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Went to road test the trailer today and had no brakes. (For those that are new, reading this thread might help: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...is-this-normal)
The Hydrastar wasn't running at all--nothing. Didn't matter if I was stepping on the brake, manually actuating the brake controller, or if I pulled the emergency brake cable. No workee.
After checking the obvious (power, ground, etc) I thought, "What was the last thing you did yesterday?" That last task was add fluid. So I checked and sure enough the reservoir wasn't as full as it should have been so I added more new brake fluid. I then pulled the emergency brake cable and it worked!
I was highly suspicious, though, so I called Hydrastar and sure enough the technician assured me the fluid level had nothing to do with whether the actuator turned on (or not). A coincidence.
So while talking to the Hydrastar technician I commented that in the manual it stated the ground wire must be attached to the tow vehicle's 7-pin ground wire--no exceptions. Here's a clip from the manual:
Take a look at the picture below. The arrow is pointing to the white ground wire. This installation of the ground on the Hydrastar's mount is not correct per the manual. (The pic was taken while my trailer was still in MORryde's maintenance bay.)
So how did I fix it? As many of you know, the grounds on our trailer are bunched together with a wire nut. There are also grounds together with a wire nut in the steel enclosure. The picture below was taken way before the Hydrastar was installed.
So what I did was butt-splice the white ground wire on the Hydrastar (with a black wire--all I had!), added connectors to all of the grounds held together by that blue wire nut and then put them all on a stud. I also butt-spliced the grounds under the steel enclosure. (I'll eventually replace all of this with a wire junction box like TucsonJim and several others have done.)
Tested everything and it works, so hopefully now it will stay fixed.
Note: I talked on the phone and have emailed Brian Hosinski (MORryde) this information.
The Hydrastar wasn't running at all--nothing. Didn't matter if I was stepping on the brake, manually actuating the brake controller, or if I pulled the emergency brake cable. No workee.
After checking the obvious (power, ground, etc) I thought, "What was the last thing you did yesterday?" That last task was add fluid. So I checked and sure enough the reservoir wasn't as full as it should have been so I added more new brake fluid. I then pulled the emergency brake cable and it worked!
I was highly suspicious, though, so I called Hydrastar and sure enough the technician assured me the fluid level had nothing to do with whether the actuator turned on (or not). A coincidence.
So while talking to the Hydrastar technician I commented that in the manual it stated the ground wire must be attached to the tow vehicle's 7-pin ground wire--no exceptions. Here's a clip from the manual:
Take a look at the picture below. The arrow is pointing to the white ground wire. This installation of the ground on the Hydrastar's mount is not correct per the manual. (The pic was taken while my trailer was still in MORryde's maintenance bay.)
So how did I fix it? As many of you know, the grounds on our trailer are bunched together with a wire nut. There are also grounds together with a wire nut in the steel enclosure. The picture below was taken way before the Hydrastar was installed.
So what I did was butt-splice the white ground wire on the Hydrastar (with a black wire--all I had!), added connectors to all of the grounds held together by that blue wire nut and then put them all on a stud. I also butt-spliced the grounds under the steel enclosure. (I'll eventually replace all of this with a wire junction box like TucsonJim and several others have done.)
Tested everything and it works, so hopefully now it will stay fixed.
Note: I talked on the phone and have emailed Brian Hosinski (MORryde) this information.
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