Trouble with trailer brakes

[Starpunzel]

Hello all,

I have a Keystone Passport 145 and I'm towing with a Honda Pilot awd. We bought it from a dealer last summer and had them install the brake hookup w/wireless booster in the Pilot. We towed it home (about a 3 hour drive) with no issues. Since then we've had trouble with the brakes when braking from low speeds or in stop and go traffic. Instead of braking smoothly, the brakes will catch and lock up suddenly. At highway speeds, no problem. You can hear the brakes clicking in and the vehicle slows normally. But if I'm in stop & go, or say, trying to ease myself into a gas station, it's chunk, chunk, chunk, throwing us forward with screeching tires. I know the first thought is that its the booster, but we've tried resetting it many times and it even does it without the booster connected or turned on. My local RV place physically inspected the brakes and found no problem, but didn't have any advice on possible electrical problems. Any idea what's going on? It will be a while before I get back up to where we bought it. Will admit that its my first time towing a such a trailer and maybe I'm making a rookie mistake. I love the unit, but this issue is making me miss my grungy old popup.

Thanks in advance!

[JRTJH]

Most electric brake controllers "ramp up" the power to the trailer brakes and then taper the power down as the rig slows. You may just have your trailer brake controller set too high ??? Try turning it down to "minimum braking effort" and see if it stops the "clunking and grabbing"... if it does, then slowly start the process of increasing the power until you reach that "sweet spot" of adequate braking without grabbing.....

It may be more than just an adjustment, but I'd rule that out first, then move on to more difficult troubleshooting.

[Starpunzel]

Thanks - I followed your advice and the last trip went much better. When I followed the mfgr instructions (which called for getting up to 25mph and braking to set), it would set anywhere between 4.5 and 6, but I started manually and found that 1.1 was just fine. So wow, that's a huge difference!

I still wonder why it was grabbing like that even when I unplugged the booster controller entirely. Maybe it didn't know what to do so it automatically braked harder?

Anyway, problem solved - thanks again!