Towing a 20' boat, from Oregon to British Columbia-few questions
thankfully daks with tow packages came "pre wired" for trailer brakes...a good controller is about 80 bucks plus 15 for the harness, unless you wanna splice wires under the dash and are able to bend over backwards...the factory plug will be a 4 wire setup with blue, white, black and some other color underneath the dash, it will be located pretty much underneath directly behind the cluster as far up as you can get next to the parking brake. plug and play baby 
IM no noob to pulling, my 2nd job i deliver horses, goats, sheep, ponies, llama, and pigs all over Houston in a 14 or 16 ft stock trailer. A brake controller works by simply being turned on or off by you simply applying the brakes...the controller will do all the work telling the brakes how hard to grip. a properly adjusted controller will barely pull back on the truck when you apply the brakes enough just to make the lights come on...you do not want the trailer brakes to do most of the stopping, you can go through a brand new set of trailer tires in a week. and shoes wont last a month. and whatever you're hauling will get tossed around. you simply want the trailer to apply enough brakes where it stops just the trailer...not the truck. id also recommend turning the brakes all the way down while backing up as they will squeal like a son of a gun. Hope this helps.
IM no noob to pulling, my 2nd job i deliver horses, goats, sheep, ponies, llama, and pigs all over Houston in a 14 or 16 ft stock trailer. A brake controller works by simply being turned on or off by you simply applying the brakes...the controller will do all the work telling the brakes how hard to grip. a properly adjusted controller will barely pull back on the truck when you apply the brakes enough just to make the lights come on...you do not want the trailer brakes to do most of the stopping, you can go through a brand new set of trailer tires in a week. and shoes wont last a month. and whatever you're hauling will get tossed around. you simply want the trailer to apply enough brakes where it stops just the trailer...not the truck. id also recommend turning the brakes all the way down while backing up as they will squeal like a son of a gun. Hope this helps.
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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 132
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From: Vancouver, Canada
well once again, thanks for all the tips guys
we found one in seattle, which is about 200 miles from where I live
the boat weighed about 5500lbs with gas, equipment & the trailer
I kept the speed 55-60mph, I had OD off once I was up to speed & for some of the hills. This truck is a beast, its basically all stock and it pulled the boat like it was nothing. I didn't end up using a brake controller, but the guy that we bought the boat from had just done a bunch of service work on the axles, hubs, wheels, brakes and it was in perfect sync with the truck's braking. Now heres the best part, I got better MPG towing the boat than what I do every day driving in the city. Plus it cost me $30 less dollars to fill up in the states
Stupid BC taxes.
Heres a couple pics of the boat, it makes my truck look like a toy.
24-05-10_1333.jpg
24-05-10_1330.jpg
we found one in seattle, which is about 200 miles from where I live
the boat weighed about 5500lbs with gas, equipment & the trailer
I kept the speed 55-60mph, I had OD off once I was up to speed & for some of the hills. This truck is a beast, its basically all stock and it pulled the boat like it was nothing. I didn't end up using a brake controller, but the guy that we bought the boat from had just done a bunch of service work on the axles, hubs, wheels, brakes and it was in perfect sync with the truck's braking. Now heres the best part, I got better MPG towing the boat than what I do every day driving in the city. Plus it cost me $30 less dollars to fill up in the states
Stupid BC taxes.Heres a couple pics of the boat, it makes my truck look like a toy.
24-05-10_1333.jpg
24-05-10_1330.jpg
