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Some brake controllers get in the way of your knees or dash controls. The Venturer NEXT fixes that with a slim housing just 1" thick. The included bracket lets you mount it flush under the dash or anywhere at any angle, so it stays out of sight but easy to reach. Since it doesn’t rely on inertia sensors, you have total freedom on placement without worrying about calibration.
Wiring can be the toughest part of an install, but this one skips the hassle. The custom harness plugs right into your vehicle’s factory port and then directly into the Venturer NEXT—no splicing or extra connectors needed. Once it’s in place, you’re ready to tow with full trailer brake control in minutes.
The Venturer NEXT uses time-delayed braking so you can tailor how quickly and how strongly your trailer brakes engage. Rocker switches let you fine-tune both gain—the maximum braking power—and load—how fast that power ramps up. Once dialed in, braking feels predictable whether the trailer is empty or loaded heavy.
A bright LED bar display shows your settings and any error messages so you always know what’s happening. It automatically adjusts brightness and even has a night mode to cut glare after dark. You can check your gain level and connection status without taking your eyes off the road for long.
Designed for trailers with up to 3 axles (6 brake assemblies), this controller handles both electric and electric-over-hydraulic brakes with steady performance. Built-in self-diagnostics watch for shorts or connection issues, while auto-sleep mode keeps it from draining your battery when parked.
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.
Customer Satisfaction Score:
95% were satisfied with this product
5% of customers were not satisfied
Ratings & Reviews
the black side went into curt triflex excellently. the white side was supposed to be wired for my nissan, just clip in & done. but the wires were not the same and in the wrong sockets of the clip. my electrical man is currently working this out. HOPEFULLY.
etrailers out did my expectations. I ordered a trailer brake controller and pigtail one day, and they were at my doorstep the very next day. Boy, talk about fast. My rig works great , easy as pie setup, good price ( and I did look around), no problems at all. You guys are great. I will be buying from etrailer.com again for any of my trailer and accessories. Great job guys and girls.
Truly plug and go, except at the back of the truck when the trailer plug harness plugged in, the brake wire and power wire were crossed. Research explained that Nissan Frontier's are known for the unconventional switch with aftermarket wiring. I simply cut, switched, soldered. All good now.
The trailer light kit I got was very easy to install with the helpful video and instruction etrailer has. etrailer made it very easy to select the correct trailer accessories for my Frontier. They were helpful when I called and the website is very easy to use! I have made other purchases through etrailer because it is easy to use and they have what I needed all in one place. Thanks!
Ordered gooseneck hitch, wiring harness and break controller for my truck. Perfect fit , easy connections best purchase ever made on internet. Very good price and great customer service! ??
Works perfectly
I ordered this wiring harness because it said it would work with my 2004 Nissan
Titan. It does not. The plug on one end of the harness matches none of the plugs on the truck wiring.
Easy Install with the Harness I bought for it. Works great.
So much easier than cutting wires and crimping butt splices. Plus it make un-installation easier and doesn't void the warranty for the brake controller. the time saved was worth the money for me.
Bri
6/7/2017
One year later and unlike my guitar hero drum kit the insulation on the wires has not cracked and fallen off yet. Plus its nice to be able to unplug the unit from the car.
Slim and compact. The slide on clip holder is much better than the u bracket.
As always, the etrailer staff came through with the right part for my Nissan.
Product is perfect! Kaitlyn made sure I hade everything for my truck that it was the correct part and kept me posted until my item arrived!! Will always come back here for parts!!
Easiest way to connect to factory wiring harnesses. Timesaver
Eric
8/27/2025
Still in service after a year. Works perfect and easy to install.
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've had the brake controller in use for over a year in my 2012 Nissan Frontier. The install was easy and took about an hour. My truck is a 2WD model so I mounted the controller in the plug that is used to select between 2WD and 4WD on vehicles equipped with 4WD. So the install look like factory.
I installed the Curt C51110 controller with the Plug & Play C51382 into my 2016 Frontier, works perfectly.
Kenny
9/6/2017
ITS BEEN A YEAR SINCE INSTALLATION, ITS BEEN IN THE SAME LOCATION, HAVENT HAD ANY PROBLEMS! GREAT PRODUCT, GREAT PRICE!
Works great. Does what I wanted it too do.
It's perfect. Just plug and play as adv ertised.
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
Excellent brake controller. The plug & play is super easy. I had this installed in less than 30 mins on my 2026 Nissan Pathfinder rockcreek
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.
Hard to tell. For my 2018 Armada the power input and output was not reaching the controller properly. I took it to a shop that installs Curt products. They added a diode to one of the wires. They told me some vehicles need it some don’t. When the controller was in my Ram, it didn’t. After hours of diagnosis, they strongly believe my vehicle has a wiring problem. In the end I ended up getting the Curt Echo which works. A lot cheaper than going to the dealer to figure out wiring issues.
Just installed a Kurt brake controller which I purchased from Etrailer last year. Having a newer vehicle I needed a different harness which made the install easy.
2026 Nissan Frontier S 4x4
The thin design makes it easy to mount just about anywhere with no chance of hitting it with your knees. It is a true plug and play unit, took me about ten minutes to install once I decided on the location. I definitely recommend this control for your Nissan Frontier.
Do you have a question about this Trailer Brake Controller?
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Laura E.
11/8/2017
Thanks for pointing this out, Russell. The factory brake controller plug on some vehicles primarily XE models do not have the 4 pins to match up with the adapter plug. The factory plug will need to be hardwired onto the brake controller adapter that was purchased.