So, you have seen me write before that spending time under your travel trailer is just as important as the time you spend on top of it. If you missed that post, you can click here to read it. I spend a fair amount of time under my trailer because of all the things that can go wrong under there.

What things might you find that can go wrong? Flat suspension springs, broken suspension bolts, protective coating gone, broken wires (brake and other), bent frame, torn gas line, just to name a few.

I had been under my trailer for hours before our last trip and thought I had looked at everything. Unfortunately, I missed some bare wires coming out of the axle to the electric brakes. This was cause by a missing grommet. The wires had obviously been rubbing on bare metal for quite some time. Here’s how I resolved that issue.

The end result was a lack of braking power on the way to Daingerfield State Park, and multiple messages to “Check Trailer Brake Wiring” that appeared on my Ram’s dashboard. After pulling into a rest stop and doing a precursory check, I really couldn’t see anything wrong. I decided that I would need to look closely at everything once we got to the park. I still had brakes working on the trailer, but they didn’t feel as strong as they should be.

I discovered the problem within five minutes of being under the trailer after wiping dirt and grime off the wires so I could inspect them.

Once I discovered the root cause of the problem, I needed to source the grommet for the axle, and that was not easy. After many conversations with Dexter, they sent me the part number of the grommet. What they said they used is a hard plastic grommet. Oddly, that is not what was used on my axle. My axle had soft rubber grommets. So perhaps over time they migrated to the hard plastic style. I don’t think it matters much as long as the wires are protected from the metal of the axle.

So, my first step was to remove the existing wire connectors. They were easy to pull apart which gave me extra wire to deal with vs. just cutting them off at the connector. You can see in the picture below the existing groves in the wires from the old push connectors. I trimmed those wires where the connectors had spliced into the wires. That probably saved me a quarter of an inch of wire.

Next, I shrink wrapped the two wires that had rubbed bare on the hole in the axle. After they were shrink wrapped, I slid the new hard plastic grommet into place.

Then it was just a matter of hooking the wires back up to new connectors. The connectors have a gel inside of them that acts as a waterproof membrane.

All in all, I would say this is a thirty-minute job. It took more time setting out my tools than the actual time it took to fix things. So, keep an eye on your brake wires as well as all the other things you check before trips. The true test comes for me in a couple of weeks when we go to Kansas. However, I have a very high confidence level in this repair.

Stay Safe!