I am Worried that the Curt Spectrum is Going to Drain My Battery in My 2015 Sierra 1500  

im considering curt spectrum c88yv for a 2015 sierra 1500 but the review ive attached concerns me. Could you address the parasitic draw that is mentioned? as well as the random light issues he mentions? I noticed the control knob can be bought separately, is that because there is an updated version ? were there problems with control knobs failing? acting glitchy? lights failing? I notice the review is from a tacoma owner did his require a diode in the harness that he did not have? was that likely his issue? thanks for your help see review below Review by: Jeff E 07/29/2020 One Year Later The compact remote control knob feature is a good plus for this product. Installation was really easy with the interface harness on the second generation Tacoma. I havent had a lot of towing time with it but can offer the following insight. The control lights are easy to use and adjust. They appear to be dimmed with pulse width modulation so if your eyes are sensitive to it you might look at one before you buy. Hopefully they can go PWM-free at some point. The white color lamps appear as a mix of flashing red green and blue. Indicator lights are plenty bright in the daytime but the lowest dim setting is too bright. Perhaps this was done to minimize the PWM flashing at the dim setting. I had to locate the knob in the shadow of the steering wheel to keep the light out of my eyes at night. Ive also noticed a single artifact light on many occasions after brake release see pictures. So far the lamp color has been red, green, and blue however I have not yet seen a white one. One of these lights often come up in random positions on the dial. This lamp will continue to burn after I get out of the truck, and wont go out until I press the brake pedal again or push the knob. If I push the knob the output or sensitivity adjustment mode arc comes up briefly and it goes out after a bit as its supposed to. OEM brake control harness and grounding were sound with typical resistances around a milliohm or less. This controller is a considerable parasitic draw on the battery even with the lamps out and the ignition switch off. This could be an issue particularly if an artifact light is not noticed and the truck sits for more than a weekwhich mine sometimes does. A depleted battery made me look into this with a Fluke ammeter. You might consider pulling the fuse if the truck will sit or hook up a trickle charger. I tried to make contact with the manufacturer to see if they had any free convection requirements for air flow around the main module air cooling at 100 duty cycle, and to understand what is going on with the controller and if there was something that could be done to fix the lights, perhaps a firmware update or something but never got any replies. The folks at etrailer maintained good communication and were excellent to work with but I dont feel the manufacturer is willing to support their product. This could be an excellent product if they can address these issues.

asked by: James