A guide to using your electric brake controller
**A contributed post as written for The Safe Driver.
It pays to be a defensive driver and practice safety checks on your vehicle before taking it on the road. One crucial step in ensuring driving safety is to check and maintain your vehicle’s brakes regularly. When you’re towing a trailer, you have to do a more thorough check not only on your vehicle brakes, but also your brake controller and the trailer’s brakes. If you fail to maintain the condition of your brakes and the brake controller, you run the risk of breakdowns or, worse, road accidents. To avoid having to deal with faulty trailer brakes, buying a quality electric brake controller will make all the difference. But your responsibility doesn’t stop there. You also have to know how to use your electric brake controller properly.
Check out this guide on how to use and adjust your electric brake controller:
Plug In the Trailer to the Tow Vehicle
The first thing to do is to connect the trailer to the tow vehicle using a trailer brake plug. Take the trailer’s electric brake wiring and plug it into the tow vehicle’s connector located at the vehicle’s rear. If your tow vehicle has a screen display, it should indicate that the trailer is connected. You will then be prompted to select the right type of braking system installed on your trailer, either electric or electric over hydraulic. If your trailer is installed with electric over hydraulic brakes, you have to make sure your tow vehicle is also built with the parts needed to support this type of brake.
Warm Up Trailer Brakes Before Setting
Another electronic brake controller pre-setting step is testing your trailer brakes. Using your electronic brake controller’s manual adjustment buttons, set the initial gain at 5.0 or midpoint. You should maintain a speed of 30-40 kilometers per hour. You also have to make sure that you’re driving your tow vehicle and trailer on an even level surface or road that’s free from traffic or other vehicles. It can be an empty paved road or parking area.
Adjust the Gain Settings
As you are driving, set the electronic brake controller to its maximum gain setting limit. Observe when the trailer wheels
lock up. A wheel lockup happens when the tires of your trailer have stopped turning, and it skids on the pavement. If you have a friend or a partner with you, you can have them watch the trailer wheels outside or to listen for tire squeals. You can also observe it using your rearview mirrors and watch for smoke from the tires. When wheel lockup happens, adjust the gain setting down. Keep doing this until the entire rig reaches a slowed down speed, enough to move with the load around, then this setting is enough.
Repeat the Process
It takes time to get used to adjusting the electric brake controller’s gain setting, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be doing it in a breeze. To get the right gain setting for your trailer, keep driving and braking while keeping your trailer wheels and speed in check. You’ll notice how both your tow vehicle and the trailer are slowing down harmoniously once you get the setting right.
Gain Setting Reminders
It’s easy to adjust the gain setting of your electronic brake controller while you’re on a dry and flat paved road. However, this isn’t always the case when you’re driving daily or to far distances. You have to set and adjust your brake controller according to the following conditions:
- Changes in Trailer Load – The weight and the type of loads you put on your trailer could vary any time of the day. A heavier load requires an adjustment on your electric brake controller to a higher setting. This will give your trailer brakes a stronger force.
- Change in Weather Condition – A fine weather is a driver’s best friend, but the weather can change very quickly for the worse in just a few hours. When you’re towing on a rainy or stormy day, you’ll have to deal with strong winds and slippery roads. You have to keep your trailer from swaying, so you have to adjust your brake controller as well.
- Change in Road Condition – You’re not always driving on paved roads. Sometimes, you’ll find yourself on a rocky road, a steep road, or a sandy road. You can also count in the bad weather that leaves even the most desirable flat roads into dangerous slip-accident prone areas.
Final Thoughts
Towing a trailer full of valuable items takes extra driving care. Having an electric brake controller is a blessing, and it can save you from a lot of anxiety. More advanced electric brake controllers are even more convenient to use as they come in an automatic proportional mode that has an inertia-sensing feature for a quick brake response. But if you prefer to have more sense of control, they also come in user-controlled mode. Either way, the maintenance and attention to safe driving practices still fall on your hands.