I bought a new Jayco Expanda July 2009. The brakes have not worked satisfactorily since new. The tow vehicle is a Toyota Landcruiser 105. I have taken both vehicles to auto electricians and recently to the local Jayco dealer, all with no appreciable improvement in braking. The auto electrician changed brake controllers, but ended up putting the original Tekonsha P3 back on, put new magnets in the brakes, all to no avail. The Jayco dealer said that they had fixed it, took it for a drive, no appreciable improvement. When using the hand lever on the Tekonsha the whole outfit keeps rolling merrily along. The Jayco dealers mechanic who I took in the vehicle when testing it said you couldn't expect the caravan to pull up itself and a 2 tonne Lancruiser. Can someone please tell me if this is as good as it gets.
16' Series Brakes
- Thread starter Quicky
- Start date
I have a dual axle 17.56.2 and I can easily get it to lock up at slow speeds, eg 20km
I test the brakes when I head off by gently pulling the leaver at about 40km. The whole rig begins to slow down immediately. I have a Tekonsha P3
BtW, that comment by the Jayco Mechanic sounds like complete BS, or it was his first day on the job and he's never towed before.
I test the brakes when I head off by gently pulling the leaver at about 40km. The whole rig begins to slow down immediately. I have a Tekonsha P3
BtW, that comment by the Jayco Mechanic sounds like complete BS, or it was his first day on the job and he's never towed before.
I found I had my p3 up to 11.5 before I could really feel it pulling up with the manual control lever. Do you have a single or duel axle expanda? I get the feeling dual axle rigs require a higher setting to get the 4 sets of brakes actuating.
@relgate, what voltage is your P3 set at?
We have a 17.56.2, the day we collected it I could not really feel the brakes working. I had a p2 but it worked fine with the old electric also setup I had on the camper. I changed to a p3 as I had an error on the p2 and was not happy.
I did not notice an immediate difference. However 3 months on with use every 2nd weekend I have had to back off my setting. I can feel the trailer brakes coming on immediately after touching the pedal.
I tow with a 100, so essentially the same car, when loaded our van would be 2200kg at least and it certainly slows the car down upon brake application. What the service guy has said is complete BS. Every electric setup I have ever towed I can get the trailer to slow the car.
I have just backed my setting off to 5.8. When reversing I can hear the magnets pulling in. As a check when setting off as others have said, I,pull the override and it slows the car but does not lock up. I have once heard a tire squeal under a heavy stop in traffic, suggesting it was just short of a lock up.
Good luck with your problem,hope this helps.
I did not notice an immediate difference. However 3 months on with use every 2nd weekend I have had to back off my setting. I can feel the trailer brakes coming on immediately after touching the pedal.
I tow with a 100, so essentially the same car, when loaded our van would be 2200kg at least and it certainly slows the car down upon brake application. What the service guy has said is complete BS. Every electric setup I have ever towed I can get the trailer to slow the car.
I have just backed my setting off to 5.8. When reversing I can hear the magnets pulling in. As a check when setting off as others have said, I,pull the override and it slows the car but does not lock up. I have once heard a tire squeal under a heavy stop in traffic, suggesting it was just short of a lock up.
Good luck with your problem,hope this helps.
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Yep, OK thx, I figured as much. I've only had my van on the road for the trip home from the dealer, so the brakes wuld not be bedded in yet.
When I picked up my 17.56-2OB the dealer took me for short drive to setup the break controller. I had a Prodigy controller, it was capable of slowing the van and tow vehicle by itself - but the dealer said not to set it too high as the breaks will wear out very fast if the van is trying to also slow the 2.5T tow vehicle.
@Quicky, sounds to me something isn't right. My brakes weren't working properly either when new but it was dodgy wiring connections to the brakes. I have the P3 also and run on 9 for the 18' and test like relgate when leaving home. There's gotta be something someone has missed, hope you get it sorted sooner rather than later!
Yeh, I should also add that I think something is definately wrong. Mine took a while to bed in, but still worked from the beginning, probably at 85-90% to start with.
3 trips in with my van and initially I was not happy at all, but as others have said, the more I have now travelled the better the brakes seem to be coming on!
Firstly, thank you everyone for your assistance. The caravan has travelled to Airlie Beach, Byron Bay x 2, numerous trips to NSW South Coast over the Clyde Mountain, and many more trips into the Snowy Mountains, so the brakes are well bedded in. I even have gone to the extent of rewiring with heavier gauge wire, all to no avail. I asked Jayco to tow the caravan with one of their tow vehicles to establish if the problem is with the Landcruiser or the caravan, not sure whether this happened. I have used a multi meter to establish that the voltage recorded at the P3 is in fact getting to the brakes, which it is, stationary of course. So the next step is to try another tow vehicle to isolate the issue to either one of the vehicles. When the Jayco dealer I bought it from wired the Landcruiser, the fuse holder melted so badly that it reconnected the power supply as it had fused across!
Hi Quicky,
I had all sorts of dramas with my 16.49.3 OB brakes. One side would be stone cold and the other would be smoking,they were that hot. After a few visits to jayco, & a tekonsha prodigy install they finally traced the problem to a bad earth in my tow vehicle (dual cab hilux). I had tested both sides with a multimeter and they were both getting the same voltage when the brakes were applied but the earth broke down before it got across the axle to the nearside brakes. Jayco put a heavier gauge wire from the plug in connection up to my chassis and i havent any problems since. I run at 5.5 with no boost and pull up so smoothly. I sure hope it it a bad earth in your case as i know how frustrating & frighteneing it can be towing with faulty brakes.!!!!!
All the best
panda man
I had all sorts of dramas with my 16.49.3 OB brakes. One side would be stone cold and the other would be smoking,they were that hot. After a few visits to jayco, & a tekonsha prodigy install they finally traced the problem to a bad earth in my tow vehicle (dual cab hilux). I had tested both sides with a multimeter and they were both getting the same voltage when the brakes were applied but the earth broke down before it got across the axle to the nearside brakes. Jayco put a heavier gauge wire from the plug in connection up to my chassis and i havent any problems since. I run at 5.5 with no boost and pull up so smoothly. I sure hope it it a bad earth in your case as i know how frustrating & frighteneing it can be towing with faulty brakes.!!!!!
All the best
panda man
Quicky, panda man is all over this I think. Is your earth from your brake control unit go to your chassis or direct to your battery ? If its to your chassis I would suggest running the earth direct to your battery and try that out. Good luck
Hi all,
Just for the record my earth for the brake controller is hooked up directly to the battery. When i went to jayco to show thenm the problem they left the vehicle hooked up and jacked the van up. When i applied the brakes the offside would lock up and the nearside would just buzz but you could turn the wheel by hand!!! It was only after they plugged their test equipment directly into the vans plug that both brakes worked perfectly well....a wow moment indeed. I now can take the jayco's mechanics quote of the day which was "that towing a caravan around australia is supposed to be a pleasurable experience". I sure hope you sort your problem and enjoy your jayco.
Just for the record my earth for the brake controller is hooked up directly to the battery. When i went to jayco to show thenm the problem they left the vehicle hooked up and jacked the van up. When i applied the brakes the offside would lock up and the nearside would just buzz but you could turn the wheel by hand!!! It was only after they plugged their test equipment directly into the vans plug that both brakes worked perfectly well....a wow moment indeed. I now can take the jayco's mechanics quote of the day which was "that towing a caravan around australia is supposed to be a pleasurable experience". I sure hope you sort your problem and enjoy your jayco.
Just an update. By the end of last weekend's trip, I have backed the settings down to 8.7 as the brakes continue to bed in.
Hey guys, My tekonsha p3 pulls my 14.9 up just fine on about 6v, but i thought pulling the manual lever would apply the full 13.6v supply if right on. It was my understanding that auto braking using the pedal only applied the set voltage amount. with the p3 you can set the boost which makes the braking more aggressive, and generally i have boost set to 1 on the freeway and drop down to the off setting when in town driving around and or parking my rig