Trailer Brake Controller???

[Vinchenzzi]

I have a 2007 (New Body Style) Chevy Silverado with the 6.0 max towing package. My TT is approx. 7500 lbs fully loaded, (people and cargo). I don't have a brake controller in my truck, when I bought the TT, the dealer did not tell me to get one and I just learned of there existence from all my friends AFTER I was 3 and a half hours deep in the Adirondack mountains. Ok my question. What is a good one to get, I've seen Reese Controllers for 50 bucks and Tekonsha for 150 bucks. Why the big price swing? I always thought Reese products were good so I'm confused about spending the extra money for nothing.Thanks

[Brother Les]

Originally Posted by Vinchenzzi

I have a 2007 (New Body Style) Chevy Silverado with the 6.0 max towing package. My TT is approx. 7500 lbs fully loaded, (people and cargo). I don't have a brake controller in my truck, when I bought the TT, the dealer did not tell me to get one and I just learned of there existence from all my friends AFTER I was 3 and a half hours deep in the Adirondack mountains. Ok my question. What is a good one to get, I've seen Reese Controllers for 50 bucks and Tekonsha for 150 bucks. Why the big price swing? I always thought Reese products were good so I'm confused about spending the extra money for nothing.Thanks

Your Silverado with towing package should be very easy to wire/plug in a brake controller. Many controllers will work just fine so don't sweat it too much. It is sending an electrical current to your brakes when you push the brake pedal. My advice is to look INTO each box that you are considering buying. Some will come with all of the wiring that you need and some will need adapters. Look at your truck and see where it plugs in and make sure you have the correct ends to work with that. Make sure that it is a 'controller' that you think will 'fit' and look good in your truck where you want to mount it. some may be to too large or small or not worth looking at.

Do you know how to drive with a camper brake controller? Read the directions and follow them..... if the 'setting' is 'way' off, it would be better to have no 'helper' brakes at all than to have it at a setting that is of no use or skids the camper and truck on the highway.

[rockfordroo]

I have a Tekonsha P-3 Prodigy from e-trailer.com. My 2009 Silverado does NOT have a connector under the dash, just cut-off wires (pig-tails). So the standard harness that comes with the P-3 is OK. You just have to connect the pig-tails under the dash to the pig-tails on the controller harness. You also have to connect some wires in the engine compartment. They already have ring-lugs on them, but you need a nut for each, and they're different sizes. There is one taped to the wiring harness down on the engine side of the fuse box, near the master brake cylinder. This one goes on the stud at the front of the fuse box on the FENDER side. It supplies power to your trailer battery. The other is taped to the wiring harness on the fender side of the fuse box and goes to the stud in front of the fuse box on the ENGINE side. This one supplies power to the brake controller you're going to install. You will then need to purchase two fuses for these circuits. I think one is 30a and one is 40a. I had to get them at the Chevy dealer. Note that neither of these circuits turns off when you turn off the ignition. I installed a relay and switch on the dash in the trailer battery wire so I could turn it off if I went somewhere with the trailer and left the TV off (like a hotel for the night, or such). The brake controller I just unplug.

[rockfordroo]

Here's some more info:

I couldn't find the original link I used to help me, but here's another; it's actually better than the one I had - lots of pics: www.eworldz.com/truck/gmt900.pdf

You'll need an 8mm and a 6 mm nut for the two stud/ring connectors. I don't think it says it in this link, but the link I had said DO NOT raise the grey handles holding the fuse box in more than 3/8" or you'll be going to the dealer to get something fixed (didn't really say what). Consequently, I did not raise them AT ALL. You really don't need to get the nuts on. There's plenty of room.

[Vinchenzzi]

Rockford, Does your Silverado have the max trailer towing package. According to my manual this is a simple hook and go.I don't know for sure but from what the book says it should just be a plug.I am home now so I am going to have to look at it more closely.Apparently the Prodigy 3 seems to be the way to go.I am not going camping again for a couple weeks so I have time to hear back from some others.Thanks again

[wmcclay]

Max Brake the very best. Make your TV and Trailer act like one unit. A little pricey but worth it. Set it once and forget it, city and freeway. Check them out

Wayne and Donna

[Greytdogs]

After researching and reading reviews I bought the Tekonsha P-3 Prodigy and it was an easy installation in my 2013 Sierra. I just had to buy the 8mm nut at an auto parts store. I got the P3 on ebay for $124 with free shipping. Go to the Tekonsha P-3 Prodigy web site. They have an excellent video on installing it.

[rockfordroo]

Vinchenzzi: I don't have the max trailer towing package, so far as I know (bought it used a few months ago). I just had pig-tails, no connector. My understanding is that the new redesign in 2007 eliminated the plug. I thought that was weird, because I added the same brake controller to my 2011 Chevy Traverse and it had the plug. I guess you're just going to have to crawl under the dash and take a look. If you do have the plug, e-trailer sells a custom harness for the Chevy plug to the P-3. That's what I used on my Traverse. You still get the standard harness with the P-3, and that's what I used on the Silverado. So I have one P-3, but I can use it on either vehicle.

[Vinchenzzi]

Anyone hear anything on the Hayes G2 Brake Boss. I am a big fan of Made in USA when I can be. Love to know if they are as good as they claim.

[rockfordroo]

Tekonsha sounds foreign, but it appears to be owned by the Cequent Group (Cequent Group), who also appear to own Reese, Draw-Tite, Hidden Hitch, Bargman, and several others. Based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

[elind]

I have used both the $50 Reese and the P2. They are two differant units and my choice is the p2 or P3. Much smoother! The brake trailer wires in the 2007& up GMC/ CHEV should be 5 wires taped off under the dash on the left hand side. The wires are labeled to which is which wire. Also attach under the hood the wires that go to the power posts in front of your fuze box and put in the fuzes for the power posts. Google prodigy 2 or 3 and there will be a u tube on it for your truck.

[tanddc]

The $50 unit is a timed unit. That is what I s tarted with and I didn't like it. The p2 and p3 are "proportional" units that will make you trailer brakes work in sync with your tv brakes. They are much better units and well worth the extra dollars imo

[PHS79]

I had a Hayes Energizer unit in my truck, it was a POS and I couldn't stand it! So I bought a Prodigy P3, the P3 is awesome!! The only brake control that I have used that is better than the P3 was the factory Ford system in the Super Dutys.

If I remember right I paid $110 shipped for the P3 off Ebay.

[John4th]

Don't skimp, spend a little extra and get a P2 or p3. Can be mounted at any angle, which many other brake controllers cannot. And they work VERY well, VERY user-friendly.

[thebrakeman]

Guess who's behind the Ford Superduty built-in brake controller?
Tekonsha!
Get a P2 or P3. Same performance from either one. P2 is a little cheaper for a simple readout. P3 is a bit more for a more user friendly LCD display. I have the older Prodigy, which is the predecessor to the P2. Now in my 11th season with the same unit. If/when it ever wears out, I'll get a P3. But at this rate, with no moving parts, I don't think it will ever die.

[Great Horned Owl]

The brakes on the trailer are activated by an electric current being sent through the electromagnets in the brake. The greater the current, the greater the stopping power. There are three different types of controller.


The least expensive (and least effective) are time based. They sense that your brake pedal is depressed and send out a current. If you hold the pedal down, they gradually increase the amount of current. If you pump the brake, you never get much trailer braking. You also don't get much help in a hard panic stop. The Reese is typical of this type.

A step up, is the inertial based controller. When you hit your brakes, the controller senses that the truck is slowing, and sends out a current that is proportional to the rate at which the truck is slowing. They work well except when conditions are very slippery. You hit the brake har and begin to skid. The truck isn't slowing down, so the controller doesn't know that hou have hit the brake, and it doesn't send out any current. The Tekonsha is the best known of these, but there are others.

The best type senses the hydraulic pressure in you brake lines and sends out a proportional current. The factory brake controllers in the newer trucks are this type. There are some after market controllers like this, but the installation is more complex because you need to tap into the truck's brake lines.

My truck came with the factory controller, but if I were adding one, I would go with either model of the Tekonsha.

Joel

[thebrakeman]

Is anyone sure that the recent factory controllers on SuperDuty and other trucks are actually using hydraulic pressure data? The Ford systems being Tekonsha-based, I had heard that these were still accelerometer-based. The difference compared to the add-on controllers was that they were electronically integrated into the ABS/TC/slip-control systems.

Honest question. I don't know.

[House97]

Originally Posted by thebrakeman

Is anyone sure that the recent factory controllers on SuperDuty and other trucks are actually using hydraulic pressure data? The Ford systems being Tekonsha-based, I had heard that these were still accelerometer-based. The difference compared to the add-on controllers was that they were electronically integrated into the ABS/TC/slip-control systems.

Honest question. I don't know.

I can only tell you that the harder I press on the brake pedal, the more LEDs light up on the Ford display, and that is true at a dead stop, so it is certainly not inertia based. It may be tapped into the ABS system, or maybe it has something that measures directly how hear the pedal is depressed.
It's awesome, whatever it is.

[Truth B Towed]

I use the P-2, what a difference it made, would imagine p-3 to be a step up from p-2.

[Cowboy 54]

I have a drawtite I've had it twelve years some times when I hit the brakes I'll look at and sometimes it post O I hit the bracket it will work good for for awhile !