LED taillights blinking after parking while towing

[jmacd]

2021 F150 towing a 2018 Airstream. On my current towing trip I‘ve noticed that after I park and turn-off the trucks ignition, a few LEDs in both rear taillights blink on-off until I disconnect the trailer pig-tail. Then all-good, tail lights are off. This is the first time I’ve observed this. Anyone else seen this?

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[crazywayne311]

On board scales?

 

[ytwytw]

2021 F150 towing a 2018 Airstream. On my current towing trip I‘ve noticed that after I park and turn-off the trucks ignition, a few LEDs in both rear taillights blink on-off until I disconnect the trailer pig-tail. Then all-good, tail lights are off. This is the first time I’ve observed this. Anyone else seen this?

I happen to have airsteam and f150 as well.
I manually turn off the lights from auto to OFF
then the light wont flick
Mine is 2023 F150

 

[jmacd]

Thanks YTWYTW, makes sense. I just switch the lights back to AUTO after towing either in headlights on for 2-lane roads or parking lights on to power up my Voyager rear view camera. I’ll start using lights off. Thanks again for your reply!

 

[apMechorse]

If someone else could verify that would be great, but I believe that I read on another thread on here that it has something to do with the security system.

After the truck is shut off and locked, it will flash the parking lights very quickly at a set interval to make sure the trailer is still connected by reading total resistance to the system. Basically, the truck "pings" the trailer to make sure it's still connected. I've only parked my truck while connected to a trailer once and can verify that my '21 does the same thing.

If I remember correctly this was discovered because someone locked the truck and noticed the flash, thinking something was wrong they disconnected the trailer pigtail while the alarm was set and it triggered the alarm.

Again, if someone has definitive info on this that would be great, but that's what I remember finding on here when I was looking into the same issue about a year ago.

 

[pavementends]

If someone else could verify that would be great, but I believe that I read on another thread on here that it has something to do with the security system.

After the truck is shut off and locked, it will flash the parking lights very quickly at a set interval to make sure the trailer is still connected by reading total resistance to the system. Basically, the truck "pings" the trailer to make sure it's still connected. I've only parked my truck while connected to a trailer once and can verify that my '21 does the same thing.

If I remember correctly this was discovered because someone locked the truck and noticed the flash, thinking something was wrong they disconnected the trailer pigtail while the alarm was set and it triggered the alarm.

Again, if someone has definitive info on this that would be great, but that's what I remember finding on here when I was looking into the same issue about a year ago.

This is correct.

Why you have to switch back to Tow Mode even though the truck knows the trailer's still attached is another question ?

 

[780]

If I remember correctly this was discovered because someone locked the truck and noticed the flash, thinking something was wrong they disconnected the trailer pigtail while the alarm was set and it triggered the alarm.

I've set my alarm off that way too. Pretty sure FordPass sent a warning to my phone as well.

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