Too bad....Mine is a September 08 build. I was looking for the factory installed look.

How early are we talking about, mine is a March of '09 I would like to check in to this. My 18' trailer has electric brakes but, I haven't hooked up to it with my '09.

If it has two square plugs, one large and one small, taped to the harness by the parking brake lever then its has the newer wiring. If it has the blue, flat 4 pin trailer brake plug on the fusebox side then it doesnt.

I'm sure one of the companies that make lockpick and ipod adapters that fool the CAN bus could make them work standalone. There is something on the CAN bus that turns it on and does the dimming/illumination, I dont know if any of the truck's brake functions actually influence it or not.

View this pic .. is this what im looking for ? .. which do i have ? thanks

oh yea .. how do i get the cover off the left side to access this spot from the side ? a hard tug ? .. screws ?

Thats the old style plug, 2010 doesnt have that blue connector at all.

It just pops off, push it from the botton on the inside to start it and then just pull it off, pull the weatherstrip off near it and it will make easier to get it out.

I was hoping that with the standard 4 pin, the factory brake controller would still work, only not have the fancy extra's like dimming the lights etc ...

Will the factory brake controller not work PERIOD with the older blue plug set up or is it just the extra's like dimming lights that wont work ?

I dont know if it will do anything since I dont have an 09, but I assume it wont work at all since the person I bought it from had an 09 and couldnt get it to work. There is something in there that communicates with the CAN bus that needs to be connected for it to do anything. Its possible you could go in there and somehow bypass the CAN part, or maybe the company that makes them for Dodge could make a standalone version that just works off the 4 wires like a standard aftermarket brake controller.

Does anyone know if they made one to fit that spot, I think if that panel comes off it would not be that hard to make one look decent.

Yea, it wouldnt be that hard if you have the right controller, the P3 and Prodigy have the lever on the bottom which is the tough part to mount it flush. But if you used a smaller proportional controller with the lever in the front similar to the OE it wouldnt be too hard to make it look nice. Plenty of room behind it.

But its hard to beat the OE fit and look, like I said before this controller isnt really anything special, its just a basic proportional brake controller.