We came to La Grande, Oregon, to have our trailer brakes and bearings replaced by an RV repair shop in town, run by a couple of guys with long histories in the RV industry. Just routine maintenance – or so we thought. After all, this travel trailer has over 40,000 miles on it. While we were in La Grande, we were trying to resolve the “check trailer wiring” and “service trailer brake system” messages we were getting on the new truck. Luckily, the GMC dealer in Baker City squeezed us in to take a look. They said it was the plug where the trailer connects to the truck, but they didn’t have one in stock. They were kind enough to call around for us, and found a shop along our route in Spokane, Washington, that had the plug and said they would be able to fit us in on Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. With a four-hour drive and at least one gas stop ahead of us, we left La Grande a little after 6:00 a.m. on Saturday. Until that day, the alerts we had been getting were intermittent, and the trailer brakes always came back on. Not so on Saturday. We had no trouble at all during the entire drive to Spokane, and we believed that replacing the trailer brakes had fixed a problem we didn’t realize we had. But when we were about a mile from the dealership, our trailer brakes went out completely – and didn’t come back.
