If you tow a boat trailer with hydraulic over electric brakes or a caravan, camper trailer or trailer with electric brakes, then you will need to have a brake control unit fitted to your tow vehicle. The trailer or caravan brakes will not work unless you have an Electric Brake Controller fitted in your tow vehicle or a drawbar mounted unit to control the brakes.

When the towing vehicle’s stop lights are activated, power feeds into the electric brake controller. A regulated power feed (depending on what your unit is set to) will then feed through the brake control wire from your brake control unit, through the tow vehicles electrical trailer plug and into the brake control wire fitted to your trailer or caravan This allows the trailer brakes to come on automatically when the vehicle’s brakes are applied. When adjusted correctly, the controller allows the driver to slow the combined tow vehicle and trailer smoothly and safely.

It’s important that the wiring used when installing an in-car brake control unit is heavy duty enough to allow the power to run through to the trailer. It also needs to have a good earth return, not just an earth to the body.

There are two types of electric brake controllers. Motion sensing also called pendulum style and time delay activated or also known as solid state. Despite the controller’s methods being different, both types of controllers are very similar. Both types have the same wiring configuration and allow the user to adjust braking power. Both also have a pressure sensitive manual override trigger. This allows the trailer brakes to work independently of the tow vehicle’s brakes.

Motion Sensing Controllers (also known as pendulum style controllers) 

These are activated by a pendulum circuit. Enabled by the brake pedal switch, the controller senses the vehicles stopping motion and applies a proportional voltage to the trailer’s brakes. When configured correctly the trailer or caravan will decelerate at the same speed as the tow vehicle. This increases braking efficiency and reduces brake wear. Pendulum style electric brake controllers work well under adverse braking conditions and have a smooth braking action. However, most pendulum style controllers are bulky, expensive and the car and the caravan must be on level ground when they are hooked up so that they calibrate correctly.  

Time Delayed Controllers

These are inexpensive, have a low profile and can be mounted on any angle. They work by operating at a predetermined braking rate and are designed to activate the brakes on a set delay. In some cases, the rate of brake application for a gradual stop or an attempted emergency stop is the same. So while time delayed electric brake controllers provide some braking they do not provide the most efficient balanced braking for combined tow vehicles and trailers.

There are a number of options when it comes to brands of brake control units and they vary in price depending on how advanced the unit is. The BOLD Team can help you to select and install the correct unit for your needs.- 

Call us on (02)8544-8114 or send us a message.

ELECTRIC BRAKE CONTROL UNITS WE RECOMMEND AND SUPPLY