Electric brake controllers

The P3 for me.... everytime.......

I tow a TVAN (1,200kg max) and use the Redarc EBRH unit which I find sufficient for purpose and the weight. In traffic I might have it set a touch "higher", otherwise a nominal setting is fine.

Can't comment on the others.

Cheers

Leanne, if you have different loads the Redarc will drive you nuts. You will be adjusting it all the time.

I had a redarc with my camper, always the same weight but on different conditions, traffic, open road, dirt road etc etc and was always adjusting it. Trouble is you have to guess how much braking you will need at the next stop. I changed it to a P3 and haven't adjusted it in 3 years.

IMHO your short list should be Tekonsha P3 or Tekonsha P3.

I have just installed a Redarc with the remote head after test driving and trying several of the others. I find having the controls at my fingertips very useful for changing settings for driving conditions and for different loads. Overall, very happy.

Iza

Another vote for the redarc. We have the dial installed into one of the vacant blanks in our dash.
My husband has driven many different vehicles and trailer combinations with electric brakes and he has never complained about the redarc.

Seeing we fit and sell both the Redarc and Tekonsha and we are very supportive of redarc who manufacture and sell fantastic stuff we still prefer and recommend the Tekonsha over the Redarc for brake controllers.

The only real advantage of the Redarc is the ability to fit the controls remotely making it a hell of a lot easier to fit and look neat.

The Tekonsha is a much better brake controller as it applies the brakes progressively based on deceleration rates and has a few more user features.

We have a Tekonsha in our 200 series and a Redarc in our Ranger due to mounting location restrictions...... the two are like chalk and cheese.

If you have used the Prodigy previously; going to the Redarc will disappoint you and you may find it annoying.

The only time you have to really calibrate a brake controller is if you use two trailers with different brakes adjustment.

The boost function doesn't increase the brake force in sense, it removes the delay from when you apply the vehicle brakes to when the trailer brakes start activating/retarding the trailer...... B1 will give about a 13% of the preset level from word go and B3 about 25%.... in the normal mode the trailer brakes will start at zero% and increase until it reaches the preset. level making the trailer brakes react slower.

I've been using a Prodigy for about 10 years now - installed in two different tugs, towing a camper and the current van, respectively. Its been a great unit throughout. As for adjustments though - while the Redarc sounds simplistic in that it requires resets for new loads (if I understand the above), even the 'smart' Prodigy requires a voltage/boost tweak here and there - dust, water and component wear produce variable braking performance at times and I usually run boost in city traffic, where one is far more likely to have to stop in a hurry. Periodic checking and adjustment of brake shoe clearance can't be ignored either.

After a great deal of research I bought tekonsha (cannot remember if is a P2 or P3) brake controller for my 1 1/2 ton camper behind my 100 series Cruiser from ebay, it was around half the price than an off the shelf item but still came at a premium
The main reason was because of its ability to the apply high or low brake inertia when required, that is to say that if you are using light brake application it will also do that, stand on the brakes, they will do the same with out any intervention from the driver, not many brake controllers have this function, it has an in built gyro which seems to work well , the down side is it has to be mounted a certain way or it will make the gyro inoperable.
They also have a set and forget function for multiple trailers, set for trailer 1, trailer 2 and I think trailer 3? defiantly at least 2 trailers, no need to recalibrate anything just remember which trailer you have called trailer 1.
Tekonsha for me

Shane

Hi Leanne,

There has been plenty already said on both the Redarc and Prodigy P3 so I wont go over this any more.

There is one other thing to consider however.
Some vehicles don't have much room on the bottom of the dash and fixing there may introduce problems with knees banging into the underslung Prodigy unit.

For this reason alone, I chose the Redarc unit with the remote head.
The box can be fixed up under the dash against the fire wall and the control cable and remote head and indicator mounted on a spare (blank) switch plug that most vehicles would have. Mine is located to the left of the steering wheel in a handy location on the dash to view the indicator and/or adjust the control knob. I must say I have rarely needed to adjust the braking force once set.

Trailer brakes are to assist the vehicle brakes to affect good braking performance and I find the Redarc works very well.

Redarcs only advantage is the remote head mounting.
Other than that it is a crude unit which is not even a patch on the P3.
I tow a heavy boat and the only attention the P3 needs is to change the setting to B1 when the boat is off the trailer.
The inertia system works perfectly

I've got both and they both suck in their own ways - trailer technology should be much better than it is.
The sensabrake on my last boat trailer was a bloody beauty. Apparently they have the odd reliability issue though.