Tekonsha P-3 Proportional Brake Controller Review
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Manufacturer InstructionsReview of Tekonsha P3 Electric Trailer Brake Controller
Today we are going to show you Part Number 90195 from Tekonsha. This is their P3 trailer brake controller. This is pretty much their top-of-the-line brake controller that is out on the market right now. What you need is, obviously, the brake controller itself, plus the mounting bracket, which is pretty unique. It actually grabs it from the top of the brake controller and snaps into place. And this little bracket here actually gets bolted on to the top here, and then this gets bolted onto your dash. And you can angle the brake controller in whatever direction you need. It also comes with a quick disconnect harness, which plugs into the back of the brake controller, and if you want to take it off when you are not using it, you just disconnect from the harness and tuck this away. And then you do not have it on your dash when you are not needing it.
It comes with an informational DVD and it comes with a few connectors and screws to assemble and install on your dash, and another set of screws. And when you are not using your brake controller and you take it off, it comes with this really nice, handy carrying carrying case to put it in, so you can store it in your glove box or whatnot. And next we will go ahead and apply some power to it and show you how it works. We will show you the operation of this brake controller. It is actually very nice. This is a full-featured brake controller, and what is really unique about this brand is that it has an LED display here instead of a lot of numbers flashing like on the other brake controllers. It actually has a lot of diagnostics to tell you what is going on with your trailer. But the operation remains the same as any brake controller, especially this one.
It has a manual override that activates the trailer brakes. And you just push it over and it shows you on the display in voltage how much you are sending out. And also this comes on when you hit your foot brake, just like any other brake controller. And again, it is inertia activated, so if you are sitting still and you apply the brakes you will get hardly any voltage out. But what happens is that when you do apply your brakes, there is a sensor on the inside that will know how hard you are hitting your brakes and will send current to the trailer brakes in proportion to how hard you are using the brakes in the towing vehicle. Also, this brake controller comes with three boost settings, activated by this button right here. Basically you have Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3. And what all these boost settings do is make the brake controller come on instantly. Boost Level One puts out 13 percent of the power instantaneously and then after a second it reverts to the inertia-activated brake controller. So basically what this does is it allows your trailer brakes to work first, and then your truck brakes start working afterward. And also the same thing applies to Boosts Two and Three. Two and Three use up to 25 percent of the available braking power. However, with Two and Three, each higher setting you go to on the brake controller actually reacts faster.
This button here goes through the menus that are available on the brake controller. You hit that button, and you have got different options. You have got Display, the Type of Brakes you are using in this case here on this trailer you have total electric brakes. But on some trailers you have what is called Hydraulic Over Electric, which means basically you have a hydraulic pump mounted on the trailer and the brake controller will turn on that pump to activate the hydraulic brakes on the trailer. And then you have this Help feature, which tells you what all the functions mean in the brake controller, which is pretty nice. You can change the display, you change to different colors, and different contrasts. You can change intensity, depending on how good your eyes are. And what is nice about it is it has a built-in diagnostic feature. So, for instance, if the blue wire coming from the trailer gets interrupted, causing a short, or just gets disconnected for some reason, it will actually tell you. So, we have disconnected the brakes, and it shows you in bright red and tells you what is going on. And if the blue wire rubs against the frame or gets shorted out somehow, it actually tells you that, too. And also, the other warning is that the brake controller will display a power loss. So basically if you have a loss of power going to the brake controller for a short time then it will tell you that it is losing power.
To adjust the gain on the brake controller, aside from the other ones that have a little thumb wheel, it has two buttons on the side that you use for scrolling through the menus. Basically it has a little Down button and that will send the power eventually down to zero, and then the Up button will run the power back up all the way to 12 volts, or basically anywhere in between. And there you have it for Part Number 90105 from Tekonsha, the P3 brake controller.
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