2011 DODGE RAM 3500 — Complaint #2155142
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: INTEGRATED TRAILER BRAKE CONTROL filed December 8, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2155142 (ODI reference 11703652) concerns a 2011 DODGE RAM 3500 and was filed on December 8, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 8, 2025. The vehicle had 145,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Alaska based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system: integrated trailer brake control, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same DODGE RAM 3500 cohort independently describe similar electrical system: integrated trailer brake control failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2011 DODGE RAM 3500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2011 Ram 3500. The contact stated that the OEM trailer brake controller indicated that the trailer brake was disconnected even though it was attached correctly. The failure occurred while different trailers were hitched to the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to a certified mechanic, but the cause of the failure was not determined. The contact replaced the OEM brakes with new OEM brakes; however, the failure persisted. The vehicle was taken back to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed and determined that there was not enough amp signal to recognize that the trailer was connected. The mechanic attached a magnetic pigtail line with magnets attached to both ends, and the vehicle recognized that the trailer was connected. The cause of failure was found; however, the vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 145,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2155142 |
| ODI Number | 11703652 |
| Date Filed | December 8, 2025 |
| Failure Date | March 8, 2025 |
Similar ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: INTEGRATED TRAILER BRAKE CONTROL Complaints for 2011 DODGE RAM 3500
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.