im looking for one..
which one do you guys use??

 

I have had good luck with tekonsha and kelsey controllers. They are all reliable from my experience installing them for customers.

 

I run a prodigy by Tekonsha. Love it and I towed a 14' enclosed cargo trailer with it everyday for a couple years

 

I cant find the name to the one we use to have in our work trucks.. it had an adjustable Delay and an adjustable voltage..

 

Tekonsha P3, shop around you can get them for like 125, they are porporional which handles way better than timer based, P3 also lights red if you have a bad connection, and a brake boost to start braking at a higher voltage if you're trailer brake are wearing out or towing at max.

 

Hayes Engage here. Good for 3 axles and it is digital. Only complaint I have is the display constantly flashes OC for Open Circuit. All the others ones have the bright red light when you hit the brakes so it isn't a big deal but just with they put a power switch on the damn thing.

I have always been told that a cheap controller is as good as any. If you tow all the time and every day it becomes more important to get a higher quality one. For the once a month tow everyone I have talked to says a cheap analog is sufficiant.

I honestly have the one I do because a guy bought it for his trailblazer at work and it didn't have the hook ups needed. Like everything about it though.

 

I have a first gen Hayes G2 in the Tahoe. It has several modes/settings and will do up to 4 axles. It is very smooth at light braking and coming to a stop, as long as the boost mode is not turned up too high, which is what I like most about it.

 

My Dad took off his Prodigy and put a Maxbrake on his Dmax. Likes it MUCH better for towing his 14k fifth wheel. It actually has a load cell that you put in the brake line to read actual braking pressure and uses that to apply the correct amount of brakes to the trailer. Makes the braking feel just like there is nothing behind you. With the Prodigy, no mater how much he messed with it, you could always feel the trailer pulling on you or pushing on you and clucked in the hitch as it slid back and forth in the slop.

 

I've had great luck with my prodigy, much better than the older stuff. I e never heard of the maxbrake, ill have to check that out. Sounds pretty cool.

 

Tekonsha ftw...

Other important things to keep in mind is always check your bearings.

Ensure your brakes are properly adjusted (very important if electric drum).

Are you going to use this controller just for one trailer or be hooking up several trailers that have different loaded weights?

Newer high end controllers have a learning feature that allows you to better dial in dry and loaded voltage requirments to prevent tire lock up.

If you are going to pull the same trailer with roughly the same load all you need is an entry level controller. Tekonsha even offers an in-line controller that can be placed on the trailer if you don't want to wire the tow rig for a controller, its the prodigy RF.