This compact brake controller fits nicely in your cab. You can mount it anywhere you like and it's only 1" thick. The LED display is large and bright so it's easy to see, while the large manual override is easy to reach in a pinch.
Features:
Specs:
Gain is the maximum amount of power that will be applied to your trailer's brakes. How much braking output you need is determined by the weight of your trailer; a heavier trailer will need more power to bring it to a stop. You want to go as high as you can without the trailer brakes locking up. Use the orange rocker switch to adjust the gain on a scale of 0.5 to 9.9 in increments of 0.5.
Once you have the gain set, you can fine-tune your braking by adjusting the load control on a scale of 1 to 9 using the black rocker switch. This controls the aggressiveness of your trailer's braking, meaning how quickly the brakes reach the maximum braking level. If your vehicle takes too long to come to a stop, increase the setting. If it stops too abruptly, decrease the setting.
The LED display on the Discovery is large and easy to read at a glance. You can adjust the brightness or trigger night mode so it won't glare obnoxiously on your dash. It also will give you clear error messages you can use to troubleshoot.
Because inertia plays no role in the functioning of this controller, your mounting options are limitless, so long as you can still easily access the manual override. The included bracket is designed to mount the brake controller flush to the dash so it takes up almost no space at all.
The included custom-fit adapter plugs into the port on your vehicle's built-in brake control wiring harness, which you'll find underneath the dash, to the left of the steering column, taped to another harness near the emergency brake pedal. Once you're plugged into your factory port, just plug the other end of the adapter into the Discovery. Because there are no wires to connect, installation is not permanent. You can unplug and remove the controller at any time to transfer it to another vehicle or securely stow it away.
Note: If you don't already have a 7-way plug at the back of your vehicle, take a look at our exclusive 7- and 4-way brake control installation kit (ETBC7 - sold separately).
Time-delayed braking means that when you apply the brakes in your vehicle, the controller activates the trailer brakes at a pre-set intensity and rate. Both the amount of braking power (gain) and rate of application (load) can be adjusted to suit your preference, the road conditions, the type of trailer, and the weight of your load. To determine which levels are best for your application, test your towing setup and choose what feels right.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, everyone, Aidan here with etrailer. Today, we're gonna be taking a look at the Curt Discovery NEXT Brake Controller. This is gonna be a time-delayed brake controller. Let's check it out. When it comes to brake controllers, there's gonna be two options you're probably looking at, time-delayed and proportional. Proportional is gonna be the nicer of the two where if you lightly press your brakes, the brakes in your trailer are also going to be lightly applied.
If you slam on the brakes, the brakes in your trailer are also going to match that proportionally. With a time-delayed brake controller, it's gonna be applied at the same rate every time, so you don't get that fine adjustment. You can still adjust the settings, but it's gonna be the same every time. So if we're rolling up to a stop sign, coming to a very slow and predictable stop, and our gain and sensitivity are set kinda high, it's gonna be applying the brakes pretty hard. Same for if we have those set kind of low and we slam on our brakes on the highway, because someone in front of us stopped, the brakes aren't gonna be applied in a similar fashion.
There is the manual override you can always pinch to apply, but that's just something to know with a time-delayed system like this. Let's talk about those controls. The manual override is a pinch style where I'm pressing the button with my thumb. It's pretty easy to reach from the driver's seat where I've got it all set up. So whenever I'm driving, I feel like if I needed to suddenly reach down and get it, I can find that pretty easily every time, and index my thumb well enough to get a good press.
So good to know for emergency situations where you might need that. Now, there's gonna be two sets of controls here for the gain and the load. The orange buttons are going to adjust our gain or our brake power. You can go anywhere from 0.5 up to 9.9, and this is going to signify the different power levels. So 0.5 is the weakest, and as I go up, it's going to get more and more powerful.
So if I have a heavier trailer that needs more stopping power, I'd set it higher. The next one is going to be our load. This is basically how quickly the brakes are applied, so that can go from 1 to 9. At 1, it's going to be the lowest, and at 9, it's going to be the fastest or the quickest application. So basically, ramping from zero to fully applied where we have that gain set. So for demonstration, I'm just going to put the gain all the way up to max, and I'm gonna hit the brakes. And you'll see, slowly, it'll climb up to where we set it. And if I turn that load down all the way to 1, it's going to climb much slower to that designated power level. So you can fine tune this to your own trailer application, and depending on how heavy of a trailer you have and how good the brakes are, that will determine what you want those set at. But generally, that gain is going to be for the weight of the the trailer, and you can kinda determine the load from there. Now, to give a visual indicator of that gain, we've got our vehicle hooked up to a trailer simulator box. I've got the gain set to the absolute lowest it goes, so that's gonna be the lowest brake power, and you can see where the voltage is reading right now. If I turn the gain up to 5, that's gonna be right in the middle, you'll see that voltage will climb up higher. And then if I turn it up to the max, 9.9, you'll see that climb up even higher. So this is just to give you some visual indication of that different power level of the braking. This is designed to work with trailers up to four axles and will work with PWM, ABS, cruise controller, and electric-over-hydraulic brakes. So keep that in mind as you're picking this out if it's gonna work with your trailer. Up to four axles, I'd say for the most part, you're gonna be totally fine. If you don't need one that can go up to four axles and you like this style, Curt does make a similar version that's up to three axles. So that's something to keep in mind too if you don't need this much. Now, the big advantage to something like this, and something you probably noticed if you're familiar with brake controllers already, is going to be the size. It's a lot smaller and a lot more shallow than the brake controller we pulled out of this 4Runner today. And that's great, because even though it's mounted externally, it's not going to be in the way of your knees as you're getting in and out of the vehicle. And as I'm in a normal driving position, I've got plenty of distance between it and my leg. I don't feel like I'm gonna be hitting it all the time, 'cause it doesn't stick out very far. That's thanks to the very low profile bracket. We've got it mounted up with the included double-sided adhesive, but you can also use the included self-tapping screws. Just know that they're pretty long, and you're gonna have to have clearance behind there. But this will just click into place over that bracket. (bracket clicking) You can hear that snap in, and that's what holds it in. One thing to note is that because it's not inertia based, you can mount this really wherever it fits best, so it doesn't necessarily need to be level or facing any certain direction. Now, the installation can vary depending on your vehicle. I'd say check for what your vehicle has in terms of pigtail adapters. That's what we we're able to do with this option from Curt. We offer this pigtail adapter on our site here at etrailer, and that allows us to just plug directly into the vehicle's prep package for this. So just check to see if your vehicle can do that, because that's definitely going to be the easiest option as far as installation goes, 'cause it just plugs right in and all you have to worry about is mounting up that bracket, and then tucking up that wire loom from the adapter. Something else to note is that that LED readout does have a number of different functions. You can adjust the brightness, there's a day and night mode, but it's also gonna give us readouts for different errors. So if something's maybe not fully connected or something, it will tell us here. Your instructions give you a full list of all the different errors that can occur and short descriptions of what they are. But because its screen gives full text readouts, it's pretty easy to tell what's going on based on what it's showing. Like for example, when we first hooked this up to our simulator box, we didn't have the 7-way plugged in all the way, and it told us it wasn't connected. So we went back there, pushed the plug in the rest of the way, and then it worked properly. So that's going to help with just troubleshooting anything that may be occurring in your setup. For me, I think this is a nice middle ground between having the controls, easy to access, and having that LED readout, so you can see those errors and the power, and just have a little bit more control over it while still staying out of the way and being flushed to the dash. But that was just our look at the Curt Discovery NEXT Brake Controller. Thanks for watching.
The Curt Custom Wiring Adapter for the 2017 Honda Ridgeline worked perfectly for the installation of my new Curt Spectrum Trailer Brake Controller. Thanks etrailer!Thanks Curt!
Took about 10 minutes to install. Have not made all the adjustments yet, but is easy to understand.
Installed the Curt Triflex in 2018 Honda Ridgeline RTL-E and was completely easy with the C51392 Honda specific wiring adapter that plugged into the Honda pre-wiring just above and left of the emergency foot brake as you look at the pedals. Like how the controller fits nicely in front of the shifter flat on the center console storage tray with a bit of Velcro to hold it and prevent movement in transit and matches the black interior trim well (didn't use the metal bracket that came with it). Have had great luck with Curt products (hitches, adapters, etc.) and this product is very well thought out. Too early to tell about long term use though.
Just finished the install. It was nice to be assured that I had everything I needed to finish the job before I got started. Honda didn't make it easy.
Tested . Work fine and advertised
This part is listed to fit a 2019 Honda Pilot. I needed one for a 2019 Honda Passport;(basically the same vehicle); however since the Passports just came out in about February no one could tell me if it would work on the Passport. So I took a gamble and ordered this wire. Well I can confirm that this part does work on the 2019 Honda Passport. The hardest part was reaching the plug under the dash and getting this wire to plug into it, all without any room and only being able to get one hand up under dash. Wire made hooking up brake controller a lot easier than direct wiring.
This fit my 2019 Honda Pilot perfect. Plugged right in under the dash. The plug branches out of another wiring harness directly above your OBD plug in. On the left side of dash. You will have to lay down and get your head near the pedals to see it tucked up in there. Very easy install, glad I went with etrailer. Made it simple.
excellent service and delivery.
Have an installed it yet but it looks good thanks for the thanks for the fair shipping
Worked great I installed my brake controller in new truck in no time. On line instructions were great workout perfect.
Everything about the buying experience has been great! I was impressed with the email communication and the actual phone call to let me know that my ordered had been shipped out. I will be using the etrailer.com website again to make purchases for my trailer and camper accessories! Thanks!
Like its compact size and simple operat ion.
Very helpful, knowledgeable and friendl y!
Delivered faster than advertised. Took me much, much longer to FIND the Ridgelines connector. Once I going that, it took about 25 minutes to put on and secure the wires
Great no problem
Thanks for the video. Worked great
This is a great product. It took about 10 minutes to install with the well illustrated instructions showing exactly what needed to be done. Plug and play and on the road!
Thanks to Adam for assisting in an overnight delivery and ev”also sending an email when it delivered next day so I knew immediately.
The adaptor cable fit perfectly into my Honda Pilot and I had no issues with it what so ever. Great technical help is also available from etrailer. I've purchased from them before and they always do a great job.
excellent connector. Just the right le ngth
Purchased this controller for limited use.
Really like the vehicle specific plug adaptor that came with it. Makes for a quick clean install.
Clean compact design and easy to use.
Fast shipping simple to install on my ridgeline and pilot exact fit with the pig tail
I was surprised - completely plug and play! Easy to install
I haven't installed it yet, but the transaction was easy and received product right away.
Perfect adapter so you don’t have to splice into your wiring
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