Trailer brakes

New member, first time posting. Its my 3rd Tacoma, a 2019 SR5 with a 3.5l V6. I've never had an RV, just bought one and am wondering about trailer brakes. Just read a thread by
SoonToBeOn35s concerning a trailer brake controller. I've seen such units on vehicles but don't know what they are or do or whether I need one to activate the brakes on the trailer. Looked in the manual but not much there.
Might as well expose myself as a nimrod right off.

 

Brake controller will only benefit if your trailer has electric brake. Some trailer have surge brake, which the controller will be useless. With that in mind, not all trailer will have brake.

 

Brake controllers, when you press your vehicle brakes, sense deceleration of your vehicle. The faster your vehicle is decelerating, the stronger it applies braking to your trailer. They will also allow you to use the brakes on the trailer by themselves, without touching your truck's brakes. But as @02hilux said, your trailer must actually have brakes for the brake controller to do anything. In many states, it is required to have brakes of some sort on trailers over a certain weight. Most travel trailers fall into this, unless it's a tiny tear drop that isn't much more than a bed in a box.

What trailer did you buy? Brand and Model number would be best. Pics, too, could be helpful. Did the trailer come with a 4-pin or 7-pin connection for lights?

 

Almost all camper trailers these days come equipped with electric brakes. You do need a trailer brake controller to use them. There used to be multiple types of controllers, but thanks to the evolution of ever-cheaper electronics, all but the crappiest pretty much use progressive control these days.


Go to TW's towing forum and read the towing bible. There is a lot of handy information in that thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-tacoma-towing-bible.4031/

 

It's a Forest River R-Pod 180 and it has electric brakes. I hauled it home yesterday without incident and it seemed to tow well and stop with no problem. I have a torsion hitch and, from what I understand, it can equalize the tongue weight on both axels. Truck and camper have a 7 pin connection. I'll start on the towing bible tonight, thanks for that. Any suggestions on a controller? Someone on another thread suggested a Redarc. I saw a
REDARC Electronics

$145 CIKTP-NA-003 REDARC Tundra/Tacoma Tow-Pro Liberty Controller Kit

CIKTP-NA-003 Liberty Brake Controller Kit Fits Select Toyota Tundra/Tacoma at Jeg's and it appears to be custom fit to the Toyota dash. A bit pricey though.

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Yeah, definitely gonna want trailer brakes!!!

I run a Prodigy P2. You can buy it and the correct pigtail and it's an easy plug and play once you find the connector under your dash/kick panel. Not sure exactly where it's at on the 3rd Gen. It's not as pretty as the Redarc with the nice dash mount, but it'd do the job well.

Install in my truck was about 10 minutes or less. Same with my dad's Silverado. Just make sure to buy the right cable for between the controller and your truck. This goes for any brake controller you go with. Way easier than trying to wire your own.

 

I have the redarc on my second gen tacoma. I really like the way it looks factory and it works flawlessly. The plug n play harness was nice too lol.

 

I have a Tekonsha primus. When I bought it it was cheap, yet it does most of the important things just as well as the fancy units.


Here will be the big difference. The Redarcs are going to only be visible by a single knob and will appear "factory." The Tekonshas and the Curts are going to look like this:







Some people like me put them under the dash, other people have a custom panel made and stick them in that little tiny cubbyhole.




Versus what you see on a Redarc [as posted elsewhere by another member]:






And now the one, minor downside to a redarc: its not as easy to honk the manual brake button when you are fumbling for it. I have needed that button exactly twice while in motion, once in the Tacoma. Both times I was in the mud on an off-camber road, and the trailer wanted to hook me into the ditch. A quick pulse of the trailer brake brought it back in line.

Other times, its damn convenient to use as a truck-starting device when doing maintenance or hitching the trailer - grab brake controller, push start button.

^^ both of those things are possible with the redarc knob, it just isnt as easy.

 

Easy access to the unit's brake control is a huge plus. I'm always running hugely variable trailer loads, so being able to quickly test the brakes and adjust the gain is a big help. Not as big a deal when just towing one trailer that's about the same weight all the time.

I'm not even sure how you use the brakes on the Redarc one.

 

You push the knob, kind of similar to a power/volume control knob. My clumsy meathooks would not be able to find that blindly and push the button without rotating the gain. But again, I want to make clear that I'm picking at nits here.

 

Is it pressure sensitive? or like a button click and all of a sudden you get full brakes?

 

I think its the latter.

 

yuck, lol.

 

Yeah, that would get annoying during my biennial bearing repack, the last step of which is to circle the block and pulse the brakes to set the shoes back into the drum.

 

Definitely get a RedArc trailer brake controller. Easy to install, reliable. Hardest part is finding the factory installed wiring harness but lots of YouTube videos on the subject.
While your at it, go to A1 and order new mirrors. They are definite safety addition when towing.
Enjoy your travels
tom