How to Install a Trailer Brake Controller on a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 2500

Today on our 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 we're going to take a look at and show you how to install the Tekonsha Primus IQ Proportional Trailer Brake Controller. This works for one up to three axles. Part number on it is TK90160. We're also going to be using the Tekonsha Plug-In Wiring Adapter for brake controllers, part number 3016. Now with our load tester connected, as I start to slide over the manual override you're slowly going to see both the current and the voltage increasing. Just depending on how rapidly we press that lever it's going to be how quickly that signal's going to go to the back. Now this is a proportional controller.

We can mount it anywhere from where we have it here at about 0 degrees, all the way up to about 70, so we've really got a lot of angle. We would just want to keep it in line with our direction of travel. Here on the side you'll notice our manual override lever. It's going to allow us to manually apply brakes to our trailer up to whatever we've got our gain preset to. You see we go anywhere from 11 on down by the tenth digit all the way to zero, where we wouldn't be providing any power out to the rear. Now we've also got a boost button.

'B' with nothing beside it means no boost, we've got one, two, and three. Now this is going to be for different weights of trailer in relation to our vehicle. This is going to set how quickly and how aggressively our brakes are engaged once we press the pedal. It's going to allow us to really fine tune it to that exact feel we want under braking. Now another great thing about the Primus IQ is that with it being proportional, it's actually going to sense the amount of braking force that we're trying to achieve here though our pedal, using the accelerometer located at the side.

As it sense a braking event, it's going to translate that same amount of power back to that trailer to help us out. You can see here we've got a nice easy to read LCD display. It's going to show us what's going on there in the back. A 'C' means that we're connected. If I we're to unplug our simulated trailer, you'll see it switches over to 'NC'. This is going to give us a diagnostic as we're going down the road and let us know if we've had any kind of plug failure.

As soon as it's plugged back in, it's going to go right back to the 'C', indicating our trailer's connected. The Primus IQ also has a few integrated safeguards that will help protect our brake controller, our vehicle, and our trailer. It's going to have a very minimal draw when not in use, so as to not drain our battery. It's even going to reduce braking power going to the rear in those prolonged stops, like when we're sitting at stop lights or things like that. It's going to reduce that output going back so it doesn't overheat the brakes. Now unlike a timed delayed system we don't have to wait for braking power with the Primus IQ. Now to begin our installation, the first thing we need to do is get our pig-tail plugged into where it belongs. Now if we come just to the left side of the brake pedal here there's going to be a black panel. There are three catches on it. One's located here on the inside, that one's usually better to get to with a screwdriver. Then we've got the two out here, so we just pull out on those, and we can slide our panel down and out of the way. Then we're going to take our white, square end of our harness, we can plug that right into the factory plug there. Give it a good push-pull to make sure it's secure, and then we can route that wire straight up, just like that. We just want to ensure that our pig-tail comes out of the top once we get it back in position. Now lets route our pig-tail up and over, right here to the back side of where we're going to be mounting our brake controller, which we're going to do that, right on this tab here. We'll need a T15 Torx bit to take out that screw. Now we can bring in our bracket, place that right up on the screw that we removed. Now we can take one of the provided self-tappers and put it in that other slot. Now lets plug our connector into the back of the controller. We'll know we've got the power, we'll see our lights come on. Now it's just a matter of mounting it to our bracket. Now our manual override's here on the outside, boost control's going to be here on the top. It looks like in this situation we'll be able to mount it right up in that higher setting, keeping it up as high as possible away from any areas where it might interfere with us trying to drive. Thread them right in, with a total of four, two on each side. There we are, really nice and solidly mounted. As you can see it's not moving unless the dash board moves there. It's in a convenient location where we could easily reach down and operate our manual override lever, if need be. Now that we've seen how it works and how to install it, that going to complete today's look at the Tekonsha Primus IQ Trailer Brake Controller, part number TK90160, on our 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 2500.