Consider this... The combine cost of your tow vehicle and trailer... The combine weight of your tow vehicle and trailer... The fact that your trailer may well weigh more than your tow vehicle... And that moron that just jumped in your lane then slammed on his brakes... This is NOT the time to think to yourself, "maybe I should've gotten a better brake controller." Seriously, when the difference in cost is under $100, is it really not worth buying the best?
I've used the Tekonsha P3 for two and half years now and I have nothing but praises to sing! Features, user friendliness, and results! This unit has it all. First lets talk about the mechanism. It uses a digital G-Sensor as apposed to a physical pendulem. Why is this a benifit? Because there are no downhill issues that you see with the physical and analog type sensors. Prior to digial sensors, the downhill slope would throw off the pendulem and the brake controller either would send a weaker current to the brakes or none at all. Some people have questioned the reliablity of digital sensors. But with more than 10 years of full production digital units, complaints are actaully less than the older analog units. Consider this as well, the sensor is not only quicker but more accurate as well, hard to soft braking is much safer now. How does it work? Just like any other accelerometor...it senses the volume deceleration and then computes an appropriate voltage and current to send to the trailer brakes based on a percentage of the user's max output setting.
Let's talk interface. A four button face with a roughly 1.5" LCD display plus a belly mounted manual switch. With no brakes connected, this unit will dispay the default "Tekonsha Screen". Once brakes are connected via the trailer plug, the unit will display the "Tow Screen". It has a large two/three read out that displays 0.0 as a default. While sitting still and once brake pressure is applied it will jump to approximately 10% of the max set output, after 3 seconds of being stationary it will move up to 25% power. This is designed to "hold" the trailer if stopped on an incline or decline. Setting the max brake power is a snap with the two "Up" and "Down" buttons on the left side of the face. The value moves up and down by 0.1 increments and quite quickly if you hold the button down. The last two buttons are "boost" and "page" which I will discuss when I talk features. The last button is the manual brake override. This bottom mounted spring loaded slider switch will manually add braking power to the trailer brakes (up to the user set max) even without depressing the vehicles brake peddle. This is a standard feature on all brake contorllers, but I wanted anyone looking for their first brake controller to understand what this was. Lastly, is the warning screen. It's a deep red screen with a trailer and a "no" sign. This indicates that the controller which had previously sensed brakes connected no longer can sense them. Generally an indication of a poor trailer connection at the wiring harness or a problem with the brakes themsleves.
Let's talk features. I've mentioned the "Boost" button, but what is it? There are 4 levels of boost for trailer brakes. Off, LV. 1, LV. 2, & LV. 3. Boost adds a brief (fraction of a second) burst to the trailer brakes which slows the trailer slightly more than the normal pressure would and keeps it from bumping or pushing the tow vehicle when brake pressure is initailly applied. Very important if as many are these days, your trailer weighs more than your tow vehicle. After the burst it returns the voltage and current to the G-sensors reccomended output. There isn't a real scientific method for figuring what you need to use. The picture on the home screen shows LV1 as small trailer, 2 as a med tailer, and 3 as a large trailer. My trailer is a 6K lb. TT and I just leave it on the default LV. 1 boost. Everytime the units is powered it returned to the default LV. 1. The unit will power down after 15 mins with no trailer connected AND no input from the brake signal wire. The "Page" button will take you to a second screen that you navigate with the "up", "down", and "Boost" (now "enter") buttons. This sceen has some cool features as some useful features. "Backlight" allows you to brighten or dim the brightness of the display. "Color" lets you set the color of the display. (Yeah I know, unessesary, but cool) The default color is "White" which is more of a light blue. There's also Magenta, Orange, Dk Blue, Violet, Lt. Green, and Dk. Green. Red is not availible as it's reserved as a warning color for the "no trailer connection" warning screen. Back to the page screen. There's also a VERY USEFUL troubleshooting screen. It lets you view diagnostics on the fly and over the road that can give you four digit readouts of battery voltage, stoplight (brake input signal) voltage, brake voltage, and brake current. This screen alone is worth the cost of this brake controller! When you first connect your tailer do some tests and record the max input you set, the output under normal braking conditions, as well as the brake voltage and amperage. If down the line you get the feeling the brakes aren't working properly, you can re-run this test and see if it's an electrical problem or not. Finally when your done, pressing the page button will return you to the "tow screen."
Installation. A snap for anyone that has a factory tow package. Tekonsha offers plug and play wiring harnesses that plug into most make and model years of trucks. If you have to have it installed or choose to install it yourself as I did, it can be challenging. But it's a simple four wire hookup. A 12V input from the battery (running thru a 30A auto reset breaker NOT a fuse), an output to the brake pin of your 6 or 7-way trailer connector, a stoplight input running to your vehicle's stoplight switch behind the brake peddle, and lastly a frame ground. The mount can be a little challenging to install because of the akward access to the screws, but it can be mounted at nearly any angle other than strait up or down and provided the face is facing a close to directly rearward as possible.
All in all, this is probably the most important review I've ever done. This controller will save you grief and keep you and your vehicle safe. Make sure for your safety, your families safety, and the safety of all those on the road you buy the brake controller that does it's job the best. Buy the Tekonsha P3.
I bought the P3 just prior to a trip to Florida hauling a large dual axle trailer with a 2007 Toyota Tundra. I also bought the wiring harness for the P3 which was designed for the already installed factory towing package.
The brake controller arrived by UPS the day prior to my trip and I took it out to the truck to install and quite frankly spent more time trying to figure out where I wanted to put it than it took to setup. After mounting the controller with the supplied bracket I backed up to the trailer and plugged the trailer in and followed the directions to set up the brakes.
Everything worked as advertized and it handled the trailer quite well. When loaded for the backhaul to Grand Rapids, the trailer was 10k+ pounds. The trip went well and I used both the proportional and the manual settings to see how they worked. Again I was pleasantly surprised as it worked as advertized and there was not much of a learning curve. There were numerous options such as lighting and colors etc which I fooled with a bit but not extensively. It stays on for about 15 minutes after the truck is turned off to hold the trailer brakes while you are outside.
My overall impression was very good and I don't have any negative comments at this point. I especially like the option of a wiring harness that is made specifically for my vehicle it was one of the easiest electronics installations I have ever done.
Buy Tekonsha 90195 P3 Electronic Brake Control Now
This was a typical Amazon order...it arrived as advertised and on time. Installation in my Toyota Tundra center console went well at first, but after I had everything put back together I checked the controller one last time and got an error message that wasn't addressed in the manual. I called Tekonsha tech support and they told me it was an internal fault and the controller needed to be replaced. According to the technician there was a string of faulty controllers that were built and this was probably one from the bad batch. I appreciate their honesty!
I contacted Amazon and they immediately sent me a replacement unit. At first I was concerned that it might be from the same inventory batch, and possibly faulty as well, but I installed it and it has worked flawlessly for the last 3 weeks and several hundred miles of towing a 6300 lb. trailer.
Amazon did a great job sending the replacement unit instead of making me deal with the OEM for obtaining a replacement. They paid all shipping and the return was painless.
The brake controller is great, I don't even feel the trailer behind me when I brake. It has some nice features such as variable boost settings and battery voltage readout. I did a lot of research before I chose the Tekonsha and I have no regrets. I would purchase another without hesitation.
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First, this is a great unit and rock solid at brake control. I upgraded from a Tekonsha Prodigy. It's Simple! Just removed the older unit (Prodigy) from it's existing bracket, unplugged the existing wiring plug, plugged in the P-3. I slid the P-3 into the old bracket and inserted the 2 screws. It's installed.
Then I just adjusted the P-3 per the included operating instructions. It could not have been simpler.
Starting from scratch? About an hours work and the instructions are all there. Most newer trucks come with a trailer harness for a controller. My 06 Chev 2500HD did. However there are instructions for installing it without a dealer supplied harness as well.
Highly recommend this unit vs. others if mounted at eye level. (see "Update Aiain).
Update: This is a great unit. BUT, other than an LCD screen to provide additional info for the user, the ability to control the braking action is no better/ no worse than the Prodigy I replaced.
Update again: The LCD screen is impossible to read if the unit is mounted low on the dashboard area and/or if you wearing polarized sun glasses. I switched back to the LED unit which is far easier to see and read.
DOWNGRADED TO 4 Stars!
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I am very impressed with this brake controller. I just purchased a 18ft enclosed cargo trailer and needed a controller for my 3/4ton Chevy. I've been hauling trailers for 10 years and never used a proportional braking controller before. I have just finished a trip from Chicago to Cincinnati. Wow, I'm impressed by the smoothness and control i got with this system, especially with a well loaded down trailer behind me. Also very easy to install in the prewired Chevytook no more than 30 minutes.
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