Hello all. Well I just bought a car hauler. My question is. My truck came with a Kelsey brake controller installed. Does anybody have a owners/operators manual for them? Why do the brakes lock up when I move the lever on the front of the controller? How do I adjust the setting of the brakes? I will take a picture of it as soon as my camera batteries are charged.

 

I'm not familiar with the Kelsey controller, but on past controllers I've had the lever or a button on the front allows you to test or just apply the trailer brakes. So when you move that lever over you are applying the trailer brakes.

You might Google to find the Kelsey site and see if they don't have some information for you on your controller, probably need the model number.

Good luck.

 

I have been looking for the company on the internet. From what I found it seems they were bought and went out of businees in the 90's. So I cant download a manual.

Why would you want to apply the brakes with that lever? I am curious.

 

It is a way of checking your trailer brakes to make sure they are working, you normally do this at low speed in a parking lot or your driveway. It could also serve in an emergency situation.

I have heard that some people use this to make sure of the connection of their trailer to the tow vehicle. If so used, make sure that the landing gear (front jack(s)) on your trailer would keep the trailer off your bed rails in the event the connection failed - but don't forget to put your landing gear up before leaving.

 

If your trailer starts to fishtail on the highway, applying slightly more brakes to the trailer than the truck will allow the rig to straighten out. Also in stop-n-go traffic, you can use the trailer to stop the truck rather than the truck's brakes, if the trailer keeps locking like mine does.

 

ok that makes sense. After looking at the controller there is a **** on the side of it with max and min. That must be the brake setting.

 

Right, that max - min button would control how soon and how much brake to apply to your trailer. Well, it might not control how soon, but it definitely will control how much. Adjust according to your needs or seek recommendations from someone with experience. In most cases you want your trailer brakes to slightly lag your tow vehicle brakes except in case of emergency braking.

So much depends on the type of controller you have and how it works. There are many different kinds of activation out there that it is hard to make a broad statement that covers everything.

 

That controller may also have a white "armature" on the other side that controls the level. This arm if so equipped should be straight up and down when you are parked on level ground. If not your brakes will be very grabby or not work at all. I would highly recommend upgrading to a newer brake control w/ newer technology.

 

Well I cant figure out how to edit my original post. Here is the pics of the actual controller. What is wrong with this one? What should I replace it with?

 

x2 on upgrading the controller. When my dad got rid of his Ram I took the controller and put it in my truck, bad idea because the controller worked when it wanted to. I ended up buying a Prodigy and am very happy with it. Here is a pic of my controller in my truck.

 

A pretty good source of information on brake controllers for towing 5th wheel trailers can be found on www.rv.net and look under the "open roads forum" in the technical section on towing. There have been many discussions on brake controllers, some of which I participated in back when I had 5th wheel trailers.

There are probably some good discussions on this site as well, you might do a search on brake controllers and see what happens.

Also on your brake controller, the lever on the opposite side of your controller from the max - min **** is used to adjust how soon your trailer brakes react to brake input in your tow vehicle. One of my previous controllers required that this be set so it was almost parallel with the ground, but as one of the previous posters operated differently, each brand of unit has its own settings.

Again, good luck.

 

My truck had the same Kelsey controller in it when I bought it. I already had a Prodigy so I decided to leave the Kelsey mounted where it was to use a s a backup in case something happened to my Prodigy. The prodigy has an solid state motion detector that is not as sensitive to positioning as the older pendulum type controllers and works very smoothly. It also has self diagnostic features.

The Prodigy fits snugly in the cubby hole in the dash when it is in it's holster and it's manual lever is easily accessible. All I have to do to change from one to another is unplug one and plug in the other one.

As mentioned before one of the reasons for the manual lever is to stabilize your trailer if it begins to sway from crosswind or a passing truck. Just light pressure on the trailer brake lever while you continue to accelerate as normal is all it takes. Another is that you can bring the trailer brakes to "full on" immediately if the need arises, as apposed to the delay that you may have programed into your controller when used with the brake pedal. If the controller doesn't indicate a connected condition, as the Prodigy does, then, also as mentioned, a quick tap on the manual control will confirm that your trailer brakes are working.

The reason your brakes are locking up is that you have too much gain dialed in for an empty trailer. Turn the dial down some when towing empty and increase the setting as your load increases. Start from the lower end of the scale and adjust it to the point that the brakes will lock and then back off just to the point where they will not lock up.

Gene