Curt TriFlex NEXT Trailer Brake Controller w/ Custom Harness - 1 to 4 Axles - Proportional
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2009 Mini Cooper
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2009 Mini Cooper
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Big, boxy controllers can crowd your knees or throw off the look of your interior. The TriFlex NEXT fixes that with a slim profile—just 1" thick—that mounts flush to the dash using the included bracket and hardware. It tucks neatly out of the way but stays within easy reach for quick manual override or adjustments, giving you a clean, factory-style finish.
The TriFlex NEXT matches your trailer’s braking force to how hard you’re pressing your own brake pedal. Inside, a 3-axis accelerometer senses deceleration and sends proportional power so your trailer slows evenly with your vehicle. The result is uniform braking across your setup—no push-pull or jerky stops—and less wear on both sets of brakes. It supports up to 4 axles (8 brake assemblies) and works with electric trailer brakes.
Fine-tuning your brake feel is straightforward. Use the gray rocker switch to adjust gain from 0.5 to 9.9 in 0.5 increments, setting how much total braking power goes to the trailer. Then dial in load control from 1 to 9 with the black rocker switch to choose how quickly that power ramps up. Together they let you get your braking just right—firm when you need it, gentle when you don’t.
The LED display keeps you informed without distraction. It shows braking power, sensitivity settings, and error codes in clear text that’s easy to read at a glance. You can dim it or switch to night mode so it never glares on dark drives. Built-in diagnostics run continuously, alerting you if there’s ever an issue so you can make quick corrections before hitting the road again.
Installing the TriFlex NEXT doesn’t require cutting or splicing wires. The included custom-fit harness plugs into your vehicle’s factory brake control port under the dash, then straight into the controller for a true plug-and-play connection. Automatic leveling lets you mount it at nearly any angle while keeping full performance. Once it’s connected, it’s ready to go—no calibration steps needed beyond plugging it in.
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 Triflex Next Trailer Brake Controller. So if you have electric brakes or electric over hydraulic brakes, you're probably already aware that without a brake controller your trailer's brakes won't activate. So they're really not doing you any good. So you are gonna need to have a brake controller. Basically what a brake controller does is when you apply the brakes in your tow vehicle it's gonna send a signal through your brake switch to your brake controller.
The brake controller is then going to send an electrical signal out to your trailer's brakes so that they apply and help to slow down your trailer. There are several different kinds of brake controllers. There's different basic technologies and that sort of thing. Really your two main categories are you have a time delayed set up or you have a proportional setup. So with your time delay, essentially you set how much power you want applied to your brakes and then no matter if you're just tapping your brakes or really slamming on them in an emergency sort of situation, it's going to apply that same preset power each time.
So there are some downsides to that. It doesn't give you as much control. It can be a little aggressive sometimes when you don't need it to be. But then with your proportional setup it is going to apply your trailer's brakes with the same intensity as your tow vehicle's brakes. So if you're just lightly tapping on the brakes it's just going to lightly apply your trailer's brakes.
So proportional systems like this one are definitely my preference. I think they're a little bit more, give a little bit more finesse to your performance. There are some downsides to these. Typically, they are gonna be a little bit more expensive then your time delayed systems just because they do have more components to them. They've got an accelerometer in there that's going to sense the inertia of your movement so that it can apply the brakes proportionally for you.
And then another downside is typically because it does have that inertia sensor in there, or an accelerometer, it's going to have to be mounted in certain configurations to follow your direction of travel. And that's one benefit to this particular model is that it doesn't have to be mounted in any particular configuration. So you can basically mount it wherever you want. So definitely a benefit to this one over even other proportional systems. So for this model specifically, it does have the LED display that's going to show the amount of power output. You can adjust that with your rocker switches here. So very easy to access those. That's going to allow you to adjust between 10 different gain settings. So you can adjust the amount of braking power to suit your performance, the road conditions, the type of trailer you're towing, and the weight of your load. If you select a higher setting for a harder braking and a lower setting for more gradual braking, you do wanna make sure when you're getting that set up a good rule of thumb is to go just shy of where your trailer's brakes lock up. So test it out a few times. As you're going down the road you don't want your trailer's brakes to lock up. So get to that point and then come down just a little bit to get that fine tune where you need it to be. And then typically your gain is only gonna have to be readjusted when you're experiencing changing road conditions or if the weight of your trailer changes. So if you drop off your trailer load and you're needing to you probably need to adjust that gain there. It also gives you nine different load settings so that you can adjust how quickly the brakes will reach their maximum braking level. So if your vehicle takes too long to come to a stop, good idea to increase your setting by pressing the upper rocker switch. And then if it's stopping too abruptly you can decrease the settings as well. So you kind of fine tune it to your preference. We also have the pinch trigger manual override here. So that's within very easy reach, very simple to operate. What that's gonna do is allow you to apply your trailer's brakes without having to apply the brakes in your tow vehicle. So say for instance, if your trailer starts swaying you don't really need to slow down your whole setup you just need to apply the brakes in your trailer to kind of bring that back in line. So you can just push in on that trigger switch there and that will apply your brakes in your trailer without having to apply the brakes in your tow vehicle. This does have several different integrated safeguards to help protect your vehicle, the trailer, and the controller itself. It's going to run continuous diagnostic checks to alert you to any potential problems. It will help to minimize drain on your car battery by entering sleep mode. After about five minutes of inactivity it's gonna help keep your trailer's brakes from overheating by reducing power output when you're sitting for prolonged periods or prolonged stops. So if you're in traffic or something like that it's gonna help decrease the power so your brakes don't overheat. It's also going to defend the brake controller and trailer brake away system against any shorts and prevent positive and negative power reversal with its built-in polarity protection. This is gonna be very quick and easy to get installed. Again because you're not having to worry about the orientation, you can basically just get it mounted wherever it's gonna be most convenient for you to reach and access those controls. They've got this mounting bracket here. As you can see we'll just use the included hardware to get this mounted in place. And then basically our controller just slides onto that so it can be mounted flush with your dash. So very convenient to get that mounted. When you're considering where you can mount this, give you a few measurements here. You can see it is right about three we'll call it three and one eighth of an inch wide. Our length, we're right about four inches long. And our height approximately one inch overall. So keep that in mind and when you're deciding where you can get this mounted. Now as far as wiring goes, that's gonna completely depend on your setup. So there are some vehicles that already have a plug pre-installed from the factory that will allow you to just plug this right in there. If you don't have that on your vehicle, there are some kits available that will allow you to make that installation process pretty simple. But they are very vehicle specific. So I'd encourage you to use 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 are confirmed to fit with your vehicle. So that's another route to go. If your vehicle isn't already pre-wired with a plug then I would recommend that. Otherwise, it is gonna take a little bit of doing to get this installed. If you don't already have a seven way plug at the back of your vehicle, I would highly recommend using our ETBC seven plug that's gonna provide wiring and everything to get you set up so that you've got that connection so that your trailer can connect to your vehicle. But overall, a really great option here. Like I said, I really like the proportional system. The way this is going to allow your trailer's brakes to be applied at the same intensity as your tow vehicle. I like that this model gives you that option to have more versatility and where you get it mounted. And so overall, I think this is gonna be a great way to go if you are needing a brake controller for your trailer's brakes. And that completes our look for today. Again, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching.
Customer Satisfaction Score:
96% were satisfied with this product
4% of customers were not satisfied
Ratings & Reviews
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.
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.
Very easy to install. Instructions were very clear products worked as intended very satisfied.
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
All the information I needed was on your site. Got the correct adapter cable and was able to just plug in the controller.
I’ve use the electric brake system several times over the last year. I was impressed at how easy it was to use, and how much safer it was when braking. It was easy to install and worked great
Installed on 2011 Toyota Sequoia - Plug and play as advertised.
I’ve used Curt before and always will. Best on the market in my opinion. This one is best I’ve used.
Easy to install, had no glitches. Replace an older brake controller.
Works great, super easy installation.
Works great! Easy to install, easy to use…pretty much everything I was hoping it would be when I made the purchase. This has been a solid choice for me and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something similar.
Wow , easiest thing I've ever done plug and play and works automatically love it , and great price
This unit took less than 10 minutes to install and works flawlessly with my Grand Cherokee while pulling a Travel Trailer. Plus its low profile design made it easy to install by the hood release so I don't have a big box and display on top of my dashboard. Great product at the right price. Highly recommend this brake controller and etrailer.
Works well. The connector I got from e trailer which fits other older model Audi’s wasn’t listed to fit the 2024 Audi but fit perfectly. The Curt Triflex is an easy to use brake controller. Highly recommend!
Arrived as planed and was much smaller then my old clunky one. The custom cable harness was easy to install. Finding a flat spot to mount the controller took the longest to find the perfect spot. I gave a five stars because every was as it said. (Plug and play)
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.
Great brake controller for the price. Easy to install with the video. Customer service was very prompt and kind.
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.
Took a while to figure it out. Have a 2003 Dodge van. Had to tow in package but didn’t have any wiring factory installed other than for the seven way. Paul it was great identifying what I need and sending it to me. Thank you very much.
This is a new model of the Curt TriFlex brake controller. As a replacement for the previous unit, it was nice to be able to install it without rewiring. The new model has a more modern style digital display that is easier to read and less annoying. The button controls are a bit less obvious than the previous model, so it takes a little effort to figure out how to adjust the system. Overall, I think it's a better unit that the previous models.
3 minute installation in my driveway and the controller was super easy to get setup and adjusted for my trailer. Shipping was lightning fast
Just got it installed in my 2009 toyota tacoma. It literally took 15 minutes. Very compact has plenty of cable between the plug and play connector and the controller cables to mount anywhere under the driver side dash. Haven't towed with it yet so thats the reason for the 4 star rating.
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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.