Factory Trailer Brake Controller releases ...EDIT: STILL WAITING

[ucijeepguy]

So how do you use these things? If they auto adjust to your vehicle braking, what's with the knob and buttons on the popular models?

My understanding of the factory system is When a trailer is plugged in the conputer recognizes it and adjusts shift points based kn towing. The knob is for trailer brake adjustments, sensitivity, how hard the trailer bakes when you do, etc.

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[ShadowsPapa]

So how do you use these things? If they auto adjust to your vehicle braking, what's with the knob and buttons on the popular models?

I would hope you can adjust the sensitivity, and manually apply them - as in helping straighten things out if they go sideways, so to speak.
I believe most of these you can turn the dial to set the sensitivity or how hard they apply the brakes when you brake, and push to apply brakes, but that's just a guess. My prior controller was a lever to apply - slide the lever and it applied trailer brakes - slide it further or harder and it braked harder. There was a knob on the side to set how sensitive it was to speed changes.

 

[PyrPatriot]

I would hope you can adjust the sensitivity, and manually apply them - as in helping straighten things out if they go sideways, so to speak.
I believe most of these you can turn the dial to set the sensitivity or how hard they apply the brakes when you brake, and push to apply brakes, but that's just a guess. My prior controller was a lever to apply - slide the lever and it applied trailer brakes - slide it further or harder and it braked harder. There was a knob on the side to set how sensitive it was to speed changes.

Thought it might be that. But the descriptions says they are tied to your vehicle's braking, the more your car brakes are applied, the more your trailer brakes are applied.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Thought it might be that. But the descriptions says they are tied to your vehicle's braking, the more your car brakes are applied, the more your trailer brakes are applied.

I suspect that COULD be - because these trucks obviously have more than a basic on/off brake light switch - in order to run the stop/start, among other things. They may have some sensor on the brake line to measure pressure, but they could have switch at the pedal measuring as well. The harder you push when coming to a stop if you have the ESS enabled, it knows to cut the engine, but brake moderately and don't hit the brakes hard, the engine won't stop. The trucks system has to sense that, so............

 

[jwilson2899]

I would hope you can adjust the sensitivity, and manually apply them - as in helping straighten things out if they go sideways, so to speak.
I believe most of these you can turn the dial to set the sensitivity or how hard they apply the brakes when you brake, and push to apply brakes, but that's just a guess. My prior controller was a lever to apply - slide the lever and it applied trailer brakes - slide it further or harder and it braked harder. There was a knob on the side to set how sensitive it was to speed changes.

You have it spot on. For the Redarc the knob turns and has numbers 1-10 for the sensitivity. Pressing the knob in acts the same as pulling the lever on other controllers.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You have it spot on. For the Redarc the knob turns and has numbers 1-10 for the sensitivity. Pressing the knob in acts the same as pulling the lever on other controllers.

Great - good to know. Thanks.

 

[12BNNT]

So how do you use these things? If they auto adjust to your vehicle braking, what's with the knob and buttons on the popular models?

Forgive me if I get long winded but I’ll explain as best and as clear as I can...

Older cars and brake controllers were basically on/off. I have an older Curt ‘Discovery’ brake controller.
Older cars used to have a single switch on the brake pedal. As you pushed the pedal down, the arm of the pedal would move away from the switch, the plunger on the switch was allowed to extend closing the circuit and allowing 12volt power to travel through the the wire and illuminate the brake lights. The brake controller (like mine) has its own power and ground lead, a wire tied to the brake light wire and one going to the brake wire for the trailer. It has two settings and a manual slider. One setting for breaking strength and one for sensitivity. When it senses power for the brake lights it applies electric to the trailer brakes wire according to how high you set the braking strength. Low strength sends (lets call it) 3 volts, Brakes on the trailer are barely pulled against the drum. High level sends the full 12volts and mashes the brakes to the drum. Full lock up of the trailer tires. The sensitivity adjustment in more of a delay (how quickly it rises to the set strength). With that set to low, as I hit/hold the brake pedal, the controller SLOWLY increases the voltage to the brake wire of the trailer effectively ramping up the trailer braking to the voltage set with the power adjustment. If that sensitivity switch is set to max, there is NO DELAY and it’s instantly full braking or instantly goes to the voltage power you set with the strength setting which will jerk you pretty hard if both are set too high. The manual arm or slide allows you to do the ramping up of voltage to the trailer brakes yourself without touching the brake pedal. The further you slide it the more power it sends to the trailer brakes. Handy when, like @ShadowsPapa said, you need to straighten things out. Ie, big truck goes by and the trailer starts swinging. Stabbing the vehicle brakes at the wrong moment could cause the trailer to pass you on it’s pendulum swing but hitting just the trailer brakes and not the cars will use the trailer brakes to slow both down and pull the trailer back in line with the car.
Now.... new cars have what is called a CANBUS system. Multiple systems using one wire and the car’s computer reading varying voltages to make decisions. One example, the computer reads how much voltage is being used to flash the left turn signal lights. If one bulb goes bad, the system uses less power, the computer sees this and displays a warning on the dash telling you that you have a bulb out. On another system if there’s ‘x’ milliamps going through the wire, that signals the computer to do function ‘A’, if there’s ‘y’ milliamps, it does function ‘B’. New brake switches are variable voltage instead of simple on/off devices that way the computer can read that and make decisions. Such as, light pedal = low voltage so computer sends 12 volts to brake lights but does not activate ESS. Harder pedal = higher voltage so computer still sends power to the brake lights but now also actives the ESS system to read vehicle speed and shut off the engine. As you ease up on the pedal, the voltage to the computer decreases and the computer makes the decision that you’re getting going again and restarts the engine.
The new controllers are programmed to understand this so they can use that information just like the cars computer can. You set the max strength of the braking power you want to send to the trailer brakes and when you apply the brakes, it also reads the variable voltage from your brake pedal and adjust how fast it gets there from that interpretation. If you’re barely riding the brakes, it will slowly ramp up the trailer braking accordingly. If you mash the brakes on your truck, it reads that as needing a panic stop and goes instantly to max braking on the trailer as well.
If you look at the user manual on any of these new controllers (found digitally on the manufacturers websites) it kinda explains that but also shows how to program them (for instance on one of the dial ones) tap the dial and it goes to strength mode, turn the dial to set the max strength. Double tap, goes to sensitivity mode, turn the dial to set sensitivity. Triple tap goes to display brightness.... and so on. On those, once you set your max power and sensitivity, holding the button will perform the braking at the ramp up speed and strength you set earlier without applying brakes on the truck For those times when that’s needed.

One last caveat, newer factory brake controllers usually only have a manual slider on the dash, and the vehicles computer ends up reading the pedal and deciding how much power to send to the trailer according to the settings you adjusted in the driver interface (dash cluster). As an example (Ram truck I had I could set up two different trailer modes. One for the flat trailer (lighter braking) and one for the box trailer ( more aggressive). The truck saves those setting and when I hooked up a trailer, the center cluster on the dash gained another page for trailer settings and I could select which saved setting I wanted to use. The new CANBUS systems allow for some pretty fancy integration and features on new vehicles.

Hope that help everyone understand how they work so they can make the best decision for themselves as to what controller they want or need.

 

[TheNewWampsCat]

Just left my local dealer, parts said nothing is available!

 

[MonkeySkunks]

Just left my local dealer, parts said nothing is available!

As in it doesn't exist or there is no stock? I'm waiting on the 13th to call my sales guy and see what he can find out for me but that would be factory availability not parts.

 

[TheNewWampsCat]

As in it doesn't exist or there is no stock? I'm waiting on the 13th to call my sales guy and see what he can find out for me but that would be factory availability not parts.

Like he tried to find it and he said he doesn’t show anything! I didn’t have the part number listed on this post so that’s as far as it went!

 

[futzin']

Not the OP's fault but I note with dark amusement:

September 12, 2019: there's a controller!
Four months later: nope.

I wonder if when it gets here it will be standard equipment or an extra charge? They'll prolly make it a component of the towing pak, and charge more for that.

 

[TrailHiker]

That is how most proportional digital braking systems work. The “brain box” has an accelerometer in it that senses the vehicle direction of motion, and when you slow down (even engine braking), the trailer electric brakes are applied per the setup settings. When you press the brake pedal, more braking is applied, based on your speed and how hard you apply the brakes, so the trailer brakes with the tow vehicle, slowing down the rig, without stressing either the tow vehicle or trailer. The town vehicles apples most of the initial braking action, and the trailer brakes apply to keep the trailer aligned and not pushing the tow vehicle to allow for a smooth, coordinated braking action, with out stressing either vehicle.

I got a Kurt Echo which plugs into the trailer 7-pin connector, and you plug the trailer into it, and use a smart cell phone application, via Bluetooth, to setup the controller and use the apps big red button to manually apply the trailer brakes to stop fishtailing. When you apply brakes or slow down, the controller applies the trailer brakes based on how you set it up for delay and how much brake to apply to the trailer per the braking force on the tow vehicle. You need to set the adjustments to prevent the trailer brakes from just locking up, and allowing a smooth progressive stop.

I just towed a 3klbs TAB 400 with a 425lbs tounge weight, about 70 miles on a two lane country coastal mountain road in rural Northern Calif (north of SF), using the Echo, and all went without any issues. A small,part was on Hwy 101 with 55 mph speeds, avg. 18mpg, and about an avg. 14mpg on the grades and mountain pass roads to get back to the coast and Hwy 1. The trailer brakes worked as expected, and I would not have done this trip without some type of trailer brakes working. The trailer tracked very nicely through the sharp switch back turns.
Cheers

 

[TheNewWampsCat]

Took the part number to the dealer today. Was told it's a good number but no dealer in the country has one or can get one. I think it's time to just get one aftermarket!

 

[Russler]

Update from my dealership as of 6:50am today -

The ETA for the Trailer brake controller part number 82215652 has been changed to April 20 of this year.

 

[futzin']

Update from my dealership as of 6:50am today -

The ETA for the Trailer brake controller part number 82215652 has been changed to April 20 of this year.

HOLY CHIT!!

Any idea when new JTs will be delivered with them installed? Similar time frame?

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