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Bulky brake boxes can get in the way, but this controller stays out of your path. It’s only 1" thick and mounts flush against the dash with the included bracket and hardware. You can install it anywhere at any angle, so it fits neatly into tight cab spaces without interfering with your knees or other controls.
The time-delayed design activates your trailer brakes at a preset intensity. You set the gain for how much braking power you want and fine-tune the load to control how quickly the brakes reach full strength. Once dialed in, it delivers predictable braking that you can tailor for different trailer weights or road conditions.
The LED screen shows your current settings with easy-to-read bar indicators so you can check power levels without taking your eyes off the road. It also displays error codes for quick troubleshooting and automatically adjusts brightness for day or night driving.
Because it’s not inertia-based, there are no mounting angle restrictions. The internal self-diagnostics monitor trailer connection, watch for shorts, and trigger alerts through the LED display if something’s off. An auto-sleep mode keeps it from draining your battery when parked.
The included custom-fit harness plugs right into the factory connector under your dash—no splicing or complicated wiring needed. Once connected, you’re ready to control up to 3 axles (6 brake assemblies), including electric or electric-over-hydraulic systems compatible with PWM, ABS, and cruise control.
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
Great website, easy order, arrived a day ahead of schedule. I recommend this site .
Haven't installed yet since I do not have a level surface to calibrate the Curt 51140 brake controller. Travel Trailer currently resting on Jack Stands while in process of doing some restoration work.
Delivery was as expected. Ordered on Sunday and received on Thursday.
I have downloaded and printed PDF instructions (Printed in "Fit to page" for larger print) that will be added to my Owners Manual.
Regarding price; I looked a several RV parts shops and Auto Parts stores both on line and walk-in stores. eTrailer had the best price and the accessories I needed for the installations. The free shipping for orders over $99.00 helped make my decision to place my order. I will revisit the review page when I have everything installed and working.
Thanks eTrailer,
Gerard
Excellent controller for my needs...fast shipping and a great price too! I read up on Progressive vs. Time Delay controllers; and for my needs I felt this Curt controller would be just fine. I just finished installing and adjusting the controller this morning.
We recently bought a '99 Coleman Westlake Pop-up that weighs about 2,400 lbs. dry (much less than my brake-less boat trailer) and wanted to take advantage of the brakes that came on the camper for when we travel in the SC & NC mountains camping. On level ground I have found the controller to be very responsive and easy to adjust. I am sure having working brakes in the mountains will be nice! As others have said, finding just the right place to mount the controller was the most difficult part. The "plug & play" adapter/harness was more than long enough to complete the installation. Oh, did I mention fast shipping too! I am another very satisfied etrailer.com Customer!
I was sent the incorrect "direct plug in" harness originally but after contacting etrailer they sent out the correct one. Everything works perfectly now.
The small rubber pieces that hold the brake controller to the mounting bracket instantly fell off and rolled away, not the best design. Other than that it is small and compact and works great!
This was my fourth order from etrailer and, as were the earlier ones, was delivered quickly. The instructions were clear and easy to follow and it took me only about 15 minutes to install the Curt Venturer Trailer Brake Controller with the wiring adapter for my 2012 Tundra. The white ground wire did not have to be grounded separately as it connects to a white ground wire in the adapter. I used Velcro on top of the controller and beneath the panel instead of the included bracket and can easily make adjustments without removing it. Adjusting the slides on top and the left side of the controller to get the desired braking action and a test drive to verify took another ten minutes. Great product.
Item worked great. It was able to connect with the Trailer Brake Controller and straight to my wiring harness in my truck. I couldn't have asked for a better installation! Thanks etrailer.com!!!
Easy Install with the Harness I bought for it. Works great.
Mating harness is perfect. Well made, quality connectors, proper length, time saver, priced right, a no brainer. Buy it!!!!!
This wiring adapter fit perfect between the Curt Adventurer brake controller and the pigtail harness in my '06 Tundra. Remove the truck's driver side kick panel, cut the truck connector loose from where it was secured, and plug this adapter into both the truck and the brake controller. Plug and play.
Custom cable made my brake controller installation a simple project. Fit perfectly and took all stress out of the job. I would buy again without hesitation.
Jim W.
5/27/2022
Yup, still working as supposed to. No complaints. Well worth the money.
plug in to factory harness without cutting orvsplicing. saved a couple hours working under dash. worth the cost. unfortunatelt harness adapter, brake controller or some other fault is causing random trailer brake lock-up without applying vehicle brakes at highway speeds, a scary event. unable to troubleshoot as winter snow then heart health issue continue to prevent me from moving trailer to troubleshoot.
I’ve owned 5 brake controllers. This is the only one I’ve disliked. This controller has non digital controls (should have been my first clue it might not be good) it just has two slide controls. Problem is two things, the slide controls themselves are black, the same color as the case on the unit and you can’t even see the position of the slide controls because they blend in with the color of the case. It’s impossible to tell if they’re turned down all the way, turned up all the way, in the middle? The other problem is that the slides are so imprecise, They slide way too easily and there’s no detents and I found if you even bump the unit slightly or are going over rough roads the slide switches migrate. I was towing a couple of weeks ago and I thought I had the switches dialed in as good as I could, I was on some rough roads, due to road construction in the area, the output switch vibrated over to maximum and the next time I hit the brakes , the trailer locked up completely. So I had to turn it off until I could get to the next town where there was a parking lot I could readjust. I’m definitely getting rid of this thing and I definitely recommend you do not buy it. Buy something with digital output controls so you know precisely where the settings are. I firmly believe this controller is dangerous and I know if I keep using it I’m going to get an accident.
Etrailers catalogue provided a complete & accurate description of the 8 items purchased. Placing the order by phone was fast & efficient. Items arrived within 4 working days, no tax no shipping charge. Professional all around.
Pat M.
11/21/2017
The EOH braking system works perfectly. You are my supplier of choice if when I need additional trailer parts on the future.
I installed the Curt TriFlex Brake Controller C51140 along with Wiring Adapter C51362 on my 2012 Tundra. Was super easy. Thanks for video.
Andrew
5/15/2018
Perfect. No issues at all.
The adapter for connecting the trailer brake controller arrived earlier than scheduled. It enabled a quick and easy plug and play connection of the controller to the vehicle.
John
6/21/2020
Worked perfectly - plug and play
Teconsha P3 is an excellent brake controller.
Even better was the customer service from etrailer....I had an issue with another model, called etrailer, and they made it right. No questions asked. Will definitely shop with them again. Thanks, etrailer! -wade
Wade V.
8/5/2016
Love the Tekonsha. Will not buy another Curt. Thanks for asking. And e-trailer was great, especially dealing with the dysfunctional Curt. Thanks.
Well that was the easiest thing I've ever done on a vehicle. The info on the etrailer site was instrumental in this being a quick plug-n-play mount of the Curt brake controller. I watched the two minute video and 10 minutes later I had a new brake controller installed in my 2010 Tundra.
Ed D.
1/19/2016
One year later and the install looks good and the Curt brake controller works as advertised, Im happy!
Fit perfectly on my 2023 Toyota 4Runner
Installed on 2011 Toyota Sequoia - Plug and play as advertised.
Yes I received my order and installed the brake controller. All seems to be
fine, although I have yet to tow with it yet. Here are a couple photos of
the installation in my 2010 Toyota Tundra.
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.
Using the Curt wiring adapter, installing the Curt TriFlex brake control in my 2006 Toyota Tundra was simple after watching your video. Very pleased with everything I ordered from e trailer.
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.
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Richard S.
9/27/2018
Great. This controller is very consistent in applying dependable braking while towing our travel trailer. After dozens of trips and thousands of miles the unit continues to do the job. Very satisfied.