19 TRD Pro - TBC does not recognize boat trailer - help

Good morning everyone. I'm making a new thread about this, hope that's ok, but the long thread about TBC controller problems is actually slightly different than the problem I had...

I have a 19 TRD Pro, around 19k miles, never attempted towing with it before. The idea was to tow my 23' boat to the keys from the Tampa Bay Area for the week. Had the trailer lined up and ready to go (rented it to use for my boat). The trailer had trailer brakes (of course) and a 5 pin output, so I purchased a 5 pin flat to 7 pin adapter for use on the Tundra. The owner of the trailer uses the exact same adapter on his F-150 with no issues with his brake controller.

Anyway, the blinkers and lights worked, except the Tundra computer did not recognize that there was a trailer attached and hence, the integrated TBC did not function. It said "no trailer" on the trailer screen and adjusting the gain did nothing. Nor would it let me select a trailer type. I looked at the pinout diagram on the exterior of the truck and noticed that the pin for the trailer brake was the bottom left pin, NONE of the various 5 pin to 7 pin adapters available at Autozone, Amazon, etc. even have a pin at that location. The pinouts for those adapters are all the same, and as far as I can tell, there is no "Toyota" 5 pin to 7 pin adapter available for some sort of proprietary Toyota pinout...

Toyota service/parts thus far has been worthless... "We don't sell those adapters." So I don't know if I need some special adapter or if there is something wrong with my truck. Any ideas? I have loved this truck so far but this incident totally took the wind out of our sales. I would hate to have to get a Ford or GMC just to tow something safely. Boat ended up being left at my house and we had to spend a fortune to make other boat arrangements... totally sucked.

And while I'm at it.... does anyone happen to know if the Land Cruiser uses the same TBC as the Tundra?

Your help appreciated...
John

 

Get a trailer that uses the 7 pin without an adapter.

 

The 7 pin on your truck is not a unique pin out as you suspected. More than likely something isn't making a connection, or the 5 pin on the trailer is not going where it should be going on the seven pin. Are you sure your adapter is 5 pin and not a 4 pin? The stores sell a 4 to 7 and a 5 to 7. The 4 to 7 with no brakes, and the 5 to 7 with brakes.

 

so any ford or Chevy can tow this trailer properly with a $20 adapter but the solution if you own a Tundra is to replace the entire trailer?

 

Positive it’s a 5 pin... thanks

 

Most boat trailers I have seen have surge brakes as you do not want to be putting electric brakes in the water when launching or retrieving the boat.

 

Last thought, add 12 v to the pin on the trailer and see if the brakes work. Might not be the electric brake trailer you are thinking it is?

 

appreciate everyone’s help so far...

so the fellow who owns this trailer was able to set the gain on these brakes using his f150... also the tundra manual says you need electric brakes over 2000 lbs (if I recall) and I know in Florida it is illegal to tow over 3500 pounds without a trailer braking system, not sure if that includes surge brakes (sorry I’m new at all of this)

it was a heavy trailer and I could tell the brakes were not working when I would stop the truck, trailer would push slightly. Didn’t feel safe and didn’t want to risk it.

 

Your solution was to replace the entire truck, so it's not like I was being less rational than you were. I thought I was giving a more cost effective option.

The Tundra isn't wired special or in some proprietary way. If it was every trailer out there would present issues for every Tundra out there. They don't, so that's not the problem. It is possible your tundras plug was wired incorrectly, has failed, or is dirty.

It is possibly an adapter issue. Even though you got the same adapter as the owner it may be faulty. Had that issue a lot with the various trailers at work. Will the owner let you try his adapter that works to rule this out?

Last thought, noticed on my truck that I can plug in the trailer and the lid/holder will move over and make it appear to be fully connected, but it actually needs to be pressed in about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch further. It's often the little things that bite us.

 

Thanks for the help. Good tips. I did try multiple adapters and got the same results. Don't have access to the owner's adapter, but I'll see if he can send me a pic of that one.

Also made sure it was fully engaged into the clip, thats a good tip and something easy to miss.

I have a service appointment in a few weeks for an oil change anyway, I'm going to have them test the IBC on the truck and see if there is a fault with the truck.

Appreciate the help.

 

Given the recall for improper wiring on the turn signals it is not a stretch to think that your trailer plug was wired incorrectly. If that's the case it would be easily remedied. Here's hoping it is something simple!

 

Post a pic of the coupler. Willing to bet you have surge brakes (as already mentioned).