Where are you guys mountung these to in the truck. I have an 04 lariat and im hesitant to drill any holes in the dash.

 

I was a little uneasy about doing that myself, and mine is an XL I decided to drill a little hole in the back of the cubby hole rather than run the wire down and under the dash. I figured I could live with a little hole that I would never see rather than, what to me, looked like a quicky install. I actually took the plug off of one side of the harness and put it back on once the wire was fed through the hole, this way the hole could be much smaller. I figure if I sell the truck I can plug the hole and explain what it is there for, I can replace the trim piece, or I could simply leave the controller there. I use double-sided tape to actually affix the bracket in the cubby. If I needed it in another vehicle I could just buy another bracket and transfer the Prodigy between the two. You can look in my gallery and see pics of it mounted in the truck.

 

You want the controller in a convenient place and also out of the way. If you pull the same type load all the time (like a camping trailer) normally the controller doesn't have to be adjusted a lot. Prodigy can be mounted inside the glove box. They sell a mounting kit just for that location. I keep mine within reach though. If I need to apply brakes manually I can. Or if brakes lock up I can back off them. But most of the time everything goes fine. I mount mine to the right of the steering column and low on the dash panel. I put it within sight and reach. You have to avoid mounting too low or it will get bumped. And don't let it get in the way of manual shifters.

Sounds like the glove box location might suit you. And with 2 brackets and maybe 2 wiring harnasses (Prodigy will unplug) you can easily use it more than 1 vehicle.

BTW '05 Super Duty has a factory trailer brake controller.

 

I have a Reese remote unit and the brain mounts under the dash and the controller is hand held. It just sits on the seat or wherever you want. There is no drilling - none. I just unplug the hand held unit when I am not trailering and toss it in the glove box.

 

hey 92gt, that sounds like the ideal thing for me, how much does the remote unit cost, and is the installation the same?

 

I think the wiring connections are all the same or very similar for Ford trucks in this vintage. I have it on an 04 F350 regular cab XLT. The controller takes the 4 wire connections and then you wire tie or velcro it under the dash somewhere. I wire tied it to a metal vertical support to the right of the gas pedal. The hand held just has a slinky style / telephone cord that plugs into the controller. I agree with the others on the quality of the other units. This one is considered digital and a bit more modern. I hesitated at first but after having it for a year I love it. Instead of a slide lever or dial to adjust brake pressure (proportional to the load) there is a digital control where you select a number value from 1 - 6 in .5 increments with 1 being the soft and 6 being the heavy. There is another cool feature, where you can adjust the sync or aggressiveness of the brakes... i.e. do they come on fast or fade in when applied. I am sort of rambling, but I really do like it. I think it was about 100 bucks and made by Reese and there is another one by Draw-Tite. I think they are the same manufacturer but different labels. I will look for a link to one and post it in a moment. If you wanted actual pictures of my installation I could snap them and email them to you if you PM me for an address. I don't think FTE likes us to post email addresses but I could be wrong.

 

I just found the link. You can buy them a lot of places, even on EBay, but they are all around 100 bucks new.

http://www.reese-hitches-online.com/...ig_remote.html

 

Here is the link again

 

There was a question regarding where to mount brake controller. I mounted mine just in front of my four by four shift ****. There is a 1/4 inch surface that points downward. That is a good surface to drill two tiny holes because if the screws are removed, you can't see the holes without getting on your back and looking upward. The holes are essentially invisible to passengers and drivers.

 

Tekonsha Prodigy

 

Wow! I started this post almost 2 months ago, and forgot about it soon after. Now look at all the feedback I have! Don't know if I'll get the trailer hitch and brake controller installed yet this year or not, my truck will be going into storage for the winter within a month or so, but now I have all the info I need. I'll probably just end up borrowing my father-in-law's truck to do the scrap hauling I need to do yet this fall. Thanks guys!

 

Just a thought - If the brake controller is mounted in the glovebox (scarey thought) and you are on a downhill run, slight crosswind comes up, and the trailer starts to wag, how are you going to apply the trailer brakes to stop the wag ????

 

I would rather have the controller in reach but if you have a stable load and a large enough truck, slight acceleration or deceleration usually stops the wag. An empty trailer or tail loads are worse. And unstable loads (like bulls) can be really bad. You can set the trailer brakes a little more agressive than the truck and slightly brake and the wag will stop. With an empty trailer though the trailer brakes can lock up. Just another reason to not overload the truck and load the trailer properly. I like most of the load just forward of the trailer axles and when I haul cattle I shut the middle gates to help reduce load shifting. The glovebox location works fine for boat trailers and campers though when the truck is heavy enough and driven responsibly.

 

I do agree with you that in most cases there should be little need to use the trailer brakes on their own, especially if the truck and trailer are set up properly. The scarey thought for me is that there already is a large number of people pulling trailers on the road that have no idea how to handle a wag if they get one. To me, this is irresponsible on the part of the trailer dealers as I believe you should have to take a course and have an endorsement on your drivers licence in order to pull a trailer once it gets to a certain size. You can go and buy a 30 ft travel trailer, the dealer hooks you up and waves goodbye to you, and doesn't care if you even make it home, let alone teach you how to deal with issues while you are towing. This is why so many people have bad towing experiences and will never tow a trailer again. Towing should not be a white knuckle experience, as I am sure you are well aware. So my point here is (I know I rant when I get on this topic) we already have inexperienced people on the road towing trailers that are improperly loaded and have no idea what to do in a crisis - these are the people that need the brake controller in easy reach. I would hate to give anyone the idea that you do not need access to the controller - especially those with little experience.

BadLar