Trailer Brake controller?

Does the kick panel just pop out?

 

Remove the door sill plate first and then you should be able to get the kick panel off. There are clips holding it in place, yes.

Jeff

 

One plastic screw. I did not take the door sill plate off, just popped it up a bit.

 

Ordered. Hopefully it'll all work as planned with my old controller. Went to the dealership even with the part number and they still had a hard time figuring out what I was talking about.

 

Installed my Prodigy P3. Every other truck I've ever owned had an integrated brake controller so now I have a question. Is the circuit for the brake controller always hot? I wanted to simply mount the controller and leave it in place but the controller stays on constantly. It's just a tiny LCD and backlight so I'm sure it won't drain the battery but it's sort of annoying to see that blue glow in the truck at night.

 

Looks like a nice controller. Reviews on Amazon say it stays on for about 15 minutes after you shut off the truck. Unverified by me.

 

It sure does. That's not mentioned anywhere in the manual. Thanks.

 

Finally towed with her. I couldn't be more happy!

 

So has anyome found one that we could easily put in the spot of the cubby hole? I like the P3, but the brake control being underneath kills that idea. I'd also not like one hanging down for my knees to bang into.

 

I mounted my P3 with a clamp under the dash to the right of my knee. I unclamp it and put in the clove box when I am not towing.

 

Nice camper and tow vehicle.

I have finally finished installing and adjusting all of my towing accessories; I can`t wait until I get my camper hooked up.

 

I'm waiting on the 3017-P harness for my Tekonsha Prodigy 2 but test fitted into the cubby to left of steering colum. Yes it's going to stick out a little to access buttons and the manual switch, but it will sit back inside the cubby pretty well, everything back from the side screw mounting holes is inside the cubby without trimming. I just need to punch a hole through the back and it's within reach of the harness socket. There are few good locations, and I don't want to hit my shins every time I get in and out or have it rub my leg by the accelerator. I'll post photo in a week or so once I've got it installed.

I'll be pulling a 3500 lb horse trailer with 2 to 3 horses (loaded with all three was 6300 on scales) for average of 1 hour trips to trail heads around Colorado Springs area, looking forward to testing the tacoma. I know it's pushing the envelope but with a single vehicle to do everything, the Tacoma was a better compromise for a daily driver.

 

Are you going to run a weight distribution hitch. I don't have one now but I think I am going to need one. My front trailer stand keeps scraping the ground when going into parking lots and drive ways.

 

once I'm loaded and see how it all sits, I'll drive to trailer supply shop and chat with them for final set up. Either weight dist. hitch or air bags.... still need to research my choices, but know I have some work ahead of me.

 

Anyone care to discuss weight distribution hitch vs air bags?

 

This thread explains it well:
http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/76...distributing-hitch.html?nocache=1451720724137

For proper towing, a WDH is a must, hauling heavy bed loads is what air bags are for.

 

I think if your towing anything over 3500lbs on a regular basis a WDH would be a good idea. If your just towing a pop-up trailer or something under 3000lbs, air bags or stock suspension will be fine.

 

According to the truck's manual, trailers over 5000lbs must use a weight distribution hitch. I agree that the air bags help spread the load over the back axle, whereas the WDH will transfer some of the weight to the front axle of the tacoma.

The article I read was: https://www.etrailer.com/faq-weightdistribution.aspx

The WDH that I have chosen (but not yet bought) is: Fastway e2 Weight Distribution w/ 2-Point Sway Control - Round - 8,000 lbs GTW, 800 lbs TW
It's important to not overbuild this choice, as a WDH that is designed for heavier loads will be too stiff and not do the job for the Tacoma. I searched fo Tongue Weight of 700lbs, a hitch that allows me to reverse (why wouldn't you need that) and a max load of 8000lbs (the lowest rating I could find).

 

Well over the weekend I bought the Weight Distribution Hitch and have been toying with it to get the best settings I could. I started out weighing the truck fully loaded on the scales 6300 lbs but did not do the tongue weight specifically. I bought a WDH for 8000 lbs with 800lb tongue weight. It seemed that I needed one that met my max tow weight and tongue weights on the box all seemed to be 10% of the overall weight. I coudn't wait for delivery, so went to Camperworld instead.

Step 2: Load trailer with 3 horses, level the chassis while not hooked to the truck and measured the ground to top of hitch which was roughly 12.5" (used 4 washers to tilt the ball down a little). I set the tow hitch on it's lowest hole which left the ball at approx 15" when unweighted, however with the sag after loading it comes in about perfect.

Step 3: Measure the ground to top of wheel well on the truck unloaded back and front.
Front: 35 ¼” Back: 36 ¾”

Step 4: Attached Trailer to the Towball without Weight Distribution bars in place, re-measured wheel wells
Front: 35 3/4” Back: 33 ¼”
Which means the front rose ½” and the back sunk 3 ½” without distribution support.

Step 5: Attached L brackets to the trailer, started in the mid setting, but ended up raising them to the highest setting. Attached WD bars and lowered till truck
took all the weight, re-measured ground to top of wheel wells.
Front: 35 1/8” Back: 34 ½”
Which means the front is 1/8” down and back is 2 ½” down.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the best I can do with the WDH. While there is still 2 ½" sag in the back, it's better than it was, and more importantly, the weight bearing down on the front axle is correct again, so I shouldn't find steering too light now.

I think a future mod may be firestone airbags on the back to help bring lift the sag out, but then again I'm not towing long distance, just an hour or so to trailheads so probably not worry unless I feel serious issues towing.

Still waiting on my Tekonsha brake controller harness 3017-P so can't go out and test it yet, but will update on power/handling in a week or so. I'm at 6000ft so will be interesting to see how well it handles

 

Bearing in mind I haven't popped the cubby back in so that I can install the harness when it arrives, this is where I'm installing my brake controller. The manual switch underneath necesitates it sitting out but it doesn't get in the way with airbag under dash or the diagnostic port and reset button by left ankle or the tight space above the right ankle. The only other real option would be to extend harness wiring and move it to center console above the charging mat, but I really didn't want to start cutting wires etc. This will do fine for me!

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