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Cabs are crowded enough without a big controller box hitting your knee. The Venturer NEXT keeps things slim at only 1" thick and mounts flush to the dash with the included bracket. You can install it at any angle, anywhere that’s easy to reach. The under-dash design stays out of sight but close at hand, giving you plenty of legroom and a clean look once it’s in place.
You decide how your trailer brakes come on instead of leaving it up to inertia sensors. The time-delayed system lets you set both gain and load—gain for total braking power and load for how fast that power ramps up. Dial the settings in for your trailer weight, road conditions, or load so your stops feel right every time, whether light or heavy.
The LED display keeps it simple with bar indicators that show your settings and error codes so you can troubleshoot quickly. It even adjusts brightness automatically or stays dim in night mode to avoid glare on the dash. You always know what the controller’s doing without losing focus on the road.
Whether you’re towing a small utility trailer or something heavier, the Venturer NEXT supports up to 3 axles—6 brake assemblies total. It works with both electric and electric-over-hydraulic trailer brakes and stays compatible with low-volt, PWM, ABS, and cruise control systems. That kind of flexibility means you can count on it across different trailer types.
Forget cutting or splicing wires. The included custom harness connects straight into your vehicle’s factory brake control port under the dash near the emergency brake pedal. Once plugged in, attach the controller, secure it flush against the dash, and you’re done. It’s an easy DIY setup that looks like it came installed from the factory.
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:
97% were satisfied with this product
3% of customers were not satisfied
Ratings & Reviews
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.
This break controller was easy to install and
Works grat.
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..
My husband installed easily. Makes towing our camper much easier.
Installed but not used with a trailer yet, easy instruction and appreciate the extra hardware for the installation.
Compact and not intrusive. Decided to use the adhesive tape included and taped under the dashboard L of the steering wheel.
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.
Easy Install with the Harness I bought for it. Works great.
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.
Nice compact size works great !
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.
Excellent product, fast installation.
Works awesome.
Thank you and I would recommend
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.
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.
Info for this part was:
At etrailer we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time.
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.