screaminL Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I need to add a trailer brake to my 85 4wd 5.0 AOD Any help on what works best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I've used the Tekonsha 90195 P3 from Amazon. They work well, but are a bit pricey. However, I'm happy pay a bit more for reliable brakes, and these have been reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Oh, wait! That was your first post and I missed that fact. You may have missed the email you were sent that asked you to go to the New Members Start Here folder to make an introduction post. We do that because we have our guidelines posted there and since we will hold you to them we want you to have every opportunity to see them. So please go to NMSH, read the guidelines, and then start a new topic/thread to introduce yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
screaminL Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 I've used the Tekonsha 90195 P3 from Amazon. They work well, but are a bit pricey. However, I'm happy pay a bit more for reliable brakes, and these have been reliable. does this work off the brake light? so Im asumming it has one pressure preset and add more by hand if needed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 does this work off the brake light? so Im asumming it has one pressure preset and add more by hand if needed? It works off the brake light and a pendulum. And there's a dial for preset. Hook the trailer up, get up to about 15 MPH, and hit the lever on the controller. You want the trailer's brakes to come close to lockup when you pull the lever all the way. Dial in more or less preset and you are set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Whitstone Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 It works off the brake light and a pendulum. And there's a dial for preset. Hook the trailer up, get up to about 15 MPH, and hit the lever on the controller. You want the trailer's brakes to come close to lockup when you pull the lever all the way. Dial in more or less preset and you are set. Gary, I will be adding a brake controller to my truck soon so this was a timely post. I have never heard of Tekonsha before. I took a look at it on Amazon. You reference the lever, which most of them that I have looked at have on the front of them. But I don't see a lever on the Tekonsha unit. Is it just not obvious in the photos, or does it not have one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Gary, I will be adding a brake controller to my truck soon so this was a timely post. I have never heard of Tekonsha before. I took a look at it on Amazon. You reference the lever, which most of them that I have looked at have on the front of them. But I don't see a lever on the Tekonsha unit. Is it just not obvious in the photos, or does it not have one? It is down below and you can't see it from above. But you can here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Gary, I will be adding a brake controller to my truck soon so this was a timely post. I have never heard of Tekonsha before. I took a look at it on Amazon. You reference the lever, which most of them that I have looked at have on the front of them. But I don't see a lever on the Tekonsha unit. Is it just not obvious in the photos, or does it not have one? Unfortunately you can't get the real good ones any more, they aren't compatible with anti-lock brakes. I still have one I bought for my 1977 F150. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Unfortunately you can't get the real good ones any more, they aren't compatible with anti-lock brakes. I still have one I bought for my 1977 F150. To generalize it a bit, there are two main types of brake controllers: timer and accelerometer. The timer style only goes off the brake light. As soon as the brake light goes on the brake controller starts ramping up the voltage to the trailer brakes. You can set the ramp rate and the max voltage that it goes to, but once set that's what you get (unless you reset of course). So whether you are gradually slowing down for the stop sign at the bottom of a freeway off ramp or in a panic stop you get the same ramp rate up to the same maximum brake level. You can override it and apply more brake faster with the manual lever, but as far as automatic use you get the same thing all the time. The accelerometer style (sometimes called a proportional controller) also only has the brake light as a signal into the unit, but internally it has an accelerometer. So once the brake lights come on it looks at how quickly the truck is decelerating and applies the trailer brakes proportionally. So you get light application of the trailer brakes if you are slowing down gradually and hard application if you are slowing down hard. The timer style is the cheapest, and has the obvious disadvantage of not being possible to dial in. Either it comes on too aggressively for most stops (which you deal with by letting off the brakes briefly to start the cycle over again) or too lightly for panic stops (which you can deal with by applying the trailer brakes by hand). I used to work with a guy who loved this style because it gave him perfect control. He set the max braking level as low as possible so there was essentially no automatic application of the trailer brakes, and always worked the controller by hand so he could get exactly the braking he wanted. He is an exception, but I mention him because he's not wrong. But most people I know (including me) think the timer brakes controllers are pure garbage, so I don't personally recommend them. The accelerometer style has the POTENTIAL downside of getting into a weird feedback loop. As it senses deceleration it applies the trailer brakes harder, which makes the truck/trailer decelerate harder, which makes it apply the trailer brakes harder, which makes it decelerate harder.... It certainly makes sense that this would happen, but I say "potential" as this doesn't seem to actually be a problem. It seems like it would be more likely with a very heavy trailer (where the trailer brakes are more significant that the truck brakes). But I've never actually noticed it with trailers up to about the same weight as the truck. But I mention it because if you are thinking about a HEAVY trailer you might want to get advice from someone who has experience there. The Tekonsha controller Gary mentions is the accelerometer style, and I believe him that it's a good one. Personally I've never paid over about $80 for a proportional brake controller, and I've always been happy with what I've bought. That Tekonsha might be well worth the added cost to some people, but you can get a "good enough" controller a lot cheaper. The cheaper ones do need to be mounted straight fore-and-aft in the vehicle and adjusted for how far off level they are for the accelerometer to work correctly, while I believe some of the more expensive ones have multi-axis accelerometers that automatically compensate for the mounting angle. But that's just ease of installation. Once installed and set properly the cheap ones work well in my experience. There is another style that I've used. I think the brand was Jacobs, and it had a cable that went to the brake pedal. The farther you pushed the brake pedal the harder it applied the trailer brakes. It let you adjust the gain so it could apply brakes more or less aggressively. That was a little harder to install, and I never see them advertised, so I don't include it as a mainstream option. But it did work well for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 To generalize it a bit, there are two main types of brake controllers: timer and accelerometer. The timer style only goes off the brake light. As soon as the brake light goes on the brake controller starts ramping up the voltage to the trailer brakes. You can set the ramp rate and the max voltage that it goes to, but once set that's what you get (unless you reset of course). So whether you are gradually slowing down for the stop sign at the bottom of a freeway off ramp or in a panic stop you get the same ramp rate up to the same maximum brake level. You can override it and apply more brake faster with the manual lever, but as far as automatic use you get the same thing all the time. The accelerometer style (sometimes called a proportional controller) also only has the brake light as a signal into the unit, but internally it has an accelerometer. So once the brake lights come on it looks at how quickly the truck is decelerating and applies the trailer brakes proportionally. So you get light application of the trailer brakes if you are slowing down gradually and hard application if you are slowing down hard. The timer style is the cheapest, and has the obvious disadvantage of not being possible to dial in. Either it comes on too aggressively for most stops (which you deal with by letting off the brakes briefly to start the cycle over again) or too lightly for panic stops (which you can deal with by applying the trailer brakes by hand). I used to work with a guy who loved this style because it gave him perfect control. He set the max braking level as low as possible so there was essentially no automatic application of the trailer brakes, and always worked the controller by hand so he could get exactly the braking he wanted. He is an exception, but I mention him because he's not wrong. But most people I know (including me) think the timer brakes controllers are pure garbage, so I don't personally recommend them. The accelerometer style has the POTENTIAL downside of getting into a weird feedback loop. As it senses deceleration it applies the trailer brakes harder, which makes the truck/trailer decelerate harder, which makes it apply the trailer brakes harder, which makes it decelerate harder.... It certainly makes sense that this would happen, but I say "potential" as this doesn't seem to actually be a problem. It seems like it would be more likely with a very heavy trailer (where the trailer brakes are more significant that the truck brakes). But I've never actually noticed it with trailers up to about the same weight as the truck. But I mention it because if you are thinking about a HEAVY trailer you might want to get advice from someone who has experience there. The Tekonsha controller Gary mentions is the accelerometer style, and I believe him that it's a good one. Personally I've never paid over about $80 for a proportional brake controller, and I've always been happy with what I've bought. That Tekonsha might be well worth the added cost to some people, but you can get a "good enough" controller a lot cheaper. The cheaper ones do need to be mounted straight fore-and-aft in the vehicle and adjusted for how far off level they are for the accelerometer to work correctly, while I believe some of the more expensive ones have multi-axis accelerometers that automatically compensate for the mounting angle. But that's just ease of installation. Once installed and set properly the cheap ones work well in my experience. There is another style that I've used. I think the brand was Jacobs, and it had a cable that went to the brake pedal. The farther you pushed the brake pedal the harder it applied the trailer brakes. It let you adjust the gain so it could apply brakes more or less aggressively. That was a little harder to install, and I never see them advertised, so I don't include it as a mainstream option. But it did work well for me. Good explanation, Bob. I wasn't aware of how the timer-style controllers actually work. And yes, my Tekonsha adjusts for how it is installed in the vehicle. Which is good as it frequently gets installed at a different angle since it has to come off to get to other things on/under the dash. But that has not changed its performance at all. Speaking of performance, it has done everything I could ask of it. I pulled the 25' Sea Ray's aluminum trailer empty with it and was easily able to adjust it to not quite lock up all four wheels on the trailer with no load or with the boat on. Ditto for the car hauler trailer, although the light/loaded difference wasn't as dramatic since the trailer is steel and heavy by itself. As for the feedback loop, I've not seen that. And I've had the car hauler trailer loaded to where it weighs more than the truck. But stops were always well controlled with no glitches at all. I'm not saying that Tekonsha is the way to go. It is just that it is the only one I've installed and used. But it has always worked very well. And I will admit that when it comes to safety I'll gladly pay a bit (a lot?) more. As for braking by hand, no way, Jose! I know of at least one case where I'd have been in an accident long before I could have thought "I need trailer brakes NOW" and gotten my hand on the controller at the same time as getting my foot on the truck brake pedal. (I was in the left lane and a car cut in front of me and immediately hit the brakes to turn into a business. I KNEW I had him, but the controller did its thing and we stopped just short of his rear bumper.) Maybe others can think and move that fast, but not me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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