Draw-Tite Brake Controller - Time Delayed Controller - 5100 Review

Review of the Draw-Tite Activator Elrctronic Brake Controller

Today we're going to review part number 5100. This is the Draw-Tite activator time delay trailer brake controller. It is designed to fit trailers for 1 to 2 axles. It does come with everything showing here: the mounting bracket, the mounting hardware. This brake controller will activate your trailer brakes with a preset intensity. The signal is sent to the trailer brakes when you're tow vehicle's brakes are activated. On the very front here, you can see there's a sliding switch.

This is the adjustable output control. This will let you determine the amount of braking force. Basically if you go that way, you can see where it's lighter. That's the maximum. You'll set it to the maximum when you're going to travel through a hilly terrain with a fully-loaded trailer. Then if you want to back it off, you want to do that; back off the power outflow 00:00:45 when you're going to tow a lightweight trailer or an empty trailer. On the side here, you'll see there's also a sink setting.

The sink setting will let you adjust the aggressiveness with which the brakes are activated. If you look real closely, there's a plus sign and a minus sign. This will be towards the front of your tow vehicle. This will be towards the rear of it. Basically to get the full power output faster, you'll move the switch forward. The plus sign, this will increase the activation speed.

If you want to achieve smoother braking, you could move it in the opposite direction; that will supply your power gradually. On the very front, you'll see there's a bob here. This is an LED light. This will indicate on the front of your unit, it will show when your trailer's brakes are applied. The light will glow brighter as the power output increases. I'm going to show you that in a minute.

It has the built-in slide bar manual override that you can activate the brakes immediately. It's a very quick and easy installation, because it's a time-delayed brake controller. There's no need to mount it level, like the proportionals. You can mount it in any direction. The mounting bracket, again, and the hardware is all included. If you notice, it has a plug on the end. We do recommend if it's available for your vehicle, to get the plug-in vehicle-specific brake controller adapter. We do sell those separately. You can find out if there's one available for your vehicle by just going on to our website, under the fit guide, and seeing if they list one that will plug on. A vehicle-specific brake controller adapter will have a plug that will plug into the brake controller. The other end of it will have a plug that will plug into the factory port on your vehicle. If they don't have one for your vehicle, you can get also a plug that will plug into this brake controller, and the other end would be 4 pigtail wires that you could hard-wire into your vehicle. Now getting the application on this brake controller, is for trailers with up to 2 axles or 4 brake assemblies. It is designed for use with electric brakes only. Again, I want to show you I have a plug-in hooked to a 12-O 00:02:54 power source. What we're going to do is go ahead and attach the brake controller; it snaps right in. Then what I'm going to do is go ahead and turn on the power, so we got 12-O power. Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you when you apply the brakes, if you watch that red LED light when your brakes are applied, you'll notice that that red LED light will come on. Put it up, you can see it better. Here you go, that's showing that your brakes are being applied, or also when your manual slide is being applied, that will come on. What you also notice, I have it up to maximum. You notice when you push the manual, it will go from a dim bulb, and as you push it up to the maximum, it will get a brighter bulb. If you turn it down some, like in the middle, you can see as you push it up, it won't go up to maximum, because you got the output set in the middle there. That should do it for the review on part number 5100, the Draw-Tite activator time delay trailer brake controller for trailers with 1 to 2 axles. .