phoenix2013 Posted September 16, 2023 Report Share Posted September 16, 2023 (edited) Got a call from an individual this morning, "is this technical support"? "It is". "How does this thing work, do you go directly into the D.O.T. socket and that's all you need"? "Yes". Sounded annoyed, what did I do? Called me few hours later. "I'm the guy who called you this morning, sorry for being curt, I had to take a service department to task after they screwed up my truck." What did they do"? "I wish they did less", he said. "This is my third truck I'm using for trailer pulling". He mentioned a Pete and another brand, this his latest is 2019 Cascadia. The dealership was doing the prep work on it for trailer pulling. "Did they use a Jackalopee"? "Apparently not, which surprised me because I had Jackalopees in the two previous trucks". "Aha, did they try to tap into the three lights in the bobtail brace"? "Yep, the ECM didn't like". I said, "that's pretty common since in the newer trucks the ECM monitors all those circuits and it might throw a code for short in the circuit". He said, "it did more than that they BLEW IT UP, THEY HAVE TO RE-FLASH IT"! Apparently, somebody in the dealership was working from the residual historical experience, I'd say old timer. Prior to 2005 you didn't need a Jackalopee to deal with lights for trailers. The bobtail lights in semis work the same as the trailer lights circuits. You could tap into those. Around 2005 Volvo started with LCM (Lights Control Module) and got an ECM involved in monitoring electrical circuits in the truck for shorts, opens and extra loads. No more taping allowed. Typically it just produces an error code on the display. I suspect they did something "extra stupid" to piss off an ECM into quitting. Edited September 16, 2023 by phoenix2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenandjon Posted September 17, 2023 Report Share Posted September 17, 2023 It's not just trucks that do that. I added a 50-inch light bar to one of our newer tractors. I just spliced into the headlight wiring like I did on the older tractors. Boy did that piss things off. All the lights started flashing and just shut off. That was a real butt pucker upper. I thought I fried the whole system. Cut the wires to the light bar and everything returned to normal. The computer did not like the extra draw. Quote Farmer, Trucker, Equipment operator, Mechanic Quando omni flunkus moritati-When all else fails, play dead I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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