Trailer disconnected

[BertN]

I have a bass boat For the last two years I have had a 2020 Ram 1500. It tows perfectly fine.

In May I bought a 2021 F150. Whenever I towed I would constantly get "trailer disconnected". The lights on the trailer would flicker.

The problem does not happen when I towwith my Yukom, so I assumed it was just a problem with the F150.

This week I traded the F150 for F250. The same problem occurs. If I jiggle the wires on the trailer, I can’t reproduce the problem. Doesn’t seem to be a loose wire, because jiggling them has no effect.

Any ideas?

 

[Jrod250]

I had that issue with my 2017 F250. The plug was faulty on the truck. It was replaced under warranty and remedied the issue. It’s a fairly common problem

 

[Bram]

Just in case , check your ground wire on trailer . I've had it happen cause it's grounding thru the ball not the plug .

 

[BertN]

Just in case , check your ground wire on trailer . I've had it happen cause it's grounding thru the ball not the plug .

Makes sense. I guess I could easily test that by plugging them in without putting the trailer on the ball. Appreciate it.

 

[jmass]

Ive had this problem before and it was a bad ground wire, It was grounding on the ball but not all the time, which caused the lights to flicker when hitting bumps

 

[911Tremor]

Yeah, sounds like it could be the plug.

If you haven’t already, put some Dielectric Grease on both the plug and the socket. It couldn’t hurt. Plus, when you find the ground wire, loosen the screw and put the grease there too. Rust might be forming there and causing some resistance with the connection.
And since you have it out, take 30 minutes and remove your trailer light bulbs and other clearance light bulbs and put some on the base of those too.
Good luck!