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Cab space is always at a premium, and bulky brake boxes can get in the way. The Discovery NEXT keeps things sleek with a controller body that’s just 1" thick and mounts flush to the dash using the included bracket and hardware. You can install it anywhere at any angle, so the controller stays out of the way but easy to reach when you need it. The low-profile design leaves plenty of legroom while still looking clean and organized inside the cab.
Different trailers and loads need different brake force, and this controller makes it simple to dial that in. The orange rocker switch adjusts gain from 0.5 to 9.9 in 0.5 increments, while the black rocker switch controls load from 1 to 9 to fine-tune how quickly your trailer brakes ramp up. Once you find the right balance, braking feels steady and predictable across all conditions. It handles up to 4 axles (8 brake assemblies) and works with electric and electric-over-hydraulic trailer brakes, giving you flexibility for nearly any setup.
You shouldn’t have to squint at your controller while towing. The Discovery NEXT uses a large, adjustable LED display that’s easy to read in sunlight or low light. It shows clear numbers and letters for gain and load settings, plus error messages that make troubleshooting straightforward. You can even dim it or switch on night mode so it won’t glare on nighttime drives.
Wiring can be the toughest part of installing a brake controller, but this setup removes the hassle. The included custom-fit adapter plugs directly into your vehicle’s built-in port under the dash—no splicing required. Once connected, just mount the unit and you’re ready to go. Since it’s not a permanent install, you can unplug it anytime to move it between vehicles or store it safely when not in use.
Even when parked, you don’t want electronics pulling power from your battery. This controller automatically enters sleep mode after 5 minutes of inactivity so there’s no unnecessary draw. You get reliable performance every time you tow—and peace of mind knowing your battery stays protected while your trailer is unhitched.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, everyone, Aidan here with etrailer. Today, we're gonna be taking a look at the Curt Discovery NEXT Brake Controller. This is gonna be a time-delayed brake controller. Let's check it out. When it comes to brake controllers, there's gonna be two options you're probably looking at, time-delayed and proportional. Proportional is gonna be the nicer of the two where if you lightly press your brakes, the brakes in your trailer are also going to be lightly applied.
If you slam on the brakes, the brakes in your trailer are also going to match that proportionally. With a time-delayed brake controller, it's gonna be applied at the same rate every time, so you don't get that fine adjustment. You can still adjust the settings, but it's gonna be the same every time. So if we're rolling up to a stop sign, coming to a very slow and predictable stop, and our gain and sensitivity are set kinda high, it's gonna be applying the brakes pretty hard. Same for if we have those set kind of low and we slam on our brakes on the highway, because someone in front of us stopped, the brakes aren't gonna be applied in a similar fashion.
There is the manual override you can always pinch to apply, but that's just something to know with a time-delayed system like this. Let's talk about those controls. The manual override is a pinch style where I'm pressing the button with my thumb. It's pretty easy to reach from the driver's seat where I've got it all set up. So whenever I'm driving, I feel like if I needed to suddenly reach down and get it, I can find that pretty easily every time, and index my thumb well enough to get a good press.
So good to know for emergency situations where you might need that. Now, there's gonna be two sets of controls here for the gain and the load. The orange buttons are going to adjust our gain or our brake power. You can go anywhere from 0.5 up to 9.9, and this is going to signify the different power levels. So 0.5 is the weakest, and as I go up, it's going to get more and more powerful.
So if I have a heavier trailer that needs more stopping power, I'd set it higher. The next one is going to be our load. This is basically how quickly the brakes are applied, so that can go from 1 to 9. At 1, it's going to be the lowest, and at 9, it's going to be the fastest or the quickest application. So basically, ramping from zero to fully applied where we have that gain set. So for demonstration, I'm just going to put the gain all the way up to max, and I'm gonna hit the brakes. And you'll see, slowly, it'll climb up to where we set it. And if I turn that load down all the way to 1, it's going to climb much slower to that designated power level. So you can fine tune this to your own trailer application, and depending on how heavy of a trailer you have and how good the brakes are, that will determine what you want those set at. But generally, that gain is going to be for the weight of the the trailer, and you can kinda determine the load from there. Now, to give a visual indicator of that gain, we've got our vehicle hooked up to a trailer simulator box. I've got the gain set to the absolute lowest it goes, so that's gonna be the lowest brake power, and you can see where the voltage is reading right now. If I turn the gain up to 5, that's gonna be right in the middle, you'll see that voltage will climb up higher. And then if I turn it up to the max, 9.9, you'll see that climb up even higher. So this is just to give you some visual indication of that different power level of the braking. This is designed to work with trailers up to four axles and will work with PWM, ABS, cruise controller, and electric-over-hydraulic brakes. So keep that in mind as you're picking this out if it's gonna work with your trailer. Up to four axles, I'd say for the most part, you're gonna be totally fine. If you don't need one that can go up to four axles and you like this style, Curt does make a similar version that's up to three axles. So that's something to keep in mind too if you don't need this much. Now, the big advantage to something like this, and something you probably noticed if you're familiar with brake controllers already, is going to be the size. It's a lot smaller and a lot more shallow than the brake controller we pulled out of this 4Runner today. And that's great, because even though it's mounted externally, it's not going to be in the way of your knees as you're getting in and out of the vehicle. And as I'm in a normal driving position, I've got plenty of distance between it and my leg. I don't feel like I'm gonna be hitting it all the time, 'cause it doesn't stick out very far. That's thanks to the very low profile bracket. We've got it mounted up with the included double-sided adhesive, but you can also use the included self-tapping screws. Just know that they're pretty long, and you're gonna have to have clearance behind there. But this will just click into place over that bracket. (bracket clicking) You can hear that snap in, and that's what holds it in. One thing to note is that because it's not inertia based, you can mount this really wherever it fits best, so it doesn't necessarily need to be level or facing any certain direction. Now, the installation can vary depending on your vehicle. I'd say check for what your vehicle has in terms of pigtail adapters. That's what we we're able to do with this option from Curt. We offer this pigtail adapter on our site here at etrailer, and that allows us to just plug directly into the vehicle's prep package for this. So just check to see if your vehicle can do that, because that's definitely going to be the easiest option as far as installation goes, 'cause it just plugs right in and all you have to worry about is mounting up that bracket, and then tucking up that wire loom from the adapter. Something else to note is that that LED readout does have a number of different functions. You can adjust the brightness, there's a day and night mode, but it's also gonna give us readouts for different errors. So if something's maybe not fully connected or something, it will tell us here. Your instructions give you a full list of all the different errors that can occur and short descriptions of what they are. But because its screen gives full text readouts, it's pretty easy to tell what's going on based on what it's showing. Like for example, when we first hooked this up to our simulator box, we didn't have the 7-way plugged in all the way, and it told us it wasn't connected. So we went back there, pushed the plug in the rest of the way, and then it worked properly. So that's going to help with just troubleshooting anything that may be occurring in your setup. For me, I think this is a nice middle ground between having the controls, easy to access, and having that LED readout, so you can see those errors and the power, and just have a little bit more control over it while still staying out of the way and being flushed to the dash. But that was just our look at the Curt Discovery NEXT Brake Controller. Thanks for watching.
Ratings & Reviews
This cable worked great. Nothing better than plug and play!
Perfect fit for 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L.
Worke great on my Jeep Grand Cherokee
I’ve bought several items in the last year from etrailer. The service and duality never disappoint!
Worked great and installed easy. Especially with the added oem plug kit.
I have found the products that I ordered have been just what I need, this site is great, the people are very helpful, & know what they are doing, this is the only place that I will shop for my trailer needs,
Works as advertised. Used to hook up a triflex brake controller into a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee with tow package. Very easy installation.
Shipped same day. Easy to install with the custom wiring adapter. Excellent customer service.
Easy ordering, good prices, fast shippi ng.
Controller worked well. Installation took some effort, but overall was a good piece of hardware.
GOT MY CURT BRAKE CONTROLLER WITH EASY CONNECT FOR MY JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE ,EASIEST AUTO PART I HAVE EVER HAD TO INSTALL.BUT MY VEHICLE WAS SET UP WITH THE TOW PACKAGE..
Perfect fit for my 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee. 5 minute installation.
Victor
4/2/2019
Traded the 2016 Grand Cherokee for a 2018, brake controller and wiring adapter fit perfectly again and has been performing flawlessly.
Definitely a must for installing the Curt Echo under-dash brake controller in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. No wire splicing required; plug-n-play!
Worked perfectly to connect our Curt Brake Controller to our Jeep Grand Cherokee's wiring harness. Nothing to cut or trim.
All great products and fast shipping. I had a small problem and tech support answered my question immediately. Saved over $250 dollars over dealer prices and with instruction videos installation was a snap. etrailers has become my go to for hitches and accessories.
Thanks, You Guys are the greatest.
Great customer support on the front end to make sure I got the right part. Great support on the back end to make sure I was satisfied. Even to the extent that now one year later, I am on a tick file to make sure my experience continues to be great! It sure has been great and I look forward to more advice and purchases from E Trailer.
etrailer has great videos for installation and information which works well for your personal application. Cable hidden under dash.
Bill A.
4/7/2021
Still like it.
I only towed with it once and then I sold the truck I installed it in. I pulled the two axle camper bought 350 miles and it worked fine.
Connected to the OEM plug perfectly, works great on our Sunset 16 ft trailer.
Easy install. Less then 10 minutes.
Easy to install. Pretty easy to calibrate. Once set up it works just like I wanted on small teardrop camper.
Purchased this controller for a 2004 Toyota Tundra Limited and it has preformed perfectly! I haven't had any complaints. It reacts and adjusts quickly. Along with the plug and play function there's not much more I can say. Great product!
Fast shipping and communicative online purchase! Brake controller comes with harness for your vehicle and just plugs and plays.
Works well on a older truck , the new proportional controllers didn’t seem to be very effective on a older brake system.
I purchased this harness primarily to get the plug for my 2023 Grand Cherokee L Overland (with tow package). I had an Odessey brake controller with a cord for a Ford truck. The black fitting on this cord is identical to the plug coming from my brake control (both male plugs) so some splicing is required to utilize my old controller. I had difficulty locating the plug in my Jeep and could not locate photos or video of the plug location in the WL platform (current model Grand Cherokee). I have attached photos of where to locate the plug. It was a bit more forward and wrapped up with black electrical tape as shown in my photo.
If the black plug matches your brake controller, this should work perfectly for you.
Tom
6/27/2025
It still works as it should.
Do you have a question about this Trailer Brake Controller?
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Josh
9/5/2024
Year later, product is great. Took out our popup camper this summer and adjusting the braking power is very easy with this.