A friend of mine was going to let me use his flat bed trailer to tow some furniture I recently purchased. The trailer has 2 wheels on each side and brakes. He had an adapter that seemded to fit fine into my plug on left side of hitch under my 2004 V8 T4R. Everytime I went to pull away the trailer brakes locked and wheels would not move. My lights and turn signals worked correctly, but the trailer brakes kept engaging each time I tried to pull away. His son has 2006 Chevy Tahoe and he pulls it all the time with the same adapter and has no problems w/ brakes on the trailer. In fact he said a few friends of the family have towed it w/ American made vehicles and he never saw the brakes on the trailer become an issue like they did w/ my T4R, 2004. Do I need a different adapter?

Do you have a brake box hooked up in the cabin? And if so is it functioning properly?

I know a lot of trailers have a fail safe that if they don't have a brake box signal and they sense movement the brakes will lock up.

If that's not the case try checking all the pins in the plug....you could be receiving a false brake lock signal....

Sounds like either you don't have a brake controller, or the break away wire became engaged.

As one who tows a 21 foot travel trailer...it sounds like you didn't have a brake controller for towing a trailer with electric brakes.

This is a little "black box" (mines a Prodigy) that senses how hard the brakes on the trailer needs to be applied when you slow down or stop.

If you didn't have this box, I guess the trailer applied the brakes as a saftey measure.

There are two different pin-outs... One is where the center pin handles the brakes, the other is where one of the outer pins handles the brakes. Some adapters can be reconfigured either way, depending on how the trailer is wired up. I have one adapter that I've used on many different trailers and it has worked fine. It's just a matter that he gave you the wrong adapter.

I don't know how it is in your state, but in Texas you don't need to have the trailer lights hooked up as long as you're only driving around during the daytime.

Ricky