To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
The Tekonsha P3 is a brake controller beloved for its reliability and useability. You're able to save your settings and multiple profiles. It's easy to install, and with the custom harness, it's plug-and-play.
Features:
Specs:
Braking output 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 arrow buttons on the front of the module to set the output.
The boost setting 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.
Depending on the level of boost, your trailer brakes can start at either 13 percent or 25 percent of the set braking output. So instead of starting at 0, the brakes will start at 25 percent and get to 100 percent sooner. This keeps the trailer from pushing your tow vehicle forward.
Boost Levels:
| Approximate Gross Trailer Weight | Boost Level | Increase in Initial Power Output |
|---|---|---|
| Less than tow vehicle GVW | B1 | 13% |
| Equal to tow vehicle GVW | B1 or B2 | 13% or 25% |
| Up to 25% more than tow vehicle GVW | B2 or B3* | 25% |
| Up to 40% more than tow vehicle GVW | B3* | 25% |
*Both B2 and B3 offer a 25-percent boost in initial power. But the braking curve for B3 is more aggressive than that of B2. This means that, even though you will start out with the same intensity when using these boost levels, you will get an overall more aggressive braking experience with the higher level. So if you use B3, you will reach maximum braking sooner than if you use B2.
To engage the manual override, twist the rotary-style lever from right to left. This will activate the trailer's brakes and brake lights independently of your vehicle, great for stopping sway or controlling your trailer's momentum in an emergency.
The P3 is able to store your settings in multiple profiles so that you can have them ready to go for different trailers and drivers. Even the display is super customizable: you can change the screen color, brightness, and language to make it easy to use.
The P3 makes it easy to troubleshoot problems as they come up, with comprehensible and detailed diagnostics displayed on the screen.
Diagnostic troubleshooting messages include:
Diagnostic warning signs include:
The Prodigy P3 offers advanced safety features to prevent damage to various components of your towing setup.
-Integrated reverse battery protection shields the brake controller and your trailer's breakaway system from shorts.
-When the P3 is not in use, it draws only 3.6 milliamps, minimizing drain on your vehicle's battery.
-Any time your vehicle and trailer are at a standstill with the brakes applied for more than 5 seconds, the hold feature will kick on and reduce power to just 25 percent. This will keep your trailer in place without your brakes overheating.
Installing the P3 is incredibly simple. You'll mount the bracket to your dashboard then mount the unit to the bracket. Plug the custom harness into your vehicle and into the unit. Done!
Keep in mind that the P3 must be horizontally level and parallel with the direction of travel to work correctly.
With a replacement wiring harness (sold separately) and replacement bracket (TK5906 - sold separately), you can even transfer the Prodigy P3 to another vehicle.
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).
Proportional braking means that your trailer brakes mimic your tow vehicle's brakes. If you slam on the brakes, 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 and trailer.
The Prodigy P3 uses an internal inertia sensor to detect 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.
Alternate Instructions
California residents: click here
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today on our 2016 Ram 1500, we will be taking a look at and installing the Tekonsha Prodigy P3 Brake Controller. This is going to be for 1 to 4 axles and your proportional braking system, part number 90195. We'll be installing our Tekonsha Prodigy P3 with the assistance of the Tekonsha Plug and Play Wiring Harness, part number 3024-P. The major difference here with the Tekonsha Prodigy P3 is that it's going to be one of the most advanced. It's going to give you the most features, settings, and have that nice visual display that most of the other ones will not. Here's what it will look like once it's installed. Nice, sleek and stylish design that's going to compliment the vehicle's interior. You'll see when we first plug it in, that you're going to get the start up screen. It says press any key to continue.
We'll press a key. It's going to flash red and say no trailer connected. Before we go and set up our trailer and get our trailer plugged in, we'll be able to go through the settings and get everything set up if we wish. We can adjust the power setting, which is going to be the maximum power that it's going to put towards our trailer brakes. If we go to the menu key over here with the little book, we'll be able to select the display. If we want to select the display, we'll hit the okay button.
You'll see where it marks out the X to go back, the okay to hit okay. We'll go and we can adjust the brightness. Nice thing about this is you can adjust the colors. We'll go to colors. You can go light blue, dark blue, white, pink, magenta, orange, light green, green, cayenne, you can go through all these colors to match your vehicles interior and really compliment it. Other than that, let's go ahead and go back out of there.
We'll go back to the menu and you'll be able to go to braking type which is if you have electric brakes or hydraulic brakes. We have electric brakes, so we'll hit okay. You'll see that it's going to have a truck and a single axle really small trailer. That's going to be your inaudible 00:02:16. This is going to be with a trailer that weighs less than your vehicle that you're going to be towing it with. If we go to boost 1, that's going to upgrade that a little bit more.
That's going to be a trailer that is going to be equal to the vehicle that you're going to be towing it with. Boost 2 is going to be a trailer that weighs up to 25% more than the vehicle you're towing it with. Then, we go to boost 3, which is going to be your really large trailers that weigh up to 40% more than the vehicle that you're towing it with. To make any adjustments there, again you can adjust your power setting on how much power you want going back to those brakes, just by hitting the up and down arrow. In case of an emergency and you need to manually sweep, you can hit the lever that's located underneath and bring it back. That's going to provide short bursts of power. Now that we've showed you the features and how it operates, let's go ahead and show you just how easy it is to install. Now, we'll go ahead and find our factory plug and we're going to plug in our adapter tube. It will be located just in front of the accelerator pedal up underneath the dash. We'll go ahead and pull it down so it's a little easier access and a little bit better to see. We'll take our adapter and plug it in 'til it clicks in place. Then, we'll go ahead and put this up underneath the back of our dash, zip-tied up however we're going to need it to hang, so it's a little bit better concealed. Once we have our adapter in place, we'll go ahead and take our Tekonsha Prodigy P3 and we're going to connect it. Line up the tabs and you'll see how it's going to have that little tab on the end that'll meet up with the little tab on this side. Plug it in until it clicks. Once it clicks in place, we're getting to ready to go ahead and install our bracket. Depending on where you want to place your bracket, whether you want it up here where it's going to be easily accessible when you're driving down the road and out of the way of the pedals or down lower, you can do so. Just keep in mind that it may run into interference down here if you have it really low with the pedals. This is just a convenient place for us to locate our bracket and we've already done that. We'll go ahead and attach using the provided screws. This does also come with a quick disconnect bracket that you can also use if you so choose. We'll go ahead and tidy up all of our wires underneath, by using a zip tie and secure them under the dash out of the way of any moving components, such as the pedals or the steering column. That will do it for our review and installation of the Tekonsha P3 Trailer Brake Controller, part number 90195 on our 2016 Ram 1500.
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