Hi all,

I'm looking at purchasing a 14' enclosed trailer to haul race gear and motorcycles. Most come with electric brakes, but I'm rather ignorant as to what that means. My questions:

- Are the electric trailer brakes tied into my truck's braking system? In other words, are they modulated by the pressure I put on my truck's brake pedal as I'm slowing down, or is it more of a push-button affair?
- How involved do I have to get to make my truck compatible with the trailer brakes? It's a '92 F150 5.0 auto.

Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.

Have a great labor day weekend,

-R.

 

Welcome to FTE and thanks for joining us in the Towing forum!

Most of the better brake controller's are simply enabled once you brake. Then use the deceleration rate of the vehicle or a pendulum type instrument to modulate the trailer brakes.

Most electric brake controller's are pretty simple. Just the POS and NEG 12V wires, an input wire from the brake/stoplamp switch and the output wire to the trailer brakes.

 

Thanks Horsepuller,

Did some reading on the subject today and I don't like the idea of an inertial controller. I can think of too many situations where the system might get "confused" and only brake lightly (or not at all) regardless of what I'm doing with the brake pedal.

So a proportional controller is what I think I want, I'll have a look at the Brakesmart and the Jordan Ultima.

Thanks again for your input,

-R.

 

R. - Here's a little more info for you:

"An electric trailer brake controller is a device that supplies power from a vehicle to a trailer's electric brakes. There are two types of electric brake controllers - Time Delay Activated ("solid state") and Inertia Activated ("pendulum style"). Although the controllers' methods are different, both types of controllers are very similar. Both allow the user to adjust output or braking power. Both have a pressure sensitive manual override trigger that can be used to apply the trailer brakes independent of the vehicle brakes. Both have the same wiring configuration.

Time Delay Activated:

Solid state controllers are "enabled" by the brake pedal switch and apply a gradual voltage to the trailer's brakes using a Time Delay Circuit.
Advantages : Time Delayed controllers are inexpensive, have a low profile, and can be mounted on any angle (very user friendly).
Disadvantages: When towing (in most applications) with Hazard flashers on, the Digital Display will flash with the Hazard Flashers. If the Brake Control is set aggressively, pulsing may be felt in the trailer brakes. However the Pulse Preventer will isolate the Brake Control from the flashers and eliminate the flash/pulse situation.

Inertia Activated - Proportional:

Pendulum Style Controllers are "enabled" by the brake pedal switch and "activated" by a Pendulum Circuit that senses the vehicle's stopping motion and applies a proportional voltage to the trailer's brakes. When properly adjusted the trailer will decelerate at the same speed as the tow vehicle. This increases braking efficiency and reduces brake wear.
Advantages: Pendulum style controllers operate well under adverse braking conditions and have a smooth braking action.
Disadvantages: Most inertia-activated controllers are bulky, more expensive, and must be mounted and calibrated level. The Tekonsha PRODIGY™ and Valley Odyssey™ inertia-activated brake controllers are the exceptions to these disadvantages."

I'm currently using a Tekonsha Prodigy and feel it's one of the best; many other people on this Forum have said the same thing.

Steve

 

Steina has it right. Setting 1-10 on the syn is how fast the brakes start, ie 10 is right away and 1 is a good delay. Power wise they are either 1-10 or increments of 5 up to 100. Depending on which trailer I tow I have it at 15, 35 and 45 for my various trailers. One other thing to consider is are you traveling on icy and snowy roads. I found the electric brake controllers have a better response than inertia types so that is what I use. (What I mean by this is when you hit the brakes and oopps you keep going due to the ice. I had problems with my inertial kicking in when needed) The inertial is diffently nice on other road conditions.

 

Thanks Steve and Mike,

I think I know what I want now. I'm in Southern Cali and the trailer will hardly ever see any snow or ice, but I'm still leaning towards a true proportinal (not inertia-activated) controller because of the possible "slick surface" situation Mike mentioned.

I like Brakesmart's idea of tapping into the brakeline to achieve a reading of applied pressure best, but they appear to have run into substantial manufacturing problems and don't know when their product will be available again. I understand the Jordan is activated and modulated by the position of the brake pedal directly, which to me sounds like the next best thing.

Again, thanks for taking the time to type up your responses,

-R.

 

I've tried both proportional and inertia-activated and I definitely prefer the inertia-activated controllers because they give me much more smooth braking action because (when properly adjusted) they apply trailer brakes at the same rate as the truck brakes. I personally hate having to pick my foot up off of the brake for a moment to start restart the timing on a proportional controller because it started applying more brake than the truck.

Personally, I highly recommend the Prodigy over all other controllers.

 

One possible problem with the Jordan is since it's brake pedel position dependant, if you slam on the brakes on a slick surface, the pedal position will lock the trailer brakes, the ABS will modulate the vehicle brakes and the trailer and truck may swap ends. With an an inertial type, the trailer brakes will only work as well as the TV's brakes are stopping..

I also have a prodigy (3 years now) and love it.

 

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I've got a few questions about brake controllers. The inertia controllers sound great, but I'm sure someone on here has used them when towing with a stick truck. When you hit the clutch to change gears, and the truck momentarily slows down, does that controller sense that and trigger the TB, or is it so slight that it's not even detected. This was the main concern I had before purchasing a controller. Thanks.

 

No, because you have to have a signal from the brake light switch to activate the trailer's brakes.

Steve

 

ok, I missed that in Steina's previous post. Thanx.