Trailer? Chip? Wiring? What happened??? - Diesel Forum

Roger45 · 11-24-2006, 11:16 AM

I hope this is the right forum, but if a moderator thinks it should go to Aftermarket, so be it...I just figured that since this happened towing you guys would most likely have the answer(s)...

I recently put in a four position chip to replace my older Superchip. Running empty it has done fine. The other day it was about 0F outside and I needed to make an emergency run to the Vets. I have a ten year old 3 horse bumper pull steel trailer that does a lot of sitting around and gets little use. With my old gelding I was pulling around 4500#. I noticed about half of my running ights were dead, but I was in a hurry, tail lights worked, and the brakes worked, so off I went. As I was trying to accelerate from a dead stop to 55 MPH strange things started to happen with the shifting. It seemed that my tranny could not pick a gear and stay in it. I was running in a lower gear (than it should have) most of the time. When I would start to go uphill and give a little push to the pedal the RPMs would go down, and when I was headed downhill with the same amount of pressure the RPMs would go up (paradoxical from what it should do). One of my four positions was for STOCK and this worked best (tow and race positions both caused it to shift every 3-5 seconds). After 35 miles of this I stopped and pulled the chip. This solved all problems as the truck started behaving normal. I am sending the chip in for a different burn pattern and see if that solves the problem.

Question: I have heard people having problems with the TC when a bulb is out on a trailer...could my burnt out running lights have caused this? If so, why the difference between when the chip was in and when it is out? The one thing I didn't do was shut down and restart before I removed the chip to see if that did anything.

Any ideas are really appreciated.

K5OIT · 11-25-2006, 09:22 AM

Am no kind of expert but will tell you of similar problem I had. Had Superchip in a 99 Ranger. Did something like you describe. Finally removed the chip and everythingn worked fine. Turned out that it was a well known problem in the computer world. The chip had a socket with tinned contacts and the truck computer had gold contacts. They would eventually get intermittent because of some type of compatibility problems. I think the cold would aggrivate something like that. You should also make sure that ALL the contacts were VERY clean when you remove and install chips. Had that happen too! Good luck!

Roger45 · 11-25-2006, 11:42 AM

I had a Superchip and it worked fine for years. I made sure that the contacts were extra clean as I completely removed the card from the CPM to clean it.

I have not sed this trailer in over a year. I went out last evening and found that the lights were completely messed up. No running lights at all. Right taillight is on brake, left tail light barely visible and blinks when I turn the right blinker on. What a mess. The wife had a friend barrow the trailer last year and they ground the plug down dragging it as they did not have a 7 pin connector (I had the adapter if I knew what they were trying to do.

It is -5F today...if it warms up I will re installed the 4 position chip and see how the truck runs...prior to towing it worked fine. If all is well, I wiill haul a different trailer and see if it does it again (one that I know has good wiring). I will let the forum know what I find. What bothers me is that the tranny did fine (and TC) when I have the chip out, only acts up with the chip while pulling this trailer. Hmmmmmmmmm [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]