Trailer Connected" by seeing the drum or disc brakes, it uses the trailer's brake lights and turn signals to recognize a trailer is connected. Once the trailer is connected, you need to press the brake pedal to turn off the back-up sensors, change the 3 flash lane change to 5 flashes, and turn on the trailer charging circuit. Since my DRV has separate brake lights and turn signals, my truck did not automatically make these changes when connected. I had to manually turn off the back-up sensors when shifting to reverse, only had 3 flashes for a lane change and my trailer batteries were not charging. If I plugged my second trailer (which has combined brake and turn) into the back of the DRV or into the truck by itself, everything worked as it should. I was able to fix this on a trip this winter by plugging a 7 pin circuit tester (7 pin plug with little LED's to show that the circuits are working) into the trailer plug on the back of the DRV. The LED's were apparently enough for the truck to recognize and switch on all the tow features.
Since I like the separate brake and turn on the DRV (always have 4 brake lights even when using the turn signals, and not having the side mounted turn signals coming on with the brakes), I decided to wire up a more permanent fix. I took 2 spare side marker LED's, and connected them to the converter that separates the turn signals from the brake lights. The converter is located in the battery compartment up near the hydraulic pump. I simply connected the spare lights to the truck side of the converter using piggy-back spade connectors. Now the truck recognizes everything automatically, and I have a couple of spare side markers should one burn out.
These darn trucks are just getting too "smart".
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I just finished making the light connections to my 2015 Dallas just as pictured in your later post using these directions listed here. It worked great. We traded our 2011 F-450 for a new 2018 F-450 and this problem happened with it but not the 2011. The Ford dealer had already checked the truck for problems but none existed. I remembered reading this post a few months ago so I did a search, found it and used your suggestion. l can highly recommend this simple process to fix this problem. Total cost was near $20 bucks and took approximately 20 minutes to complete. Thanks so much for this suggestion.
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