An easy-to-read digital number display, 10 power levels, and a pinch-trigger manual override make this time-delayed brake controller easy to use. Installation is simple with no mounting restrictions. Activates brakes with a preset intensity.
Features:
Specs:
Gain control lets you set the maximum amount of power that will be applied to your trailer's brakes, adjusting in increments of 0.5. How much braking output you need is determined by the weight of your trailer; a heavier trailer will need more power to bring it to a stop. You want to go as high as you can without the trailer brakes locking up. Typically, the gain is only readjusted when you experience changing road conditions or if the weight of your trailer changes. To get more power to your brakes, press the upper orange rocker switch. To decrease the gain, press the lower switch. When you make your adjustment, the gain setting will show on the LED screen for 10 seconds as a series of bars and then go into sleep mode.
Once you have the gain set, you can fine-tune your braking by adjusting the load control on a scale of 1 to 9. This controls the aggressiveness of your trailer's braking, meaning how quickly the brakes reach the maximum braking level. Load control can get the braking power to your trailer faster and with more intensity so that it doesn't push your tow vehicle forward. If your vehicle takes too long to come to a stop, increase the setting by pressing the upper black rocker switch. If it stops too abruptly, decrease the setting by pressing the lower switch. You can alter the setting to suit your driving preferences or to improve handling based on changing road conditions or varied trailer loads.
The Discovery comes with a easy-to-reach, pinch-trigger manual override, great for stopping sway or controlling your trailer's momentum in emergencies. To engage the manual override, just push in the trigger. This will activate the trailer's brakes and brake lights without you having to apply the brakes on your tow vehicle, perfect for limiting trailer movement while you're cruising.
The LED display on the Discovery is large and easy to read at a glance. It will show you what setting the brake controller is on as well as give you information for troubleshooting. You can adjust the screen brightness or trigger night mode so it won't glare obnoxiously on your dash. Press the control button to cycle through the different modes.
Because inertia plays no role in the functioning of this controller, you do not have to mount the unit at any particular angle. Your mounting options are limitless, so long as you can still easily access the controller and the manual override. The included bracket is designed to mount the brake controller flush to the dash so it takes up almost no space at all.
The included custom-fit adapter plugs into the port on your vehicle's built-in brake control wiring harness, which you'll find underneath the dash, to the left of the steering column, taped to another harness near the emergency brake pedal. Once you're plugged into your factory port, just plug the other end of the adapter into the Discovery. Because there are no wires to connect, installation is not permanent. You can unplug and remove the controller at any time to transfer it to another vehicle or securely stow it away.
Note: If you don't already have a 7-way plug at the back of your vehicle, take a look at our exclusive 7- and 4-way brake controller installation kit (ETBC7 - sold separately).
The Curt Discovery comes equipped with time-delayed braking. Every time you apply the brakes in your vehicle, a signal is sent - via the brake switch - to the Discovery. The controller then sends power out to your trailer brakes to activate them with an intensity set by you, at a rate determined by you. Both the amount of braking power (gain) and rate of application (load) can be adjusted to suit your preference, the road conditions, the type of trailer, and the weight of your load. To determine which levels are best for your application, test your towing setup and choose what feels right.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, everyone, Aidan here with etrailer. Today, we're gonna be taking a look at the Curt Discovery NEXT Brake Controller. This is gonna be a time-delayed brake controller. Let's check it out. When it comes to brake controllers, there's gonna be two options you're probably looking at, time-delayed and proportional. Proportional is gonna be the nicer of the two where if you lightly press your brakes, the brakes in your trailer are also going to be lightly applied.
If you slam on the brakes, the brakes in your trailer are also going to match that proportionally. With a time-delayed brake controller, it's gonna be applied at the same rate every time, so you don't get that fine adjustment. You can still adjust the settings, but it's gonna be the same every time. So if we're rolling up to a stop sign, coming to a very slow and predictable stop, and our gain and sensitivity are set kinda high, it's gonna be applying the brakes pretty hard. Same for if we have those set kind of low and we slam on our brakes on the highway, because someone in front of us stopped, the brakes aren't gonna be applied in a similar fashion.
There is the manual override you can always pinch to apply, but that's just something to know with a time-delayed system like this. Let's talk about those controls. The manual override is a pinch style where I'm pressing the button with my thumb. It's pretty easy to reach from the driver's seat where I've got it all set up. So whenever I'm driving, I feel like if I needed to suddenly reach down and get it, I can find that pretty easily every time, and index my thumb well enough to get a good press.
So good to know for emergency situations where you might need that. Now, there's gonna be two sets of controls here for the gain and the load. The orange buttons are going to adjust our gain or our brake power. You can go anywhere from 0.5 up to 9.9, and this is going to signify the different power levels. So 0.5 is the weakest, and as I go up, it's going to get more and more powerful.
So if I have a heavier trailer that needs more stopping power, I'd set it higher. The next one is going to be our load. This is basically how quickly the brakes are applied, so that can go from 1 to 9. At 1, it's going to be the lowest, and at 9, it's going to be the fastest or the quickest application. So basically, ramping from zero to fully applied where we have that gain set. So for demonstration, I'm just going to put the gain all the way up to max, and I'm gonna hit the brakes. And you'll see, slowly, it'll climb up to where we set it. And if I turn that load down all the way to 1, it's going to climb much slower to that designated power level. So you can fine tune this to your own trailer application, and depending on how heavy of a trailer you have and how good the brakes are, that will determine what you want those set at. But generally, that gain is going to be for the weight of the the trailer, and you can kinda determine the load from there. Now, to give a visual indicator of that gain, we've got our vehicle hooked up to a trailer simulator box. I've got the gain set to the absolute lowest it goes, so that's gonna be the lowest brake power, and you can see where the voltage is reading right now. If I turn the gain up to 5, that's gonna be right in the middle, you'll see that voltage will climb up higher. And then if I turn it up to the max, 9.9, you'll see that climb up even higher. So this is just to give you some visual indication of that different power level of the braking. This is designed to work with trailers up to four axles and will work with PWM, ABS, cruise controller, and electric-over-hydraulic brakes. So keep that in mind as you're picking this out if it's gonna work with your trailer. Up to four axles, I'd say for the most part, you're gonna be totally fine. If you don't need one that can go up to four axles and you like this style, Curt does make a similar version that's up to three axles. So that's something to keep in mind too if you don't need this much. Now, the big advantage to something like this, and something you probably noticed if you're familiar with brake controllers already, is going to be the size. It's a lot smaller and a lot more shallow than the brake controller we pulled out of this 4Runner today. And that's great, because even though it's mounted externally, it's not going to be in the way of your knees as you're getting in and out of the vehicle. And as I'm in a normal driving position, I've got plenty of distance between it and my leg. I don't feel like I'm gonna be hitting it all the time, 'cause it doesn't stick out very far. That's thanks to the very low profile bracket. We've got it mounted up with the included double-sided adhesive, but you can also use the included self-tapping screws. Just know that they're pretty long, and you're gonna have to have clearance behind there. But this will just click into place over that bracket. (bracket clicking) You can hear that snap in, and that's what holds it in. One thing to note is that because it's not inertia based, you can mount this really wherever it fits best, so it doesn't necessarily need to be level or facing any certain direction. Now, the installation can vary depending on your vehicle. I'd say check for what your vehicle has in terms of pigtail adapters. That's what we we're able to do with this option from Curt. We offer this pigtail adapter on our site here at etrailer, and that allows us to just plug directly into the vehicle's prep package for this. So just check to see if your vehicle can do that, because that's definitely going to be the easiest option as far as installation goes, 'cause it just plugs right in and all you have to worry about is mounting up that bracket, and then tucking up that wire loom from the adapter. Something else to note is that that LED readout does have a number of different functions. You can adjust the brightness, there's a day and night mode, but it's also gonna give us readouts for different errors. So if something's maybe not fully connected or something, it will tell us here. Your instructions give you a full list of all the different errors that can occur and short descriptions of what they are. But because its screen gives full text readouts, it's pretty easy to tell what's going on based on what it's showing. Like for example, when we first hooked this up to our simulator box, we didn't have the 7-way plugged in all the way, and it told us it wasn't connected. So we went back there, pushed the plug in the rest of the way, and then it worked properly. So that's going to help with just troubleshooting anything that may be occurring in your setup. For me, I think this is a nice middle ground between having the controls, easy to access, and having that LED readout, so you can see those errors and the power, and just have a little bit more control over it while still staying out of the way and being flushed to the dash. But that was just our look at the Curt Discovery NEXT Brake Controller. Thanks for watching.
This brake controller adapter harness fit exactly as described.
I have a 2015 Traverse with V92 Factory tow package. All I had to do was plug this controller into the vehicle harness with the supplied plug and wala, everything worked perfect. Amy placed my order and she was very helpful in choosing what controller I wanted. Good Job Amy!
Took about 10 minutes to install. Have not made all the adjustments yet, but is easy to understand.
Tested . Work fine and advertised
excellent service and delivery.
Made it easy to adapt to the vehicle ha rness.
I haven't installed this yet but it appears to be exactly what I needed. I can always count on Etrailer for my accessories
Like its compact size and simple operat ion.
Very helpful, knowledgeable and friendl y!
Right adaptor wiring for our brake cont roller!
This controller came ready to use out of the box, Watched a YouTube video on the installation just to be sure and installed it myself in about 1/2 hour [I work slow} We used it this weekend and it worked flawlessly, seems like it set itself up and just worked great
Worked as described, harness is a little on short side so your limited as to were you can mount brake controller
Perfect pigtail!
Made the install a breeze.
Excellent service and delivery
Connected and does what it's supposed to to do. No problems after a year of use.
Plugged it in and everything worked accordingly. Thanks etrailer.
Plug and Play just as stated
Fits perfect can't ask for anything bet ter
Easy to use. Plug and play!
Makes hooking up controlled super easy
Its easy to install yourself. Plug in then your all set. No issues.
Plug right in no problem!
Works great easy to mount
Excellent fit great quality easy install.
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