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The Curt Venturer NEXT keeps your cab tidy and comfortable. At just 1" thick and 4" long, it mounts flush against the dash using the included bracket and hardware. There are no angle or placement restrictions, so you can position it wherever it’s easiest to reach. The low-profile build leaves plenty of knee room while keeping the controls right where you need them.
Installation couldn’t be easier thanks to the included custom-fit adapter. It plugs right into the factory port under the dash—no cutting or splicing wires. Once connected, the Venturer NEXT communicates directly with the trailer brakes through your vehicle’s existing tow wiring. It’s truly plug-and-play for a fast, clean install that looks right at home.
This controller uses time-delayed braking, which means you set exactly how much braking power and how fast it applies to match your trailer and load. Use the rocker switches to fine-tune both gain and load—gain sets the maximum power (for up to 3 axles or 6 brake assemblies), while load adjusts how quickly that full power comes on. Whether you’re towing light or heavy, you can dial in smooth, predictable braking every time.
The Venturer NEXT’s LED display shows your settings as a spectrum of bright bars that are easy to see at a glance. It also displays error messages for quick troubleshooting and automatically adjusts brightness for day or night driving. When you need manual control, a large pinch-trigger override is right at your fingertips for instant trailer braking without taking your eyes off the road.
Auto-sleep mode prevents battery drain when parked, while built-in self-diagnostics monitor trailer connection and check for shorts. It’s compatible with PWM, ABS, cruise control, and electric-over-hydraulic brake systems, ensuring dependable operation in a wide range of towing setups—all backed by a limited lifetime warranty.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi there. I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today we're gonna take a quick look at this CURT Venturer NEXT Trailer Brake Controller. Now, if you're not familiar, if you have electric trailer brakes on your trailer, you are going to need a brake controller in order to activate those brakes. Otherwise, they're not really doing anything for you. There are several different kinds of brake controllers out there, different features and that sorta thing.
This is really gonna be your more basic option. So it's not gonna have some of the more advanced features that allow you to control the intensity of your braking in the moment, but this is going to be enough to get your brakes functioning. So if you are just looking for the base model that's gonna do the job for you without having to pay a whole lotta money, this is gonna be a great way to go. This will work for your trailers that have up to three axles, so six brake assemblies. Basically the way this works, every time you apply the brakes in your vehicle, a signal is sent via your brake switch to the Venturer.
The controller is then gonna send that power out to your trailer brakes to activate them with an intensity that's preset by you. It does also have the predetermined rate, which is also set by you, and we'll get into what those two terms mean, but this is going to be a time delay system. So unlike some other brake controllers that are proportional, this is going to apply the brakes at the same intensity whether you're tapping on the brakes or slamming on the brakes in an emergency sorta situation, that your trailer's brakes are gonna apply at the same rate either way. Both the amount of your braking power, called the gain, and the rate of the application, which is called the load, can be adjusted to suit your preferences, the road conditions, the type of trailer you have, and the weight of your load. We've got the switches here that are going to allow you to very easily access that and adjust.
So we've got 10 different gain settings. You select a higher setting for your harder braking and a lower setting for your more gradual braking. You do wanna go as high as you can without your trailer's brakes locking up. That's a good indicator that you've gone a little too far, so you wanna come back down a little bit. Typically your gain is only gonna be readjusted when you're experiencing changing road conditions or if the weight of your trailer changes.
So if you've taken off your load, you might wanna adjust it so that it's not engaging as hard with that lighter empty trailer. This also provides nine different load settings, and that's gonna control the aggressiveness of your trailer's braking, meaning how quickly the brakes reach their maximum braking level. So you've got all that adjustability to preset it, but then once you apply the brakes, it's going to apply that same power and as quickly each time. So again, whether you're tapping on the brakes or you're slamming on them, the trailer's brakes are gonna apply that same amount of pressure. So unlike your proportional systems which will apply the trailer's brakes in proportion to how intense you're applying the tow vehicle's brakes, this is not gonna have that feature. It does have a very simple LED display that's gonna show the amount of power output. So you can adjust that in one-digit increments so that you can know where you're at, you know how much intensity you've got. The brightness is also adjustable, so you can view it optimally either. No matter if you're driving during the day or at night, you can adjust that brightness level. We also have the pinch trigger that's going to give you that manual override capability, so very easy to reach if your trailer begins to sway or if you're stopping in an emergency situation. You can activate your trailer's brakes and the brake lights without having to apply the brakes on your tow vehicle just by pushing in on that switch or that trigger there. This is gonna be very quick and easy to get installed. There really are no mounting restrictions. So with a proportional system, you have to have it mounted in a certain orientation for the internal components to sense the inertia. This, you don't have to worry about that. They've got this mounting bracket here with the included hardware that you can get mounted flat on your dash, and then it just kinda slips in place there, so basically flush with your dash. Very simple to get installed, and you don't have to worry about getting a certain orientation. You can mount it basically whichever way is gonna work best for your setup. You can see our width there. We're looking at approximately 3 1/8 of an inch wide. Our length, we're sitting at approximately four inches, and then our thickness, call it about an inch. So keep that in mind when determining where you're gonna mount this. Now, to get it wired in, it's gonna depend on your setup. If your vehicle is already equipped with a plug-in brake controller wiring harness, all you have to do is just connect the unit to it, so very simple there. If you don't have a built-in system, there are some plug-in vehicle-specific brake control wiring adapters available that are gonna help to reduce your installation time, and of course, that is gonna depend on your vehicle. So I'd recommend using our vehicle fit guide here at etrailer.com. You'll select your year, make and model of your vehicle. We'll let you know which products will work for you. So specifically for those vehicle-specific kinda products, that's more important, but if you do have one of those available, I'd highly recommend going with that. Otherwise, if you are just going to wire it in place, you are gonna need either the 20-amp circuit breaker if you have a two, three or four-brake application, so with two or four-brake application, or you'll need the 30-amp for a six-brake application. So depending on your setup, you'll need either one of those, and again, if you don't already have a seven-way plug at the back of your vehicle, I highly recommend our ETBC7 seven and four-way brake controller installation kit that you can see on the screen there. So that's gonna give you that plug at the back of your vehicle so that you can plug in your trailer's wiring and make sure everything is connected properly. This does come with a limited lifetime warranty. So if you we're to have any issues with it, you're more than welcome to reach out to us here at etrailer.com, but like I said, this is a very basic model. I think it's gonna get the job done for you. It's not gonna have a whole lot of bells and whistles and that sort of thing, but it is gonna help to apply those brakes on your trailer, and that completes our look for today. Again, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching.
Ratings & Reviews
Made installation a breeze. Truck already had factory 7 pin, this was literally plug and play! Cable was perfect length
George, the wiring harness only took 3 mins. to install and works great. I couldn't take a picture because it tucked away so well. Now I can pull my 21 ft camper over the Colorado mountain passes safely. Thank you and stay healthy and safe.
Appears to be the correct harness as the plugs match the brake unit and the splice in GM pig tail that came with the truck. Bought it to avoid cutting and splicing as well as avoiding voiding the brake unit warranty. Big Benefit also that I can unplug and move to another vehicle if needed Had the unit within 5 days including the week end, that's great customer service by etrailer
Fast delivery. Super easy installation. Super easy setup. I had my trailer hooked to my truck and was testing the new brake control in 30 mins after opening the box from the big brown truck.
This was well worth the money. No. cutting required it was fast and easy. Come to find out I had an universal type one that came with my truck but it would have required me to cut wires. But the universal one did have a fuse that is needed to have the trailer brakes work. So keep in mind you may need to buy one of those. I assume they are cheap but just another step in having it work!
This made installation of the brake controller a dream. Connect to controller and plug into the port for the truck, 2005 Chevy 1500 Silverado. No muss, no fuss. Total installation time was about 20 minutes.
Great way to get an electric brake controller wired into your vehicle. GM was real smart to put a plug receptacle in the electric box for the electric brakes for trailers. etrailer shipped my order right away and all the items ordered were in great shape. Will be buying from them again.
-Plug in and go--- Quick and easy installation. Works great. etrailer was great to deal with. I had a missing part in one of the boxes, due to careless shipping, and I E-mailed about the part and etrailer sent a new part right away. Thanks for great service.
First, let me say that I have never been disappointed with any of my transactions with etrailer. This holds true with my latest purchase of a Curtis brake controller and pigtail. This is my second because the first was fried when the trailer wiring shorted out. I received the controller in 3 days, which included a partial weekend. The pigtail make installation so simple. I literally had the old controller out and the new one in within 5 minutes. I will look at etrailer first for any of my trailering needs.
Second time I have ordered parts for towing my trailer. Product was a snap well 2 snaps to install and works perfectly. Allows me to move my brake controller between both my vehicles. Used customer service this time as well and was extremely satisfied. Staff was knowledgeable, kind, and friendly.
Plug and play for GM trucks, very easy to hook up to the brake controler. Watch the instalation videos to see what terminal it plugs into on the vehicle.
Made brake controller install ridiculously easy. Thanks Etrailer.com
Micheal M.
8/6/2021
Made the installation of brake controller super easy. Absolutely worth it. I wouldnt do it any other way after using this.
Given the fact that I only planned to tow my travel trailer one way up to the lake, I wanted an inexpensive brake controller. I looked online and in stores, and they were all over $100. When you added in the wiring. The controller I purchased from E-trailer only cost $49.99 including the wiring. I simply plugged it in, and after a short test tow, it works great. Took about 15 minutes to install. I'm very satisfied with my Curt brake controller. Got it in 3 days after ordering. Arrived fast, installed fast, and works great at a great price. What more can you ask? I'll be ordering from E-trailer in the future. Thank you.
Great price and prompt order processing. Controller mounting kit and harness made for a very easy install; about 20 minutes. Unit worked without any problems on a recent 300 mile trip with a horse trailer. Went over some fairly steep inclines in the Blue Ridge area of Virginia. Chose Curt Tri-flex controller over the more expensive brands because two of the three trailer dealers in the area carried those units as their default controller. The unit has all the braking functions without the fancy screens and interfaces. Found that I rarely looked at the controller display and the discrete black box worked for me.
Easy Install with the Harness I bought for it. Works great.
The adapter is as advertised, although I have an older brake controller that I had to do a small amount of wire splicing.
David
3/4/2023
Just fine.
Bought this trailer controller cable with a Curt Trailer Brake Controller. I dont know if it works or not. I installed this along with thr trailer brake controller at the same time. Nothing works. No lights power up on the controller. I highly respect Curt Products as I have many installed on my truck, but I'm disappointed with this combo purchase.
The Curt electric brake controller was the easiest installation I have ever had. I ordered the custom wiring adapter along with the brake controller; it all came with easy to follow instructions and it only took about 30 minutes to install the entire unit. I had done some checking around to get estimates from various companies which do the installations and their costs were around $300.00. The Curt unit including the adapter wiring was $**.00 and a very easy install. I used the brake controller during a recent camping trip on which I was pulling a 24 foot camp trailer. The controller worked great and I could easily control the trailer in some extreme mountainous terrains in Wyoming.
Pete D.
7/28/2017
Still works great after a year no problems at all.
Associate was very helpful email several options and price that l could choose Received order in timely manner was easy to install less than 10 minutes Will definitely use these guys again for towing needs
Pluged in perfect, absolutely recommend
I am using this for a test fixture. I have found it to be easy to use and having a reliable ramp rate for EOH brake actuation.
I replaced my previous Curt venturer with the new one and it was easy. Just plug it in. Used it this weekend and did great with easily adjustable trailer brakes
Milt
It was easy to install. Just plug in and ot works. Fast shipping.
You guys were very helpful and I'm having the tow hitch and wiring installed with AP Automotive.
Fit my 2005 2500 4x4 6.0 Chevy Silverado and triflex next controller and worked perfectly.
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Bill B.
6/9/2015
Im still using the above items and have had no problems with them. Thanks.