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Cab space can be tight, and big controller boxes often get in the way. This one is only 1" thick and mounts flush with the dash using the included bracket. You can install it at any angle and still have full access to the large manual override. The slim size keeps it out of the way while staying easy to reach when you need it.
Every trailer and load feels different when you brake. With this controller, you set the gain from 0.5 to 9.9 in 0.5-point steps and fine-tune load from 1 to 9. Gain controls total braking power, while load adjusts how quickly that power ramps up. Once you dial in both settings, your stops feel consistent—never too abrupt or too slow—no matter what you’re towing.
The bright LED screen shows braking power, error codes, and system status in clear numbers and letters. You can adjust brightness or switch to night mode so it won’t glare on your dash. If something’s off, the controller displays messages that make troubleshooting easy without stopping to guess what’s wrong.
No wire cutting or splicing here. The included custom-fit adapter plugs right into your vehicle’s factory brake control port under the dash. Once connected, just mount the unit where you want it, and you’re ready to tow. It’s also easy to unplug and move to another vehicle whenever you need.
This model handles trailers with up to 4 axles (8 brake assemblies) and works with electric or electric-over-hydraulic systems. It’s compatible with low-volt, PWM, ABS, and cruise control setups. That means steady braking performance whether you’re hauling a small camper or a heavy utility trailer across long grades.
If you don't already have a 7-way plug at the back of your vehicle, take a look at our exclusive 7- and 4-way brake control installation kit (ETBC7 - sold separately).
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.
Customer Satisfaction Score:
97% were satisfied with this product
3% of customers were not satisfied
Ratings & Reviews
Must have "accessory" for the brake controller. Made install a snap. YouTube video was very helpful in locating the vehicle's plug in.
I recieved this brake controller order on time. I installed it in my 2014 GMC Sierra in about 30 minutes. It work fantastic. I am extremely happy with my purchase from Etrailer.
This controller is fantastic. Works very well very precise easy to use need I say more.
And the Customer Service I got from etrailer was second to none
The controller arrived quicker than expected along with the wiring harness. Installation, with your instruction, was painless and simple.
I choose to use velcro to mount my accessories, and in the pictures you can see this is a simple fast method. Plus, I can always remove it easily if need be.
Great product, great support, great prices.
Steve
Made wiring of the spectrum brake controller super-simple. Just plug this end in here and that end in there. Quick youtube search told me where the "there" was on the truck was before I ordered it.
Easy installation for brake controller only Con was there were no instructions provided as to where on the fuse block to plug it in. Had to research website for info. Mirrors fit perfect and allow to see rear of 26 ft trailer for up coming traffic
The connector was part of a kit which included the trailer brake. Everything worked as advertised. Plug and play in my 2015 Silverado.
This is my first order with etrailer.com . The Curt Custom Wiring Adapter was as advertised and came on time as promised.
I had shopped around at All the big three auto parts places (except "NAD*) only to get the same answers: "You have to splice those things to mak'em work"....cost could be around $50-150 bucks" OR " We can't get the connectors from our company". This was not true.
Glad I found "etrailer.com . Thank You ALL. :)
The screws for the bracket did not fit into the plastic bushings in the bracket. I have got hooked this up to a trailer with brakes, yet, but everything else seems to work, including the adapter for my Silvy1500. Note that this review bears no negativity on etrailer, but he manufacturer of the brake controller. Stop letting China manufacture our goods and get better product reviews. I have had good experiences with etrailer.com, they always ship fast and deliver quality installation guides. Kudos to them!
The wire harness and just plug and play. The only thing I wish is for folks like me that live local I wish we could just stop in and get what we need instead of having to order and have it shipped.
This thing does everything you could ask a trailer brake controller to do. Easy to install, easy to adjust, and performs flawlessly. And it is priced right where it should be.
E-Trailer had exactly what I needed for my new model year vehicle that I couldn't find elsewhere. The product was accurately described and the installation manuals were available online which helped tremendously in making a purchasing decision. The order was placed on a Sunday and a shipping notification was received on the same day literally minutes after the order was placed. Item was received within 3 days...can't ask for better than that.
I have bookmarked this site for future business...very efficient.
After waiting for almost 1 month I finely received my order had too return one order that was not mine and had to wait until I got instructions on returning it. I have placed 3 different orders with etrailer but the last one was a mess, I don't known where you get the people that work in shipping but I think that a 4 year old could do a better job also when you have a complaint U wind up talking too four or five different persons and no one knows what you are talking about the only person that was of any help was Kim P thanks young lady
After talking at length (at least 15 minutes) to the rep on the phone, I choose the Curt TriFlex controller for my 2015 Silverado. It happens to be the same unit sold on Chevy's website (but cheaper on etrailor). The sales person was awesome! She wanted to be sure I got the right one, not trying to upsell me on something I didn't need. Just as she promised, it plugged right in under the dash and I even used an existing screw to mount the bracket. A 15minute install!!! I will shop here again.
Don't get much easier then this. The installation video was top notch , easy to follow and accurate. Thank you E-trailer
I love this product. I have had many tow vehicles over the years. Wiring a brake controller always took a little time. This plug in device makes the job simple.
It and etrailer both deserve 5 stars.
RB
Works great. Easy to follow online installation instructions for the wiring adapter - no problem!
Bob B.
9/2/2015
It works just fine, no problem at all.
Excellent product, made hooking up my brake controller super easy and fast.
Fast and easy ordering from etrailer good people to deal with.
Thanks
Ray
4/9/2019
PRODUCT WORKS PERFECTLY. JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED.
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.
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!
Quality product made my install simple and neat!
Works well on a older truck , the new proportional controllers didn’t seem to be very effective on a older brake system.
Nicely constructed cable but the end that mates with the GMC interface does not lock in place and will occassionally fall out cause the control to be inoperative. Have to stop the vehicle and get under the dash to plug back in. Very inconvenient. Not sure if the issue is with the cable or GMC's interface.
Greg Z.
3/13/2026
The plug on the interface end does not lock in place and easily falls out of the interface module if bumped. Otherwise works fine.
The pigtail was nice. But the brake controller was junk. Never could get it to work right. Got tired of messing with it so I gave it away and bought just a simple controller and it does what I need it to do. All the setting just made it more complicated than it should.
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Ray L.
5/29/2016
Great product great company!!!