I have surge brakes on my toy hauler but I do have a question about the electric brake controlers ya'll are installing. When I bought the first 09 back in November the salesman told me that if I had electric brakes on my trailer that when I plugged it into the truck that the brakes on the trailer would act exactly the same as the brakes on the truck. If this is true, what is the purpose of adding the controllers ya'll are installing? Thanks. Jeff.

 

The controller activates the brakes on your trailer. You can also adjust how much brake power the trailer has.

 

Your salesman may have been incorrect. My understanding is that without the brake controller, you would have all or nothing. No brakes or wheels locking up. I haven't tested this as I have surge brakes on my boat trailer.

 

There are different electric brake controllers that use different technologies to engage the brakes. Engaging the brakes are done "electrically" through the wiring harness but with my Prodigy brake controller, it senses the deceleration in the truck, then sends the proportionate signal to the electric brakes.

Most if not all electric brake controllers can be adjusted by a lever on the controller to set the breaking pressure. This is part of the initial set up and can be re-done depending on your load or if you tow different trailers.

Like most answers from sales people, they try to over simplify things, give you a high level answer because they don't know or don't realize their customer could understand a more technical explanation.

 

Thanks for the explinations. I always liked my surge brakes due to the lack of maint needed on them. They are self adjusting but I have had one wheel throw the shoes a while back. Anyway, thanks for explaining. Good info to be stored away for next time I'm trailer shopping. Jeff.

 

As requested, here is a picture of the final install.

I managed to make it fit decently. its out of theway yet accesssible when needed. over all im pleased.

 

I just got done mounting my brake controller in that little cubby and I couldn't be happier. Thanks for the help with hidden screws, I would have been very frustrated had I not known about those. I ended up putting one of the mounting screws through the cubby and into the side of controller to make sure it doesn't move in there. It may be overkill, but I figured since I had everything apart...Can't wait to pull the 4 quads to the trails later this week