Brake controller - location and wiring

[TRITON73]

I have a P3 in my MN and have installed it on the RT hand side of the rear window button and 12v socket. Drilled a hole to fit the wiring harness and screwed the mount bracket into the upper shroud.
Just watch your fingers when selecting LLC as the lever gets quite close.
Wiring was quite simple, ran power directly from batt and used multi meter to find brake wire. I ran the blue wire under the scuff panels then through a grommet in the rear floor well and then along the chassis. Works for me

[dazza_241]

correct me if im wrong but i was under the impression the mn only produced a pulse like voltage out of the brake pedal back to some c-bus box thing. think the autolecs with mine have tapped into the rear lights to get the 12v. does this make sense?

[61rth]

I'm in the middle of doing my controller at the moment. I have the MN and will be definately tapping into the brake wire at the rear of the vehicle. It looks so much easier to do it here than under the dash as the brake wire is a long way up there and i'm not a gymnist so won't be able to do a very good job of soldering this. Because it is going to be running all the way back into the car I am going to bung in a small inline fuse where I splice into the wire, just a precaution in case it shorts out somewhere out bush.

at the back where the trailer connector fits into the standard loom is a good spot. I have run a 7 core trailer wire all the way back as I also want to tap into the reverse light wire. this gives me quite a few spare wires if I ever need to get a switch wire for a relay or something else from that end of the vehicle. Did the same from the engine bay into the cab so that I have spares if I ever need it.

[damo3442]

hey dazza241 i installed my controller in the same place that your planning to,i used the unused blanking plate to run the wires into yhe dash area?controller works great and is neat and out of the way?The mn tows great, i tow a 2.5 ton cartrailer aleast twice a month to the drags and it does it effortlessly,just watch out for the turbo lag on any sort of hill start?happy towing

[new44]

Another option.

Velcro.
Reason: I have long legs, so I remove it most of the time. I hate stuff cluttering up my leg room.

It does work well and is held secure enough to keep the internal pendulum working.

[TRITON73]

correct me if im wrong but i was under the impression the mn only produced a pulse like voltage out of the brake pedal back to some c-bus box thing. think the autolecs with mine have tapped into the rear lights to get the 12v. does this make sense?

I was a little concerned when tapping into the brake wire at the peddle as from memory there were 4 wires to choose from. The wire I chose had consistent 12.4 volts when the peddle was depressed. And yes it was a squeeze getting under there.

[dazza_241]

hooked up the car trailer on the w/e....works well apart from some nice lock up marks in the new subdivision in the back of fletcher!
fitting it in that area i did seems to work out awesome. the only bummer is the tekonsha takes 10-15 mins before outpowering off so of a night u can kind of see it through the windows. the way its installed atm is permanent but i may try and install some nutserts in the trim under the radio such that i can screw the black steel bracket on and off when needed...atm thats in the too hard basket though!
was pretty stocked at the rear window being down while hooking up to the trailer...with the super dark tint i have it would be a bit hard without that window!

[desargent]

fitting it in that area i did seems to work out awesome.

dazza - is there any chance you can post a wiring diagram? I have all the bits ready to do the same job this weekend, it would save me a bit of time if I had the right wire colours to start with.

Did you pop out the whole switch blank behind the controller or did you drill a hole in it?

Thanks - Daryk

[desargent]

fitting it in that area i did seems to work out awesome.

dazza - is there any chance you can post a wiring diagram? I have all the bits ready to do the same job this weekend, it would save me a bit of time if I had the right wire colours to start with.

Did you pop out the whole switch blank behind the controller or did you drill a hole in it?

Thanks - Daryl

[desargent]

Lol - and I have just discovered that "Edit" posts a duplicate rather than altering the original post...

[dazza_241]

hey desargent....i took the soft c*ck approach and took her into newcastle auto electrics! bought the controller out of melb off a 4wd ebay store and the autolecs installed her for me. they ended up drilling a hole in the small plastic pop out plastic doo da thingy that sits up on the right side. they didnt do a bad job i must say! i just wish i had a spare 500 they has a pair of the lightforce 170 spotters on sale.

[desargent]

$500 for Light Force 170s??? They must have been the HID models as I picked up a set from Opposite Lock for $380 including lock nuts and a second set of filters.

My biggest issue is that I have a novated lease so I have to restore all holes etc at the end of the lease if I don't keep it. I might have to find a wreckers with an MN so I can grab another switch blank.

[dazza_241]

yeah they were the HID ones. installed for 500..seemed an ok price i thought but after yesterday afternoon i think my choice of installing an air conditioner in my loungeroom was a million times better than spotties atm!
just stick an air freshener over the hole! heard of that being done before on a novated leased ute!

[reeldreamer]

I recently purchased a Tekonsha P3 controller and was wondering if there is any issue mounting this unit like others under the steering coloumn on an angle? I read in the manual that it must be level but I think that means laterally. It said it will automatically work out a level position but I wasn't sure if it would do that when mounted at a 50 degree angle. Just wanted to check before I start drilling.

[Mooons]

Thats where mines is
letf hand side of coloumn it is in the way sometimes but every things plugs in so its easy to remove

[helicoptercow]

the digital age has some benefits you can pretty much mount them however you want.

i had mine mounted in the passenger footwell, can still reach it over there. I couldn't find a position around the steering column it wasn't in the way, and like Moons said you can unplug it and throw it in the glove box if you dont use it often.

[jd88]

"NOTE:
1. Front of the P3 must be horizontal, see below.
2. The P3 must be parallel to direction of travel,
see below."
http://www.tekonsha.com/content/downloa ... N90195.pdf

I put mine under the steering column. It just fits between the fuel and bonnet release levers (mine's a Primus IQ, but I think it's wider than the P3). With a manual trans, that was the only place on the drivers side I could fit it without it getting in the way of my left leg. I was going to remove it when I'm not using it, but it's so out of the way I don't even know it's there.

[killa]

Best one I've seen is the Redarc Remote Mount which was mounted in place of the cigarette lighter in the dash. Can't give you pics as it wasn't my vehicle.
You end up with only a dial and an LED in the dash, nothing to hit your knees on

[Snooozy]

I have seen the redarc one in another vehicle, I like the idea-very neat.
I have one of the older style Tekonsha controllers mounted in place of the ashtray. Very easy to reach so I can control the van manually.


I tried it on the lower dash panel first & kept hitting it with my knee

[Cowboy Dave]

Here's mine:



I like having the red button nice and close for manual override to activate the trailer brakes.

[al coholic]

Best one I've seen is the Redarc Remote Mount which was mounted in place of the cigarette lighter in the dash. Can't give you pics as it wasn't my vehicle.
You end up with only a dial and an LED in the dash, nothing to hit your knees on

I used this one on a different vehicle the other week..........I have to say it is good as far as the amount of room it takes up, looks neat.......but thats where it stops. It is so hard to get it fine tuned correctly, i finally had it set up right, dropped the camper off and went wheeling, the vibrations and bouncing around must of changed it, cause when we hooked the camper up again, i had to start the process all over again Did not like it one bit compared to the P3

[coxy47]

Ok so im curious to know if anyone has actually experienced any problems mounting their brake controller near a UHF.

Reading the manual from the Tekonsha P3 it says not to mount it within 12" of an RF generating item (cell phones, two way radios. I wouldnt have thought the UHF itself would be emitting much of an RF other then at the antenna?

Just curious to know if i should be expecting any problems mounting my brake controller next to my UHF.

[61rth]

I assume it is only the antenna that would be a problem. I hope so as my hand set is mounted to a bracket that is mounted to the tekonsha bracket:

[coxy47]

Thats what i thought.

I figure ill mount mine next to it anyway and move it if i have problems.

[koshari]

can anyone think of any reasond ( bad or good) other than having to drill a couple of holes in the top of the dash why i shouldnt mount my prodigy 3 on dash indicated by the red spot,?