Ques. for those who tow

[Franky]

I just bought an open car trailer, 18ft, with a tire rack. Weight is about 1800 lbs. I'm going to be towing my porsche so gross vechicle weight of the trailer and car should be around 4500. The trailer has dual brakes.

Question is, do I need a brake controller for the trailer? Or is it included in the trailer assist program?

If I need a brake controller, what do you recommend, and what did the install require?

I'm going to be traveling at total of 970 miles, so you members with towing experience what do you recommend me traveling with? Tools, supplies, etc. I do have a spare tire on the trailer.

Thank you in advance.

Franky

 

[DonMitsu]

You will definitely need a brake controller. I just got ours from Northern Tool based on aesthetics and had the dealer install it. The factory trailer electronics will not engage your trailer brakes and 4500 is well over the recommended weight for trailer brakes

 

[Franky]

You will definitely need a brake controller. I just got ours from Northern Tool based on aesthetics and had the dealer install it. The factory trailer electronics will not engage your trailer brakes and 4500 is well over the recommended weight for trailer brakes

Don, after doing much research last night, I came up with a couple brake controllers I was interested in. Both come with a factory harness that connects the brake controller to a connecter under the dash. Is similar to what you purchased or did you just purchase the controller and the dealer did the rest?

 

[DonMitsu]

The one we got did come with the harness that is suppose to connect to the factory wiring harness. I had the dealer install it because the LR4 has a Body Control Module (BCM) that controls all electric accessories. I don't know that they had to tell the BCM to power the brake controller but I would assume they would. I didn't want to take a chance towing our Travel Trailer without knowing the brakes would work

 

[Franky]

Thank you again for the info Don. I'm going to call the dealer and ask them about the harness tomorrow.

 

[crewcabrob]

I think Prodigy made a specific harness and controller for the LR vehicles. I think you can look for the ones that fit Ford trucks and they work.

Rob

 

[Franky]

Thanks Rob, that was one of the 2 that I was looking at. Didn't get to speak to the dealer today about installing it myself though. Its a plug and play set-up, but I just want to make sure that its ok for me to do it.

 

[Franky]

Just an FYI, I spoke to the dealer and they told me that it was ok for me to install the trailer electrionics (brake controller and harness). They said no damage could be done as the connector is not active until that activate the trailer programs. I'm going to install everything this weekend so I will let you know how it goes.

 

[DonFromCanada]

Just an FYI, I spoke to the dealer and they told me that it was ok for me to install the trailer electrionics (brake controller and harness). They said no damage could be done as the connector is not active until that activate the trailer programs. I'm going to install everything this weekend so I will let you know how it goes.

Ok, you guys are talking about several things here:
Land Rover towing electrics... yes, get those installed by the dealer.

Brake controller. No don't bother paying your dealer for this. No, it does not have a Land Rover specific attachment for your brake controller. How do I know this? Because it's the exact same harness as the Ford F150 brake controller connector. The Prodigy 3 should come with that in the box.

Two different types of brake controllers:
Timed and progressive.

Get the progressive if you can. They apply more brake pressure the more you apply the brake - like you would expect.

The timed brake controllers are cheaper and work like this:
You hit the brake, and after a certain amount of tme, they start adding progressively more and more pressure to the trailer brakes the longer you hold the brake down. It has no idea if you're just coasting with a little light brake pressure... it will apply brakes based on the length of time you have them depressed.

Another drawback to the timed controller is if you have to do an emerg brake. It has no time to engage, so your tow vehicle will be doing all of the braking for the first few seconds - leading to a high probability of jacknifing the trailer.

Stay away from the timed brake controllers is the moral of this anecdote.