Mount the control knob of this proportional brake controller on your dash for a factory look, and install the main unit out of sight. The Elite's unique user-controlled mode gives you direct control of your braking for any weather or terrain.
Features:
Specs:
The dash-mounted knob puts control of your trailer's brakes at your fingertips. In addition to offering fast, simple power adjustment and an easily accessible manual override, it has colored LED signals that let you know what the brake controller is doing at a glance.
When you are calibrating the brake controller for the first time, the LED lights will signal your progress. To finish setting up the device, you will need to drive your vehicle in a low-traffic area and brake 20 times or so to let the unit learn its orientation and the direction of travel. If your trailer is connected, the LED light will flash green/blue as it processes the information. If there is no trailer connected, the unit will still calibrate, just without the knob lighting up. The knob will stay blue longer as the calibration process gets closer to being done. When the display turns solid blue, initial calibration is complete. The unit will remain calibrated for the next time that you tow. If recalibration is required, it will happen automatically and without LED indication.
Once the brake controller is activated, you can use the knob to set the maximum amount of power that will be applied to your trailer's brakes. Typically, this power is only readjusted when you experience changing road conditions or if you switch over from a heavy, loaded trailer to a much lighter, empty trailer, or vice versa. To get more power to your brakes, rotate the knob clockwise toward 10. To decrease the power output, rotate it counterclockwise toward 0.
When you apply the tow vehicle's brakes, the knob will change from blue to red to signal that the trailer brakes are being activated. The higher the braking power output, the deeper the red that you will see.
The Tow-Pro Elite keeps the manual override within easy reach, great for stopping sway or controlling your trailer's momentum in emergencies. To engage the manual override, just press the control knob. This will activate the trailer's brakes and brake lights without you having to apply the brakes on your tow vehicle, perfect for limiting trailer movement while you're cruising.
The Redarc Tow-Pro Elite comes with a unique feature that lets you respond to any terrain or weather you meet while on the road. The user-controlled mode gives you direct control over your trailer's braking so you can have exactly the level of power output you need for any situation - perfect for off-roading or adverse weather conditions. In this mode, the Tow-Pro Elite will apply your trailer's brakes with the same preset amount of power each time you activate the brakes in your vehicle. Set the power low if you're towing through sand or mud so that the trailer doesn't stop with too much force and act as an anchor. When on a steep descent, set the power to a higher level to ensure that the trailer's momentum doesn't cause it to push against the tow vehicle.
To turn on the user-controlled braking mode, rotate the knob counterclockwise and apply your vehicle's brakes. Push down on the remote knob twice (2 times within 1 second) and release the brakes. The knob will turn green to let you know that the mode has been activated.
Unlike most proportional controllers on the market, the Tow-Pro Elite has almost no mounting restrictions. It comes in 2 pieces - the main unit and the control knob. Because the only part that you need to be able to access is the control knob, the main unit can be mounted out of sight and out of the way. You don't have to worry about dinging your knee on a bulky brake controller or having something in your cab that can interfere with your vehicle's lower airbags.
The dash-mounted control knob can be installed in any convenient spot that's easy for you to see and access. This can be a blank switch panel, an open spot on your center console, or wherever there's space on your dashboard. A universal mounting panel is included to ensure a clean, from-the-factory look. Custom-fit panels are available for certain vehicles as well. Before you do any drilling, be sure there's room behind the dash for the entire knob to install, including the part you don't see!
Once you've decided where you want to put the control knob, you'll need to find a good place to install the main unit. Your only restriction is the 3' plug-in cable that has to be able to reach between both the main unit and the control knob. Securely mount the box using screws, double-sided tape, or zip-ties (not included). A mounting kit (RE67FR - sold separately) is also available for the Tow-Pro Elite. Do not zip-tie the box to wiring or cables that can shift as you drive.
Once you have the controller mounted in your cab, just plug the custom-fit adapter directly into your vehicle's built-in brake control wiring harness. The other end plugs into the brake controller. No hardwiring needed!
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 controller installation kit (ETBC7 - sold separately).
The Redarc Tow-Pro Elite brake controller comes equipped with proportional braking to give you the best towing experience. Proportional braking means that your trailer brakes mimic your tow vehicle's brakes. If you slam on the brakes in your vehicle, your trailer brakes will activate with the same intensity; if you brake lightly, your trailer brakes lightly too. The trailer's braking is in proportion to your vehicle's braking. This saves wear and tear on the tires and the brakes on both your vehicle and trailer.
The Tow-Pro Elite uses an internal 3-axis accelerometer to sense how your vehicle is braking so it can send the right amount of braking power to your trailer. It measures the inertia of your tow vehicle and activates the trailer's brakes to slow at the same rate. The result is uniform braking across your towing setup. No push-pull action - just smooth, proportional braking every time.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hello neighbors. It's Brad here at etrailer. And today we're taking a look and installing the REDARC Tow-Pro Elite on a 2011 Ford E350 van. So this is what our brake controller looks like when it's installed and what's really nice is, it's pretty. it's really small. It's one of the smallest on the market, it's super easy to use.
And honestly just doesn't take up a lot of space, a lot of other brake controllers you have sitting down here and you knock your knees against it, and it's just kind of clunky and hard to get to. Well, the great thing is when this is in drive, you can actually put your hand on the stalk and it's at a good spot. And really that just gains the ability to do that by having this knob being nice and small. So really you can kind customize it however you want. Whereas some of your other typical brake controllers, you don't really have that luxury because of their size.
Operation of the REDARC is equally as easy. If not more easy than other brake controllers. In fact, you can see how much gain you have. And as I actually turn the knob, you're gonna see the colors are gonna change when applied. So as I hold this down on, I can see at zero it's blue, it goes to a light purple and then as it gets more intense, so we'll go up to red, you can see that's a nice bright red.
So you can see the intensity when you do the manual override or even hitting your brakes. Now other typical brake controllers or some of the higher end brake controllers, you can actually set for a bunch of different memory modes and just different things for different trailers and that's great. It really is, if you are planning on doing a bunch of trailers but what this one lacks in that memory mode and what not, makes up for it in the simplicity and space savings. It's also extremely easy to install and speaking of install, let's take a look at that now. Now to get our brake controller installed, we need to first check and see if the van has a Factory 7 Pole.
Unfortunately ours does not and the customer actually had a 4 Pole already ran. So in order for us to get this brake controller working, we're gonna need to pick up a few extra parts. First one being this Hopkins 4-7-4 Pole adapter and that's gonna have our wires here. You'll be able to tie into your 4 Pole as well as your 7. And it's gonna have your 4 Pole connection, which will go to the factory 4 pole. We're also gonna have a blue wire, a black wire, a purple wire, and a white ground wire. In order to get this attached to our hitch, we actually picked up an extra long bracket here and that's gonna allow you to attach this on, have clearance for your plug, and it's gonna be nice and secure. Now in order to get our power run, as well as to our brake controller, we're gonna have to run a little bit of extra wire here and also tie into some circuit breakers. So we're using the etrailer brake controller wiring kit. So that's gonna allow us to run this and make our connections all the way to the front of the vehicle. Now you are gonna need to pick up a 4 Pole. So if you don't have one, we actually have this available here at etrailer and that's gonna plug into the factory plug here. Now you can see that this is gonna be slightly different than our other 4 Pole, because these are gonna actually attach. So I put a little bit of dielectric grease here just to make a better solid connection and if you need to pick some of that up, we actually have some here at etrailer. Once this is connected, I'm gonna just run a zip tie kind of through these to kind of keep these permanently attached. That way they don't back out over time. Now with the etrailer brake controller wiring kit, you're gonna get a long run of sheath wire here. And I just opened the little end there, allowing us to get access to our white and black. And so I'm gonna go ahead and strip these back. And these are gonna be tying in to our black and blue wires. So we're gonna keep black with black and our blue's gonna go to the white. So let's go. Those set up here. It's nice. They already put the butt connectors on here for you. So we'll just simply crimp these down. Okay. So just give it a quick tug, just to make sure you have solid connections there. So that's gonna leave us with two more wires here. We have our purple and this is gonna be a reverse lockout. So if you're towing a boat, this is something you may wanna wire up. We're not gonna be using it here, so I'm gonna just cut this back, so we don't have all this extra wire. Then I'm gonna just simply bend it back a little bit and then just run some electrical tape around this connection here. So this is gonna be for your surge breaks. So again, if you are using this, you're gonna need to wire that up. But again, for this application, we will not be. So now all we have left is gonna be our white wire and this is gonna be simply a ground. And looking under here, it does look like there's gonna be a factory ground for us to tie into. And I believe it's gonna be a 10 millimeter. So now you can see your ring terminal has a side that's gonna sit a little bit more flush on the frame, so we're gonna be using that. Just make sure you put back all your factory ground wires that you had on there. And then you can go ahead and tighten this back up. Now all that's left is to button up our residual wire from our 4 Pole and just kind of make everything tidy. So I'm gonna go ahead and zip tie this up, and then I'm gonna show you the route that I used, our actual brake controller wiring and how we got it up to where we need to start time into. So I got everything kind of bundled up and zip tied, so it's not gonna move over time. It's gonna stay nice and safe and zip tied up. So you can follow our wire that I ran here. And really, I just tried to stay along the frame rail following a lot of the existing wire loom and that's just gonna kind of protect those wires. And it's not gonna be in contact with anything that's hot or moving. So you can see, I just kind of went along the frame rail here, zip tying it up occasionally to the existing wire loom. And then we made our way, a little bit past this heat shield and that brings us to where the engine bay is. And if you look up you can see, there's gonna be some light there. We're gonna be pulling our wire through there. Now to get our wires pulled up here to tie into the battery, I'm using a little bit of spare airline tube. Now if you don't have anything like this at home, you can use probably a long stick or something you can kind of get a straight shot down there. Basically just feed that in there, tape your wires on it and then you're just gonna simply use this to fish them up. So the main thing here is the exhaust manifolds are gonna be or the exhaust headers are down there. So you're gonna wanna make sure that you are not making contact with those, cause it could burn the wire over time. So just make sure you have a nice, easy route. And I tried to follow along some of the factory plumbing again, just so I can zip tie it up and make sure that it's a safe connection. There you go. So we'll just simply pull this up, pull all of our slack through. So with our wires pulled up, we're gonna need to run to a circuit breaker to the battery with our black wire. And that's gonna give us power from the battery to the actual 7 Pole. Now we're also gonna need to tie into power to power up our brake controller. So we'll be routing another wire from that positive to a circuit breaker on the other side and we'll be running that through the firewall with the white wire. So I'm gonna do that right now. Get my circuit breakers mounted up and all my connections made and I'll show you how I did it. So I've my circuit breakers mounted up and just for hood clearance purposes, I've bent the tab and used myself Tapper to get those mounted up. Now there's gonna be three different circuit breakers that come in the kit and it is important, which ones you use. So this one's gonna be our 40 amp. And what this is gonna do is from our copper post here, that's gonna run to our battery positive here. So we're gonna make a little jumper there. And then our black wire here is going to go to the auxiliary and these are actually marked on it. In fact, I have one here. It's hard to see here, but here's copper, it says BAT, the other one's gonna be auxiliary. So what this is gonna do is allow the power to actually go back to our 7 way. Now we also will have a 30 amp circuit breaker, and this is based off the instruction manuals. There's also a 20 amp, that's included in the kit. And the way you can tell, it'll say 20a, 30a or 40a. So make sure you're using the proper ones and this one's gonna be pretty easy too. We're gonna have a jumper that goes to the positive, and then we're actually gonna route a wire in, to the interior with our white wire, that's going to actually go to the brake controller, allowing that to have power. So I'm gonna make these quick connections here and it's gonna be done pretty easily with the ring terminals that are included in the kit. Now, it does come with three circuit breakers. We will not be using the 20 amp in this instance, reason being is this is supplied because some brake controllers actually require a 20 amp rather that 30. So we can actually set this one aside as we won't need it. So since we have our wire ran to our circuit breaker here, I'm gonna just go ahead and I'm gonna cut this. Now we're gonna hold onto our extra wire, we'll be using that for our jumpers, so set that close by. We can go ahead and strip this. And then in the kit, you're gonna see the ring terminal supplied, so go ahead and we can cramp this on. And this is gonna be going to that silver auxiliary. So I'm gonna just put this on here. We can tighten this one up And now we'll make our jumper wire with a ring terminal and our extra wire long enough to go to our positive terminal. And we're gonna be putting the larger ring terminal that way we can actually attach to this. So I've gone ahead and made two jumpers. of the larger ring terminal on one side and the smaller one on the other. So again, I'm not gonna be hooking up to our positive terminal quite yet but at least I can get this in place. And then I'm gonna also go ahead and put my jumper on our 30 amp here. So that just leaves us with our one auxiliary post off of our 30 amp. So what we need to do is create a wire, that's going to have a ring terminal here and run back so we can feed it through the actual firewall. Now with the kit, it does seem like we're gonna be a little bit short on wire. So you may need to pick some up and if you need to, we actually sell it here at etrailer. Otherwise the other options would really be to maybe route this electric on the passenger side here, and you might be able to salvage enough wire to make it work. But unfortunately we did not. So we will have to get some extra wire. The other silver terminals here. We have. I put our extended black wire or our additional black wire. And along with the one that we ran over, we're just gonna follow along the actual looms and made our way over here. Now it's gonna be hard to see, but there is a grommet directly behind there. So what we're gonna do is, I'm gonna kind of get a hole poked in there and run fish wire through there and feeding it from that will actually allow us to really pull these wires through, to get them into the engine bay. So you should have your white wire and that extra black wire. Now to gain better access to the grommet, I actually removed the coolant reservoir, then it's just three 8 millimeter screws. So pretty easy to take that out and you'll have a lot more room to work with. And then I just simply used a long screwdriver to find a part that didn't have any wire bundle and I just kind of poked a hole through there and then you can feed your wires through. You can use a fish wire technique to make it a little bit easier, but once you have that wire poking through the firewall, you're gonna wanna pull out that slack. Now with our wires ran in, we can start actually making the connection into the harness that will go into the module, which will then go to our brake controller and just kind of breaking these down for you. You're gonna have the black wire here and this is gonna be the positive supply wire. So this is actually gonna give power to the module and the brake controller. And that's just gonna tie in to our black wire here and that's the one that goes to the positive. Now you also have our white wire here, which technically we extended from our blue wire and that's what we have here, which is gonna be going to that 7 way and also making that communication between that and the brake controller. So our white will go to blue. We also have a white wire and this is just gonna be a ground, so we can put a ring terminal and just find a ground that's factory or we can just self-tap that in. And then our red wire is gonna be attaching to the cold side of the brake light. So meaning it's going to tie into the wire on the brake light switch. And that way, when you ply those brakes, it's gonna send the signal as well. So I'm gonna go ahead and kind of get this all set up and then I'll kind of show you how I did it. Now to make this a lot easier, I actually removed this panel and it just has some clips along here. So if you kind of work your way and pop it open, that should allow you to drop it. Now be careful, your ODB2 port is actually connected to it, so you don't wanna pull it too far and damage those wires. But here I've gone ahead. I've actually used a ground that I found here for my white wire. My black wire is attached to my black wire there. My blue wire is going to my white and then the red one goes to the cold side of the brake switch, which I've actually gone ahead and unplugged it from the switch. So to find that it's pretty easy, you just follow your hands up. You're gonna see a little toggle button, that's on the brake pedal and this clips at the very top. So pushing this out, it's gonna make it a lot easier to try to get to these wires. So you're gonna take that red wire and splice in with the violet and white. Now I used a quick connect. I think this is a little bit easier, working with these wires. You can also cut and split those back and then actually use a butt connector to attach them all. If you need any of these, we actually have these as well as butt connectors here at etrailer. So now that I have this all spliced in, I can actually plug this back in. And you'll see the blue, the gray, that switch actually just plugs into the top. It's just, you don't have a ton of wire to work with. So popping this out, it's gonna make it a lot easier to be able to splice into that. And then we'll just plug this back in the top. So now really our next step is figuring out where we're gonna actually mount the REDARC controller. I think I'm gonna mount mine, kind of here on the side, that way the driver can access it really quickly. It's gonna be outta the way. And really you don't have to worry, to trouble much about this reaching into a space because you have another cable here, that's gonna attach to it that goes to our module. So before we put this back up, we're gonna wanna make sure we get that mounted up and that way we can make all these connections and we can zip tie this all up, make it nice and clean. So I'm gonna find my spot and I'm gonna start drilling a hole to get this to fit. I've decided to kind mount it right here. That way it faces the driver and it should be out of the way of anything. It's gonna look really clean, I think. So the way that you can do this, there's a template in the instruction manual. Really, you're just wanting to get a one inch diameter hole. So if you have a whole saw, that's a one inch, that's a great way to do it. Or you can use a step bit and just make sure that you only go down to the one inch mark. Either way, I'm gonna start my pilot hole. You do wanna make sure that there's nothing behind there. So before you drill, just make sure you either pull the panel back or you kind of reach up, make sure there that there's nothing behind it. Once you've drilled that out, you might wanna go back with a file, just to get some of that flashing out. That's gonna allow that trailer break holder here to actually sit in there, nice and clean, but it might actually gain you a little more clearance than you think. So you're gonna want to test fit that, make sure you like it. Then before we actually pop this into place, what we're gonna do is take our switch and take your cable here that you have. This is gonna connect into here pretty easy. So let's just snap that in and then we can feed the other end down. So now with our wire fed down there, we take this here and it's only gonna go in one way. So just make sure that you have it aligned properly. It should kind of sit in there. So you can see here, this one's not aligning properly. So just flip it around and that way you have the proper orientation. So you may have to pull your wire a little bit, that you fed down to kind of get some of that slack taken out of it. But we should be able to kind of pop this in place, but to make it a little bit easier. You're gonna have this little cap here. So I'm just gonna screw this in for now, just to kind of hold it in place and that way it doesn't back out on us as you can tell like that. Once that's threaded on just a little bit, that should hold it in place and then this should pop in. Now, if you need to, you might have to go back and take a little bit more out, but that's no problem. I'm gonna just take my file and work the edges out a little bit more, so this pops into place. I've taken our plastic hex here. That's just gonna tighten this down. You also wanna put your sticker in place, and this is gonna kind of show you where you're actually applying the pressure. What, how hard you are. So on the knob, what I do is I try to make it to where you can see it pretty clearly from the driver's position. And then just turn this all the way to the back counterclockwise here. And then you're just gonna align that zero with that. So that way, when you apply it, you'll be able to see exactly where you're at. So once you have this all put together, you tighten that down. Just a 12 millimeter socket will bring that plastic nut to tighten it. And then just simply, clip this in. And with the wire fed in, this should just pop into place here. We have this fed down, we have our module and we're just gonna make these connections here real quick. So this should snap in here. And then, we're going to slide this one in here. And then, I'm gonna button all this up, get this zip tied and probably mount it somewhere on this actual metal frame here, just with some zip ties, just to clean it up and we're gonna get our panel back on. So now the last thing we need to do before testing out our brake controller is hook up our jumper cable that we made to our positive terminal. So I'm go ahead with a 10 millimeter here, loosen this up. Okay, now we can feed our terminals on here. Right now, we're gonna tighten this back up. We're gonna go ahead and test this. Now we have a test box for our 7 Pole. You can actually hook it up to your trailer. So now we're going to run through our light sequence, starting with our running lights. Next we'll do our left turn signal, our right turn signal and then we're gonna use our brakes. We can also check that our 12 volt outlet is working here, we're getting our power. So next, we actually need to calibrate the unit by actually going around and driving it and hitting the brakes. And that way it can kind of learn itself. And from there, we'll show you that sequence. And then we'll know that our brake controller's working. Now, we're using a 4 Pole tester. And if you wanna pick one of these up, they're great because it tests the wiring specific to the vehicle. You can use your trailer as well, but if your trailer has any wiring issues, it's possible that you get a false negative on the wiring on your vehicle. So let's run through the light sequences and check it out. So starting off, I'm gonna use my running lights. Next, i will do my left turn signal, my right turn signal and then finally my brakes. So now hooked up to the trailer. We're gonna go ahead and get this calibrated and the way we're gonna do that, you're gonna see during this calibration, it's gonna be flashing green and blue. It's gonna be a little hard to see here, but that blinking means that it's actually trying to actively calibrate. And in order to get it calibrated, what we're gonna do is a series of stops with our brakes. So about 15 miles per hour or so, hit the brakes and then continue that until it turns a solid blue. And what it's doing is, it's trying to find its center kind of find it, its home where it's living. And once you kind of put that motion in it, then it can actually home itself a little bit. So we're just gonna continue this process until we see that solid blue. So once you've done your series of braking and that becomes a solid blue light, then you know, that is calibrated and you're ready to use your trailer brakes. And that was a look and install of the REDARC Tow-Pro Elite brake controller on a 2011 Ford E350 van..
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 Customer Reviews)
Mount the control knob of this proportional brake controller on your dash for a factory look, and install the main unit out of sight. The Elite's unique user-controlled mode gives you direct control of your braking for any weather or terrain.I saw the great online reviews of this controller and took the plunge. I bought my 2002 Chevy Silverado K1500 extended cab short bed truck new in 2001. It came with the HD Towing package which include a factory plug in trailer brake wiring loom. I took my time over a 2 day period to carefully install and triple check my install. The Chevy and Redarc wiring wiring descriptions made it easy to join the two harnesses. I used HD crimped plug in connectors further protected with shrank tubing. All wiring was bundled with zip ties after encasing in HD harness protective cover. Zip ties held in place behind the removable panel beneath the steering wheel. The control button is installed on the right side of the steering column within easy reach. Nice install. I read that the light would not go on until a trailer was hooking up. I was elated when we picked up our new cargo trailer and the controller knob light lit up upon hitching up. the first mile of travel allowed easy testing of the system and fine tuning came a few miles further down the road. GREAT PRODUCT!
This thing is awesome! I lucked out and the etrailer demo install video was on the same type of tow vehicle I have, so I was able to mostly just follow along for the install. It went in with minimal effort. I tow a 20 ft TT that weighs about 3500 lbs with a Chevy Colorado.
I finally pulled our trailer from storage and had a chance to try out the controller. It is fantastic! My previous controller used bluetooth. With it I had problems with over braking at low speeds. I was constantly adjusting it between town and highway, and I found the adjustment clumsy because my phone locks after a couple minutes of not being used.
The redarc fixed all of that and more! After dialing in the right setting, braking is like the trailer is not even there. It's that good! There is little to none jerking when I stop at low speed. And adjusting it is simple as it is one knob on the dash. This is how a brake controller is supposed to work! I towed 10,000 miles with my "other" controller, and I can't wait to try this out on our cross country trip this year!
And as always, the etrailer folks are great to work with and full of wisdom that they share so I don't have to learn the hard way!
It truly amazes me that Ford touts the towing capacity of my Ranger, yet not one dealership I called could offer a solution for a trailer brake controller to be able to pull my little camper. I finally turned to etrailer since they had helped me meet my towing needs in the past with a different vehicle. etrailer's Redarc Tow-Pro Elite Trailer Brake Controller was a perfect solution! They also supplied a terrific video explaining in great detail how to install it in my truck. I preferred the in-dash location using one of the extra twelve volt ports using the optional round adapter insert and found it to be very convenient after a summer of towing. Highly recommend both Redarc Tow-Pro Elite and etrailer!
Love the self-calibration and hidden controller. Great space saver and works as described. I did find the knob location in your video not very good; I could not see it through the steering wheel when driving. As you can see from the picture it is now visible from the driver's seat and easy to adjust when needed. Also, in this location the only hole I had to drill was 3/16" behind the knob and not visible or damaging. I was able to use the knob bracket that came in the kit and just push it into place, very stable.
Installed in my 2022 Ford Ranger, works great ?? The adapter for the lighter is a separate purchase.
Nice brake controller. Have 2 of them. On both my cars it will occasionally blink red which means some sort of error but it still applies the brakes. Thinking the ground/neutral wiring on my trailer is the culprit. Installed with RED77FR on a 2024 Grand Cherokee L Summit (w/ factory Tow) despite site saying it's not compatible.
So far it is anazing! I installed it splicing with the gm wiring harness, and put the box under my console, with the knob in one of the accessory port holes using the knob adapter. The controller calibrated quickly, and works great once you get the gain set correctly. The ONLY thing I don't care for is that the unit stays powered up, so the led stay lit while a trailer is hooked up. I guess it doesn't drain battery much, but I don't care for anything draining my battery, no matter how small.
This is the third Redarc elite I've installed, the oldest being 4 years ago. They're all flawless, easy to use, more available and less intrusive than anything else. I can pull my single-axle motorcycle trailer empty and not be overpowered, or my 2 axle dump trailer without being underpowered. Spectacular in all regards.
The push button to activate the brakes independently is a really nice feature for calibrating the braking power based on the weight on the trailer.
The led indicators are also nice.
The Redark trailer brake controller installed easily. In my 2020 Toyota 4Runner. It looks like it came installed from the factory. It’s small and easy to reach when driving. It came with a plastic install panel. This is designed for installing in a hole that you drill in your dash. It will not fit in a knock out space in your dash. There is one that fits the dash perfectly that you can buy from etrailer.
etrailer automatically bundled the Redark trailer brake controller with the correct plug and play wiring harness for my vehicle. It was nice not to have to search for the wire harness. Everything installed perfectly.
I haven’t tested the function of the brake controller yet. I’ll hook up to a trailer this week.
The items arrived in less than a week and the package was in good condition. The order tracking worked great. The tech videos on the etrailer website were really helpful. I’ll purchase from hem again.
The Redarc Trailer brake controller has worked well for the past year. The instructions and videos made it easy to install and get setup. My only, minor, complaint was the button cover provided did not fit in our 2016 4Runner. I was able to use the cover I pulled out with a little trimming of extra plastic on the back. We have towed our pop up in mountains and plains, on interstates and off road. The trailer brake has worked without an issue. Highly recommended.
Great prices and quick to ship. Well organized website. Wasn’t sure the REDARC install was something o wanted to handle. One disappointment… initially I called a listed installer found on your website - they stated they do not install product they do not sell. This pushed me to try to install myself. Lots of helpful information and install videos online made the difference.
I’m going to be up front and say I have not tested this beside driving around town. The install was very quick, maybe 20 minutes in all initially in my 2017 Nissan Titan SV. I do have some concerns though. After install I had no lights to show calibration was going on. From reading the user manual I guess that can happen. First time hooking up the trailer everything seemed fine and the light was blue as it should. Once I turned my running lights on though it began to blink red showing a fault with the cable. I tested everything to make sure it was getting voltage and the wires were correct. After about an hour I found something between my backup camera on the travel trailer and the brake was causing some sort of issue. I removed the camera, unplugged all the cables from the tow pro elite and hooked it back up. Once plugged back in it showed green and blue lights showing it was calibrating. I drove the trailer around town and our relief route. After about half an hour the light turned solid blue. The control is easy to use and looks very nice. I’m unable to get it to switch to user control mode but the proportional and manual brakes works fine. I will update my review after we take it out on a few trips. As of now it seems like a great product, very clean looking and should do a great job.
Only way to fly. This brake system works like nothing else. Perfect
I installed this on my 2009 Dodge RAM 1500. It replaced the other one I had. This was a challenge to install because of where I had to mount it under the dash. But it was also wired a little different. The former controller had the positive (red) and negative (black) wires reversed from this Redarc controller. When I installed the Redarc the way the other controller was wired the brake lights wouldn't work. Once I got them put right for the Redarc it is working right.
Easy to install and works great. Love the stealth mounting. I get compliments on just the one knob being visible.
This is the second Redarc brake controller that I have purchased. First one works so well in our new Bronco that when we got a 3 axle toyhaller I needed to up grade the controller in our truck.Redarc was the first choice after being so happy with the other one in our Bronco. Super easy installation that plugs right into the truck wiring with the correct harness for your vehicle.
etrailer made it easy to get everything that you need in one purchase (unlike some seller's where everything is sold separately) and it was at my door reasonably fast
Overall love the Redarc controller and very happy going through etrailer
The Redarc Tow-Pro brake controller has worked flawlessly since I installed it a year ago. I tow a fairly light (2000 pound) pop-up trailer, which can be an adjustment challenge when braking on loose surfaces. I've found it very easy to slightly reduce the setting while on gravel and then return to the correct setting when returning to normal roads.
I purchased the Redarc because I could never get my previous controller to brake smoothly - it would often jerk at low speeds. I think that controller had problems because it was inserted into the 7-pin connector that was held by a metal bracket under my bumper that I suspect vibrated when braking, which confused that controller. Once I switched to the Redarc, which is firmly mounted under the dash, I had no more problems like that.
Finding a location in my Honda Pilot to mount the control module was a challenge - but well worth the effort. I mounted it to a plastic panel that I installed over an unused cavity in the console underneath the radio (see picture). The knob is easy to reach, and is out of the way of my knees.
Mounting the main control box under the dash was made easier because I didn't have to worry about its precise orientation since it will calibrate itself wherever it sits.
Superb controller and outstanding service from both etrailer and Redarc. I had some questions concerning the controller interfering with the advanced braking/collision avoidance in my Tacoma, as I had read about. I emailed Redarc in Australia and they promptly answered and even scheduled a phone call! I had a good conversation with them and it turns that that issue does not apply to my vehicle. So I give Redarc 5 stars at least for service. The controller itself is easy to install after watching the video. I would definitely buy the vehicle specific wiring to avoiding splicing. The bracket also made it very easy. I just used it on a long drive pulling a travel trailer. Works great. Some trial and error is all that’s needed to adjust the amount of braking.
I installed it in the center console so it would be easy to reach in case of sway. It also looks like it came from the Toyota factory this way. No ugly box hanging below to hit your knee.
Overall absolutely great device.
I highly recommend both the Redarc Elite and etrailer.
This thing is absolutely fantastic. It’s very discreet. I install this in a 2015 Porsche Cayenne diesel. It was installed The discrete hole we drilled in the face of the dash. It’s easy to use, requires very little adjustment while driving. Has a convenient lighting system that changes color when voltage is applied to the trailer brakes. My only complaint is that the unit resets its memory every time I disconnect and reconnect the trailer. It’s a minor irritation but that first 15 or 20 minutes of driving after connecting the trailer again, it does have to go through the initial calibration process to figure out what direction the controller is installed. I believe that this problem is specifically related to the Volkswagen and Porsche vehicles - they “shut off” power to the controller when there is no electrical draw sensed from trailer. I’m sure there is some kind of transistor that I could install that would eliminate this problem. I recommend this unit as far superior to the old school tekonsha and others. The only difference that I will point out is that on the old-school controllers there is a kind of emergency brake slider which you can use to ramp up additional braking power if you need it in a pinch. This device does have that functionality but it is a simple on off. In other words if you find yourself in need of rapid additional braking power you push the control button in. There is no ability to “ramp up” that emergency extra power to the brakes. It adds less extra power than the traditional ones but it is proportional to the # of braking power you have on the dial. I have learned to live with it. For a European car this is sleek, discrete, way sexier than the ugly traditional unit bolted to your dash
Great quality trailer brake controller, seats very nice, flush in the not use ash tray of my silverado. Lot of configuration options, ensure to read the instructions and watch the installation video, be advised it has no power until you plug a trailer, this had me going for a while :-). Thanks etrailer.
I'm going to skip the reviews for Item #3066-P Tekonsha Plug-In Wiring Adapter for Electric Brake Controllers and for Item #331-TPH-017 Redarc Tow-Pro Wiring Adapter for Tekonsha Brake Controller Harness. They just work to get the signals from A to B.
Installing this in my Merc ML-250 Bluetec was straight forward, but I thought quite a bit about the knob placement. Finally ended up mounting this next to the ashtray, opposite of the cigarette lighter. This location won't work for those with heated/cooled cupholders as this is the location used for that controller. This location works well for mounting as there is clearance below and the knob is low-profile enough that the sliding door can still cover the area. Just need to be careful with wire routing. Route towards the back of the car, then reverse course up to the front, such that the slider can retract into this space. The main body of the unit is mounted under the dashboard above the brake pedal, completely hidden from view and out of the way of feet and knees.
Looks really nice, but I have not actually used it on the road yet, I have just driven around the neighborhood to test it and it looks and works great for the short distance that I have travelled, pulling a 10,000 gvw, car hauling two axle flat bed trailer.
Shockingly, there are only two manufacturers who make remote mount brake controllers: Redarc and Curt. However, despite this lack of competition, Redarc has set a very high bar. My initial impression of this brake controller is very good. It took a few minutes of driving to calibrate, but once it finished the trailer braking became very smooth.
My only complaint so far (if you can call it that) is that the rate at which the brake gain increases (relative to increases in vehicle braking) seems a bit odd. In my opinion the gain starts off too low (i.e. when I'm lightly pressing the brake pedal, it seems like the tow vehicle is doing the majority of the braking), and then finishes off too high (i.e. when I'm firmly pressing the brake pedal, it seems the trailer is doing the majority of the braking). (And this happens with the the brake intensity dial in the same position for both scenarios.)
However, I must admit that I am new to electric trailer brakes, and I can see that perhaps this behavior may be desirable.
Everything else about this controller is as expected.
NOTE: Please make sure to get the switch blank insert for your vehicle! It is SOLD SEPARATELY. The one that comes with the brake controller is a universal style insert that requires you to drill a hole.
In my review pictures, you can see that I purchased a switch insert designed specifically for late 2000s / early 2010s Toyotas. I definitely recommend doing the same.
I wanted to follow up and thank you for your help! I was able to install the Redarc brake controller with no problem! Thanks for your assistance and recommendations.
One note...There are not a lot of late model Land Cruisers on the road. Toyota only sells about 3-4,000 a year so finding videos and guides for installation is a bit of a challenge. I found some FAQ's on etrailer.com but the information seemed inaccurate or at least not very helpful.
I know the LC comes with a two package and is prewired but it takes some doing to locate it. I remember directions and I found some install help on another site and that helped.
In any event, I appreciate your help. I have attached a photo of the installed Redarc!
Do you have a question about this Trailer Brake Controller?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer.com 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. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.