8492 - 2019 Ranger - Trailer Brake Controller Availability

[jss81258]

Mine does not do anything, even turning on headlights I would assume it would light up. . I'll see if I can find a test light or a buddy's trailer. Mine doesn't arrive for a few weeks. All connections look good and secure.

I think everyone's mentioned it (except me, I actually forgot), if you push the dial in, it will light up as long as you hold it in. Once you release, the light goes out. Turning on the lights or hitting the brakes doesn't do anything.

Once you put a load on it, the truck "sees" it and will turn off your rear sensors if equipped, will extend your blind spot sensor range, and will turn on the controller. The light will come on and stays on as long as it "sees" the load, whether a trailer or tester.

FYI, I have both the inexpensive light testers and an Innovative Products tester with brake force meter. The inexpensive tester doesn't put enough of a load on it to activate the controller. The Innovative does activate the controller and has all these pretty lights to show brake force. I bought it to troubleshoot the brake controller on my old truck.

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[Big Blue]

Once you put a load on it, the truck "sees" it and will turn off your rear sensors if equipped, will extend your blind spot sensor range, and will turn on the controller. The light will come on and stays on as long as it "sees" the load, whether a trailer or tester.

Not quite 100% true . The truck needs to see a completed circuit on the marker lights to recognize the trailer and disable the rear sensors and change the Blind Spot setting. The brake controller needs to see a completed circuit on the brake wire to turn on. It won't turn on if you plug in a trailer using the 4 pin socket. No brakes, no controller. Also you won't get power to the 12V pin in the 7 pin socket unless a trailer is plugged in and the truck running.

If I remember mine right, with a trailer with brakes is plugged in it glows green and changes to red/purplish when you apply brakes. While holding the brakes at a stop it will gradually fade to blue as it goes to holding mode. When you release the brakes it goes back to green.

I always test my brakes after I hook up by going slow, take my foot off the gas and press the button. It should stop the load without locking up the trailer brakes. If they don't stop the truck well or lock up you need to adjust the brake bias knob up or down.

 

[jss81258]

Not quite 100% true . The truck needs to see a completed circuit on the marker lights to recognize the trailer and disable the rear sensors and change the Blind Spot setting. The brake controller needs to see a completed circuit on the brake wire to turn on. It won't turn on if you plug in a trailer using the 4 pin socket. No brakes, no controller. Also you won't get power to the 12V pin in the 7 pin socket unless a trailer is plugged in and the truck running.

If I remember mine right, with a trailer with brakes is plugged in it glows green and changes to red/purplish when you apply brakes. While holding the brakes at a stop it will gradually fade to blue as it goes to holding mode. When you release the brakes it goes back to green.

I always test my brakes after I hook up by going slow, take my foot off the gas and press the button. It should stop the load without locking up the trailer brakes. If they don't stop the truck well or lock up you need to adjust the brake bias knob up or down.

Since the discussion revolves around trailer brake controllers, I assumed we were only discussing the 7 pin socket.

The inexpensive tester is something that plugs into the socket and completes the circuits tested, otherwise the LEDs in the tester wouldn't light. But mine doesn't have enough of a load to activate the truck's brains. The Innovative is supposed to simulate the loads, and it does activate the truck's brains which then activates the controller.

The only point to the explanation that the inexpensive tester doesn't work (my tester, can't speak to others since I don't have them all) is that you may end up wondering what's wrong, when it's simply the tester.

Obviously, testing using a trailer is going to work if you have already have trailer. Again, assumed one wasn't available if the OP is going to borrow a tester.

Not trying to be argumentative, just would like to know where I'm wrong.

 

[Ranger8729]

Got it - my ground wasn't as good as it should have been. I checked all wires, they were complete and seated well. I added a star washer to the ground point and now I have a blue flash when I press the button!

Now to wait on the lightforce panel to show up in stock.

 

[Big Blue]

Since the discussion revolves around trailer brake controllers, I assumed we were only discussing the 7 pin socket.

The inexpensive tester is something that plugs into the socket and completes the circuits tested, otherwise the LEDs in the tester wouldn't light. But mine doesn't have enough of a load to activate the truck's brains. The Innovative is supposed to simulate the loads, and it does activate the truck's brains which then activates the controller.

The only point to the explanation that the inexpensive tester doesn't work (my tester, can't speak to others since I don't have them all) is that you may end up wondering what's wrong, when it's simply the tester.

Obviously, testing using a trailer is going to work if you have already have trailer. Again, assumed one wasn't available if the OP is going to borrow a tester.

Not trying to be argumentative, just would like to know where I'm wrong.

I was not trying to argumentative or condescending either, just trying to clarify One point, that what tells the truck a trailer is connected and what tells the brake controller to turn on are two different things. Which they are. Everything else you said was 100% correct.

Sorry if my going into a deeper explanation of how the controller lights work and when, and how I check that my controller is working properly offended you in any way.

 

[jss81258]

I was not trying to argumentative or condescending either, just trying to clarify One point, that what tells the truck a trailer is connected and what tells the brake controller to turn on are two different things. Which they are. Everything else you said was 100% correct.

Sorry if my going into a deeper explanation of how the controller lights work and when, and how I check that my controller is working properly offended you in any way.

Looks like the OP has his problem solved, always a good thing.

Appreciate the response.

I purposely was general and broad without much detail. I can never tell how much others know, or even what they want to know. I "think" I got across that you need something back there to tell the truck it has a trailer, and that's what gets it all started. I mostly know what I mean even if others don't.

Thanks again

 

[Minky]

Hey guys and girls, just got mine now installed in the driveway. I'm not getting any lights on my Redarc control knob. CHMSL is working and everything seems good. Nothing on the controller however. Do I need a trailer to trigger it?

I installed the Ford OEM version and as Edsel says, when pushed it breathes (glows) blue and then quickly fades out - when there is no trailer hooked up.

 

[Edsel]

Mine does not light up until I hook up my camper. With no trailer, I think it has a very faint blue light when I hold the button for a second but does not stay on. I though mine wasnt working when i picked it up from the dealer until I hooked up my camper and it lit up.

It does some sort of alignment after power-up even without the trailer, that's why I think it lights when you press it after the install. It shouldn't need a trailer to show that it is alive and has power.

 

[Tina Easton]

I replaced an excellent Chev Colorado with a ‘19 XLT for the sole purpose of increasing my towing capacity to pull an Airstream trailer. Since then I have gone through all the heartburn described on this forum regarding the trailer brake controller: exorbitant price, poorly informed service departments, conflicting information, inadequate documentation, and etc. I was relieved when a Ford Accessory controller became available. The local small dealership where I purchased said they didn’t know how to install the controller, and would only undertake it on a time and material basis. Hoping they would have more experience, I went to a high volume metro area dealership 40 mi away, who gave me a firm quote for the install. That was an ordeal but another story. The first time I went to pull the trailer, in the mountains of Western NC, I realized the controller was not functioning. It was flashing blue or green. I also noticed the cargo light and the CHMTL was not functional. I returned it to the metro dealership, they said bad controller, replaced it, no improvement. Then they said bad wire harness, replaced it with no improvement. Now they are telling me they are in communication with Ford Engineering, who they claim says “this is a known problem and [they] are actively trying to get this issue resolved.” The truck sits at the dealer today as I told them I don’t want it back until it can legally and safely pull the weight claimed in product literature and advertising. Anyone out there with the same symptoms / issues?

 

[VAMike]

I replaced an excellent Chev Colorado with a ‘19 XLT for the sole purpose of increasing my towing capacity to pull an Airstream trailer. Since then I have gone through all the heartburn described on this forum regarding the trailer brake controller: exorbitant price, poorly informed service departments, conflicting information, inadequate documentation, and etc. I was relieved when a Ford Accessory controller became available. The local small dealership where I purchased said they didn’t know how to install the controller, and would only undertake it on a time and material basis. Hoping they would have more experience, I went to a high volume metro area dealership 40 mi away, who gave me a firm quote for the install. That was an ordeal but another story. The first time I went to pull the trailer, in the mountains of Western NC, I realized the controller was not functioning. It was flashing blue or green. I also noticed the cargo light and the CHMTL was not functional. I returned it to the metro dealership, they said bad controller, replaced it, no improvement. Then they said bad wire harness, replaced it with no improvement. Now they are telling me they are in communication with Ford Engineering, who they claim says “this is a known problem and [they] are actively trying to get this issue resolved.” The truck sits at the dealer today as I told them I don’t want it back until it can legally and safely pull the weight claimed in product literature and advertising. Anyone out there with the same symptoms / issues?

If the light isn't working they probably just didn't snap everything together properly. It's not something that has to happen.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I replaced an excellent Chev Colorado with a ‘19 XLT for the sole purpose of increasing my towing capacity to pull an Airstream trailer. Since then I have gone through all the heartburn described on this forum regarding the trailer brake controller: exorbitant price, poorly informed service departments, conflicting information, inadequate documentation, and etc. I was relieved when a Ford Accessory controller became available. The local small dealership where I purchased said they didn’t know how to install the controller, and would only undertake it on a time and material basis. Hoping they would have more experience, I went to a high volume metro area dealership 40 mi away, who gave me a firm quote for the install. That was an ordeal but another story. The first time I went to pull the trailer, in the mountains of Western NC, I realized the controller was not functioning. It was flashing blue or green. I also noticed the cargo light and the CHMTL was not functional. I returned it to the metro dealership, they said bad controller, replaced it, no improvement. Then they said bad wire harness, replaced it with no improvement. Now they are telling me they are in communication with Ford Engineering, who they claim says “this is a known problem and [they] are actively trying to get this issue resolved.” The truck sits at the dealer today as I told them I don’t want it back until it can legally and safely pull the weight claimed in product literature and advertising. Anyone out there with the same symptoms / issues?

Hi Tina,

First I have heard that there is a known issue....there have been many installs of the RedArc based Ford Accessories controller with no problems other initial bafflement of how to install for some dealers. It may be that there is an issue bubbling up, but am highly suspicious of this statement.
With your install on your Ranger, you likely have paperwork with a Ford phone number for technical help. Give it a call and see if they will support the dealer's claim. With so many good installs and good functionality I have my doubts other than the dealer's poor install.

Hope other folks will chime in here and hopefully help provide you with more info. The dealer experience is a dreaded one in some cases. I told my Ranger Team to help the customer avoid the dealership experience by getting it right out of the box the first time.... Seemed to work at that time as my Volumes of Ranger were 2nd only to the F Series at about 430,000 a year. Kept two plants busy, double shifted on 10 hour shifts for many years....

Sad you are having to face what I envisioned would be almost turn key...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[KVOFTN]

I replaced an excellent Chev Colorado with a ‘19 XLT for the sole purpose of increasing my towing capacity to pull an Airstream trailer. Since then I have gone through all the heartburn described on this forum regarding the trailer brake controller: exorbitant price, poorly informed service departments, conflicting information, inadequate documentation, and etc. I was relieved when a Ford Accessory controller became available. The local small dealership where I purchased said they didn’t know how to install the controller, and would only undertake it on a time and material basis. Hoping they would have more experience, I went to a high volume metro area dealership 40 mi away, who gave me a firm quote for the install. That was an ordeal but another story. The first time I went to pull the trailer, in the mountains of Western NC, I realized the controller was not functioning. It was flashing blue or green. I also noticed the cargo light and the CHMTL was not functional. I returned it to the metro dealership, they said bad controller, replaced it, no improvement. Then they said bad wire harness, replaced it with no improvement. Now they are telling me they are in communication with Ford Engineering, who they claim says “this is a known problem and [they] are actively trying to get this issue resolved.” The truck sits at the dealer today as I told them I don’t want it back until it can legally and safely pull the weight claimed in product literature and advertising. Anyone out there with the same symptoms / issues?

On Redarc's website I found this.

The REDARC Tow-Pro Elite's Active Calibration explained


Active Calibration is the process of the controller calibrating itself to the direction of travel. Once installed, the REDARC Tow-Pro Elite will constantly monitor the vehicle under general driving conditions; it will record the inertia when under braking to establish the vehicles direction of travel.



Active calibration occurs with no user input required, and with or without a trailer connected. If no trailer is connected, the LED will not flash and the user will have no indication of calibration.



If you have the trailer connected and the Tow-Pro Elite hasn’t completed Active Calibration, the braking provided to the trailer will be similar to Tow-Pro Elite’s user controlled mode, and will apply the brakes to the level set by the user on the gain control knob. To indicate Active Calibration, the LED will glow green with short blue pulses. When applying the foot brake, the LED will pulse green and red. As Active Calibration progresses, the blue LED will increase from a short pulse to a longer pulse with a green pulse. The LED will continue like this until it becomes a solid blue which indicates calibration is complete.

 

[Lonewolf]

I replaced an excellent Chev Colorado with a ‘19 XLT for the sole purpose of increasing my towing capacity to pull an Airstream trailer. Since then I have gone through all the heartburn described on this forum regarding the trailer brake controller: exorbitant price, poorly informed service departments, conflicting information, inadequate documentation, and etc. I was relieved when a Ford Accessory controller became available. The local small dealership where I purchased said they didn’t know how to install the controller, and would only undertake it on a time and material basis. Hoping they would have more experience, I went to a high volume metro area dealership 40 mi away, who gave me a firm quote for the install. That was an ordeal but another story. The first time I went to pull the trailer, in the mountains of Western NC, I realized the controller was not functioning. It was flashing blue or green. I also noticed the cargo light and the CHMTL was not functional. I returned it to the metro dealership, they said bad controller, replaced it, no improvement. Then they said bad wire harness, replaced it with no improvement. Now they are telling me they are in communication with Ford Engineering, who they claim says “this is a known problem and [they] are actively trying to get this issue resolved.” The truck sits at the dealer today as I told them I don’t want it back until it can legally and safely pull the weight claimed in product literature and advertising. Anyone out there with the same symptoms / issues?

Hi Tina,

Sorry you are having this trouble. I replaced a Nissan frontier for the same purpose, to have a higher towing capacity. The small country dealer I bought my Ranger from was not familiar with the new controller when I bought mine in May 2020. Luckily I had read a lot on this forum about it. I had to show them the part number for them to order, but that is all i told them. With that said....they installed it when it came in and took about 3 hrs and I have not had any issues. Like many have posted that have done the install themselves....the instructions are complete on how to do it. A certified mechanic should have no problem doing this install. They have done something wrong. sounds like from what i have read on this forum from other installs...that some thing went wrong when they plugged into the CHMTL, which some have noted that you have to get that plug together correctly.

Hope you get this resolved. I feel like you will enjoy the towing once you have proper braking.

mark

 

[Tina Easton]

I picked up the truck this morning after it was at the dealer 7 days. They had given me a loaner so was it a fairly minor inconvenience. Confirmed the controller is operating as designed and actuating the trailer brakes. Cargo light and CHMTL working properly. They claimed issues were due to faulty wiring harnesses - said they had to try at least 3 before success.

Whatever, it works. Thanks to all who offered help / support.

 

[Montana Ranger]

Yes, the dealer experience is widely variable.

I have been towing with the Ford controller since March and it had been working flawlessly. Then a couple of weeks ago, I felt some wires tickling my toes. When I looked under the dash, I noticed a couple of wires loose and dangerously close to my feet. I pushed them back up out of the way and zip-tied them to keep them out of the way and forgot about it.

A week later, we were leaving on a 1,700 mile vacation. After connecting the trailer, I noticed that the controller was flashing green & red, and that the trailer brakes were on maximum, which made backing out of my somewhat steep driveway difficult. I rushed over my dealer to have them take a look. A lower-level tech who had not yet left came out to look at it. He looked under the dash and fiddled for a moment until the controller went totally dark. Since it was 5, there wasn't anything they could do until sometime the next day, and they suggested I get in the service queue in the morning and they might get to it before the afternoon. My fear was that the controller had cooked and that would be the end of our vacation before it even started.So I went back home to investigate. I found that the wires that had come loose were the power connections, and that one of the wires was loose in the compression connectors they had used. I discarded the connector, soldered the wires and insulated with shrink tube. Problem permanently solved and vacation saved. Only 2 hours lost on our start.

The flashing red-green meant that the controller was in "calibration mode", as if it was just installed (or battery reconnected) and is something you don't normally do with the trailer connected. Every time the power connection intermittently failed, the controller would fall back to calibration mode as if it has just been installed, and the trailer brakes are applied with maximum force as a safety fallback. After a few miles of driving, the unit achieved confidence in its orientation and all returned to normal.

It was fortunate that I discovered this before we left instead of after we were on the highway. We'd be passing through some rather steep highway passes and would would have been quite problematic had the power connection failed while heading down one of them.

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