Hopkins Trailer Brake Install Gone Wrong!

BigAl1989 · May 26, 2019

Hello everyone! New here! Hopefully this is in the right spot. Anyways I have a 2009 Silverado LTZ, I just installed a Hopkins agility trailer brake a few days ago, my truck didn’t have a plug and play plug so I wired it to the bundle of marked wires under the dash marked trailer brake controller, wiring there appears correct, hooked up the power cable under the hood to the post terminal, I haven’t pulled my trailer with it yet, however I keep having an issue where I can literally turn my key to the off position, remove the key from the ignition and the trucks engine continues to run, all the dash and console lights turn off but the engine continues to run, then if that is happening if I tap the brakes my truck shuts off. My truck has factory remote start with glovebox code AP3, I’ve never experienced any ignition issues and don’t even know where to begin with this, I’ve been leaving the unit unplugged and haven’t experienced any issues at all. I cannot find anything anywhere where this has happened, anybody have any ideas? Thanks in Advance, Big Al.

no HD · May 26, 2019

It sounds like you have got something hooked to a keyed hot wire that should be hooked to a battery hot and it is back feeding through keeping your engine running. I would carefully retrace the wiring and double check everything. Possibly the Hopkins unit itself is bad. After you confirm the wiring is good maybe swap units temporarily with someone who has a like unit. Also have you tried unhooking the wire from the stud to see what happens or even one wire at a time going to the unit, until you find which one is causing the problem. On the GMT800 trucks there is also a blue wire that needs to be connected at the under hood fuse box. I've not had any experience with the 900's yet. I'm in to see what you find.

BigAl1989 · May 26, 2019

Thanks for somewhere to start, I’m not the most automotively inclined, but I’ll see if a buddy can help me out, I saw several videos on YouTube of them installing them in Chevy trucks that showed two wires under the hood that needed to be connected to the fuse box posts, we ended up leaving the wire that was under the master cylinder off the post because we thought that was possibly our issue. But then it started doing it again with only the wire for the trailer brake control on a post. My friends thinks it has to do with my remote start, but as far as I know it’s factory installed.