Arrives before Christmas To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
This is one of our favorite brake controllers, with flawless braking and a tiny dash knob that looks like it came straight from the factory. Its unique off-roading mode helps you handle rough conditions, so get out there and get towing.
Features:
Specs:
The off-road mode is a unique feature of the Redarc Tow-Pro Elite. In this mode, the brake controller will apply your trailer's brakes with a preset amount of power, independent of what your tow vehicle is doing. This is ideal for off-roading or challenging conditions. 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. If navigating a steep descent, set the power to a higher level to ensure that the trailer doesn't push against the tow vehicle.
To activate the off-road mode, rotate the knob counterclockwise and apply your vehicle's brakes. Push down on the 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.
Use the knob to set the braking output -- the maximum amount of power that will be applied to your trailer's brakes. To get more power output, 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.
To engage manual override, simply press the control knob. This will activate the trailer's brakes and brake lights independent of your tow vehicle, great for stopping sway or controlling your trailer's momentum in an emergency.
When you are calibrating the brake controller for the first time, the LED lights will signal your progress.
You'll start by braking 20 times or so to let the unit learn its orientation and the direction of travel. You don't need to have a trailer connected for it to calibrate; the only difference is that the knob won't illuminate at all. If your trailer is connected, the LED light will flash green/blue as it calibrates. When the display turns solid blue, initial calibration is complete.
Once done, the unit will remain calibrated. If recalibration is required, it will happen automatically and without LED indication.
The Tow-Pro Elite has almost no mounting restrictions. It comes in 2 pieces: the main unit and 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 interfering with your vehicle's airbags.
The 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 enough clearance behind the dash for the entire knob to install!
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' cable connecting 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 attach the module to wiring or cables that can shift as you drive!
Then plug the custom-fit harness right into your vehicle and the brake controller and you're done!
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). A 30-amp circuit breaker kit (331-CBK30-EB - sold separately) may also be required for installation.
For assistance in properly wiring the Tow-Pro Elite, please refer to the diagrams below:
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.
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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Ryan here at etrailer. Today on our 2022 Honda Ridgeline, we're gonna be showing you how to install the REDARC custom-fit adapter harness. Before we do that though, let's just check this out and make sure it's going to work for you. So right off the bat, what REDARC has done is made a plug-and-play-type harness for their trailer brake controllers. So this is going to work with the REDARC Tow-Pro Liberty, which is what we have installed on our Honda here today. It'll plug in to this portion there, and then this will plug into your factory connector, which is located behind this panel.
You can see it from the bottom, and we'll show you that during the installation. The vast majority of not only the Ridgeline but some of the other Hondas, because this does fit a couple other makes, will have that connector. And if you do, definitely a no-brainer to utilize something like this 'cause it makes everything plug and play. With that said, this is also going to work with the REDARC Tow-Pro Elite trailer brake controller. So regardless on which one you end up going with, this will get the job done.
The harness is going to be plenty long, so you'll pretty much be able to mount your trailer brake controller anywhere you want, under the dash, within reason, for sure. So definitely no concerns there. Now, bear in mind that this is going to work with the vehicles that have that factory tow package. All right, if yours does not come equipped with that, then you're gonna have to do something a little bit different to get the brake controller installed. You would need a four-way flat wiring harness.
And then to build off of that, you could use the etrailer.com universal brake controller install kit. And then in that case, you'd want to use REDARC's universal type harness, which is this here. So this will plug into the brake controller and then you just have bare wires which you'd hook to the etrailer brake controller install kit. So definitely check that out. Real quick way to tell, look at the back of your Honda, if you have the factory seven-way there, chances are really good you got the factory tow package, but still not a bad idea to take a peek under the dash and see if that connector's there.
If it is, you're in great shape. You can use this adapter. And the vast majority of these Ridgelines that at least I've seen will be set up this way. So if yours is indeed set up like this, makes 100% sense to use the adapter, 'cause why not It's custom-fit, plug and play, and really simplifies the whole entire installation process. Now, with that said, as far as getting this installed, right, you've just seen half of it. You plug one end in, plug the other end in. But being that if you're gonna be installing this, you're gonna be installing the whole brake controller too. So what we're gonna do is show you everything. How to get this plugged in, where to find the connector, and even run through and and show the brake controller, 'cause I'm sure it'll be useful if you're focusing on this, you're gonna have to do the brake controller next. So why don't we go ahead and get started on that now. So to begin our installation, we're gonna be here in the front seat of our Ridgeline, and what we're gonna do is remove this side panel and then this front panel. Now, you don't absolutely have to do this, but it is gonna make things much easier to get to our connector plug and be able to mount up our knob and everything else. So to me, it's worthwhile spending a few minutes doing this, but we're gonna do the side one first. And these just are snapped into place pretty much. So you can take a trim tool, and just kinda work your way around it here (panel snapping) to get these snaps released. And usually, once you get one or two, they all kind of seem to come out much easier. So that's kind of what was holding it in place there. And then we'll set that to the side, and the same is gonna hold true for this panel, as far as what I can tell so far. Work our way around. And if it feels like we're getting hung up, I'll take a look under there and see what we need to do. (panel thudding) (panel thudding) It just came right off here. And I'm just gonna unplug these connectors just so we can move our panel out of the way, just like we got a handful of 'em. With all of 'em, there's just a little tab in the center, you just push down on it, and pull back on the plug. And all these have different style ends on 'em, so when we go to put it back together, it's pretty straightforward. (panel scratching) So in our case, over here you had something plugged into it. And to release it, you know you can just kind of lightly pry up on these tabs, the whole dash section here is released, and we'll set it off to the side for now. With the dash out of the way, that gives us super easy access to the connector plug here. So tucked right up in here, this is a factory connector that we're gonna be using to operate our brake controller. Since there's more or less two different versions available for this REDARC, I figured I'd touch base on both of 'em. What I would recommend doing is getting the brake controller that doesn't come with the universal harness, and then picking up this custom-fit harness separately. And that's exactly what we're gonna do today. Because what this will allow us to do, this end we'll match the Honda connector, so we can just plug right into that, and then this end will plug into our brake controller. But a lot of times, Honda and the Ridgelines will give you this universal harness, right So this would plug in the factory connector, and then you'll just have to make connections here. So if you happen to get the kit that comes with the brake controller and this universal harness, that'll still work, you'll just have to connect these together. And so if that's a setup that you're using, what these wires would go to, and these harnesses might be a little different. Check the instructions or do what you need to do. But on ours, what we would do if you're setting it up this way is the factory black wire on our harness, that's gonna be ground. And so that would get connected to the white wire from our REDARC harness, and I'll get them out of the way here. And then the blue wire here on the harness, it's a little bit darker blue, a little bit thicker wire, that's battery power on our factory harness. So you would connect that to the black wire from our REDARC harness. And then as far as this thin and a sky blue/light blue factory wire, that's gonna be our stoplight signal, brake signal. So you would connect that to the red wire from our REDARC harness. And then the factory brown wire, this would be the output to the trailer brake. So you'd connect that to the thick blue wire from our REDARC harness. With all that said though, since we are gonna be utilizing the custom-fit harness, all we're gonna have to do is plug that right in, like so. We'll let that hang for a minute. And now we can find a spot to mount up the actual brake controller. So we'll be working underneath the dash somewhere. I'll pick out a spot and show you what I came up with. Here's what I came up with. Under the dash, there's a bolt, a factory bolt that we can utilize to mount this, but I just wanted to show you the bracket that I'm using here. So this is a 2 1/2 inch by 2 1/2 inch bracket. A lot of times, you can just buy these from the hardware store. That's where this one came from. Or if you got a piece of metal at home, you can make your own. You can mount these in different orientations as well. You just wanna make sure that it's actually gonna be secured. You just don't wanna zip tie this to a bundle of wire or something. So if you don't feel like following with that, you can find another spot. That's awesome. But just wanted to show you what I had going on here before I put it under the dash. So I just secured it to the bracket, I got a couple of screws and flat washers and split lock washers to attach it. So now I'll get this installed under the dash here and show you how it turned out. Here's how I ended mountain this up. So right under the steering column, there's a little bracket holding on some wiring, and I just removed that bolt there, it's an eight millimeter head. Pulled the bolts out, slid our bracket on top of it, and tighten everything back down. I think it turned out pretty good. You can plug this end into the controller now, so it'll only go in one way. And whenever you're setting up wiring and everything, just make sure when you route it, you're not gonna be around any moving parts, make sure you clear your e-brake and your steering column and and things of that nature. Now what we need to do is figure out where we wanna mount up our switch and knob. So, really, you can put this in a ton of different spots as long as you have the room, behind the dash and everything to have all this stuff mounted up. I'm choosing to go right here below our switches already. I think it'll be a good spot. Sometimes you'll have, depending on what options and stuff you have, sometimes one of these panels will be blank. You could always utilize one of those. I've done it in the past. And REDARC actually has these universal mounting panels. And just kind of eyeballing it. It looks really close, like you might be able to use it. It's hard to say with 100% certainty if this'll pop right in there, but that is always something you could potentially think about. But with that said, since we're going right to our dash, they give you this ring here, and I like to use it as a template. So I just figure out where I wanna mount it, color it in. You do want the nipple there to be up in the 12:00 position, and once we get this drilled, you don't absolutely have to install this into the dash. We may or may not. The dash is kind of thick, so we might have to do away with this, but at the very least, use it as a template, and then we can drill out the holes to the size listed and the instructions. (drill whirring) (drill whirring) (drill whirring) With that whole drilled, I will say it's not uncommon to have to open it up just a little bit bigger. You could take your drill bit and kind of widen it out some. Tends to be the trend. And then a lot of times you have little burrs on the plastic. I'll come back with a razor blade and just kind of cut 'em clean, but we'll take our switch, line that up. And it looks like we can use this. So push that into place. And then you have this nut, that will thread on. And be careful when you're doing this. Make sure it's starting straight 'cause these are pretty easy to to cross-thread. So you definitely just wanna start it by hand and just make sure everything stays lined up while you're threading this in. So looking pretty good there. Then you can take a 12 millimeter socket, and just by hand, again, just tighten it up a little bit until it's snug. The knob, you want to turn that all the way counter-clockwise, as far as it'll go. And you take the button here and you wanna take where it says zero, and line that up with the nipple there that's pointing up. And then this just pushes into place. And grab the other cable now. And on the back of the switch, we can plug one of these ends in. You can use either one. I'm gonna use this 90-degree one because just looking at the port on our brake controller that we have mounted under the dash, it makes more sense as far as routing to plug the straight end into that side. On this one, I mean it's wide open, so it don't really matter here, but this'll just plug right into place. We'll take our panel now, got all the electronics and everything plugged back in, and we will just reinstall this the opposite way that we removed it. With the panels all re-secured, we only had one more wire left that we needed to plug in, and it was the other end of this wiring. And since it's kind of tricky to see under there, I happen to have another one of these on hand just so I can show you. But really simple, same exact way that we plugged into the back of the switch. We'll take that end, that just directly plugs into the brake controller. At this point, once everything's plugged in and everything, you're gonna make sure everything's working and you can calibrate it, so on and so forth. And so you'd wanna plug into your trailer, I'm just plugged into a test box, which simulates a trailer, since we're inside here. And the brake controller lit up as power. If yours does not, sometimes there will be a fuse that you have to put in the vehicle. Just check your owner's manual and look for anything related to trailer brake controller fuse. Check it, put the fuse in if it's missing. Ours works fine, so we don't have to worry about it. But we have a green light that flashes to blue, and that means the controller needs to be calibrated, which, more or less, it's really simple. You don't even have to be hooked up to your trailer, but you just drive like you normally would and come to complete stops. And after, usually takes 6 or 10 stops, generally speaking, the light will go from that flashing color to a solid color, all right And so when that happens, you know it's calibrated. Now, with that said, if you're not hooked up to your trailer or anything, you're not gonna see the light until you're plugged into it. So think about that. If you're not hooked up, make more than enough stops, and you should be in good shape there. So I'll go ahead, take this for a spin, get it calibrated, and then we can completely test out. After driving it around for a minute, our light went to solid blue, letting us know that the trailer brake controller is calibrated and ready to be used. And that'll finish up our look at and our installation of the REDARC custom-fit adapter harness on our 2022 Honda Ridgeline.
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