A simple LED display and a slide-bar manual override make this time-delayed brake controller easy to read and easy to use. Installation is quick and simple with no mounting restrictions. Activates brakes with a preset intensity.
Features:
[NLA]Curt Venturer Brake Controller - Time Delay - 1 to 3 Ax:Specs:
[NLA]Curt Venturer Brake Controller - Time Delay - 1 to 3 Ax:Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today we're going to be taking a look at CURT's Venturer Time-Delay Trailer Brake Controller. This is a very slim and thin brake controller. So if you're looking for something that's going to have a minimal impact in your vehicle, this is definitely one of the smaller ones out there. As far as a brake controller that's in one package like this. And since it's a time delay brake controller, you can put it pretty much wherever you want, because the orientation's really not that important. Many of your proportional brake controllers need to be mounted in a specific orientation, they have to be leveled side to side, and front to back needs to be fairly level as well.
There is angles that you are allowed, but you can't have any angle. And that's due to those having an internal inertia sensor, which allows them to be proportional, because that inertia sensor detects the vehicle movement here as we go to stop.With our time delay, we don't have that sensor inside giving us the freedom to mount this where we want. We can put it behind the dash, in the glove box, wherever. I usually do recommend you have it in a place where you can access the manual slider so you can use that, though.The way our time delay brake controller works, is it's pretty much it's kind of like it says in the name. We have two adjustments, we've got the gain, as well as the sink, located here on the side.
These are just sliders that slide back and forth, and allow you to hit the minimum and maximum. The gain is your maximum output, so if we put the slider over here, you can see our display here showing maximum bars. We've got it all the way over. If I turn it down, you can see that our maximum output is adjusted there.When we press the brakes, the sink will choose how quickly it builds up to that maximum setting that we've got our gain here. So if we go all the way up, you'll see, boom, how quickly and aggressively it would apply our brakes.
If we turn it all the way down, it will gradually build up our pressure on the brakes back there, giving us smoother operation. So you're just going to need to test with your trailer. And it's going to vary depending upon whether you've got it loaded or unloaded. In a lot of cases, if you've got it unloaded, you're going to have this set quite low. You can load it up, and then you'll turn it up, and you may need to adjust that sink to have more aggressive breaking if it feels like it's not applying quickly enough.
Like your trucks kind of taking the brunt and then it starts to kick in.There's also our manual override here, and this is useful for a lot of different applications. I like to use it for testing purposes. You can press this over, and then verify if you've got your output back at your seven way. You could also be driving your vehicle, maybe five, 10, 15 miles an hour when you're testing it, to make sure your brakes are working. And instead of hitting the brake pedal on your vehicle, you can hit your slider over. And then you can see how aggressively the brakes are applying. If they're able to bring your vehicle to a stop, how long it takes them to come to a stop, that can be really useful for helping you determine your settings, especially for the gain output.And it's also useful if your trailer starts to sway. Sometimes when you're pulling your trailer, and it's going to start going back and forth a little bit like this. By bringing our slider over, just momentarily, it's going to apply the brakes, which is going to cause our trailer and our vehicle to want to somewhat separate. Because our trailer's going to become slower then, because the brakes are applying, and they're going to go like this. So instead of this being able to do this, they're going to become taunt, and it's going to keep you in a nice straight line. You can then let off, and in most cases, the sway is not going to come back unless you we're to get a heavy crosswind, or hit some potholes, or whatever else caused it in the first place.This time delay brake controller is going to be a great, economical, entry-level option. And the economical reason is one of the biggest reasons why had chosen it for my truck here. It is an older truck, and I really didn't want to put a lot of money into it. I just want it to be able to do the things I need it to do. And I've got my pop-up camper here that I want to be able to bring with me, and operate the brakes. So this was a nice, easy, and economical way for me to have that happen. This is a single axle trailer, but at home I also have a car hauler that is a tandem axle, and I wanted a break controller that would work with that as well.This brake controller works up to three axles. So it's got no problem with my pop-up camper here, as well as my car hauler. In addition to working with bumper pull trailers, like the pop-up camper that I was showing you, or a car hauler like I have at home, you can also use it with gooseneck and fifth wheel trailers like we have here. Because this is going to work with up to three axles, so our tandem-axle, gooseneck trailer here should be no problem. And even if you've got a larger fifth wheel gooseneck trailer with triple axles, you can do that as well.Now, keep in mind, you will need a seven way connector. Check your vehicle and verify if it is a factory tow package, and verify what type of connections you've got. If you've got a four-pole connector, we can use kit ETBC-7 00:04:44 to turn that four pole into a fully operational, working seven way connector. A lot of your vehicles that have a factory tow package may not have a seven-way connector at the back, but a lot of them do have plugs at the back for a seven way connector. So I would recommend using our fit guide to determine what type of wiring package you're going to need. Whether it's just a connector that'll plug in and work with your factory wiring, or if you need the full ETBC-7 kit to wire it up yourself.Now that we've gone over some of the features, let's go over a typical installation. Now it is going to vary slightly depending upon your vehicle model, where you're going to route your wiring, and what kit that you're going to need to get it installed. Because with your brake controller, you are going to get mounting hardware, mounting bracket, and everything you see here. So we can easily get it mounted up to our dash. It just kind of screws right into the dash. And you don't have to put it in there, you can put it wherever you like. This is just a common location, because it's easy to access, make adjustments, while you're driving.Once you've got it mounted up though then you're going to need to wire it up. And normally I'd have this wires zip tied up, but I left it loose so we could show you what we got going on here. Coming out of the back of our brake controller, we've got four wires that go to a connector. Now, here is a universal harness from CURT that I've installed, and it just clicks into the connector here, coming off of our brake controller, you can kind of see that here. They just click right together. On this universal harness here on the other end, it just goes to bare wires that we can strip back and make the connections as necessary.If you've got an older vehicle, or one without a factory tow package, then I would highly recommend this universal to get it installed. You will also likely need kit ETBC-7 if you don't have a factory tow package, or you've got an older vehicle like mine here, and that's going to provide you with the seven pole connector at the back and all the necessary wiring connectors you'll need to run all those circuits, to get a fully operating seven way connector. If you are going to be doing that like me, then we'll need to wire up these wires. But there is another option out there if you've got a newer vehicle, especially if you got one with the factory tow package. CURT does have custom fit harnesses available, with the connector in here, that plugs into our CURT brake controller. But on the other end of our harness, instead of having bare wires, it has a factory connector that'll plug right into your vehicle. You'll want to use our fit guide to determine you're getting the appropriate custom fit connector for your vehicle.If you do have that type of vehicle, and you can just plug that in. Once you've got it plugged in, for the most part, your installation is usually complete. Your brake controller is operational ready to go. Every now and then you may need to refer to your owner's manual, and install a fuse in your fuse box. You'll want to look for trailer, or something like that, maybe T-R-L.But now, if you we're like me, using in the universal, we do need to hook these up manually. So we've got four circuits here that we're going to connect. You can see it's the same colors coming off the other end of our harness here. So we've got our white wire here, which is our ground wire. This one, on the other end of our harness, I just attached a ring terminal to it, and ran it into the metal surface underneath the dash to give us our ground. The red wire here is our brake signal input, from the brake stop light switch on the vehicle, going to our brake controller. This lets the brake controller know when you're pressing the brake pedal. If you have an older vehicle like this, you can easily tap into that and get your signal using a quick splice.Some of your brand new modern vehicles do you have variable voltage stoplight switches, in which the output may be incompatible with a brake controller. But we do have custom fit stoplights, which is here at etrailer.com, so you can add an additional stoplight switch to have the appropriate output.Our blue wire here is our brake signal output, this is what's coming from our brake controller and going to the seven way at the back of the vehicle, to operate the trailer brakes on the trailer. And most cases, if you don't already have this, you're going to be using kit ETBC-7 to make that run. You could also purchase individual wiring components here at etrailer.com, but I highly recommend ETBC-7 if you are running your own. And lastly, we've got the black wire here. And that is our power wire to power up our brake controller. This just runs outside, underneath the hood of our vehicle, and connects to the battery positive. I did use a circuit breaker and wired it in line with this to ensure we have proper circuit protection. If you we're to purchase kit ETBC-7, that would come included with it, so you'd have all that circuit protection that you need. And that completes our look at CURT's Venturer Time-Delay Trailer Brake Controller..
I’ve owned 5 brake controllers. This is the only one I’ve disliked. This controller has non digital controls (should have been my first clue it might not be good) it just has two slide controls. Problem is two things, the slide controls themselves are black, the same color as the case on the unit and you can’t even see the position of the slide controls because they blend in with the color of the case. It’s impossible to tell if they’re turned down all the way, turned up all the way, in the middle? The other problem is that the slides are so imprecise, They slide way too easily and there’s no detents and I found if you even bump the unit slightly or are going over rough roads the slide switches migrate. I was towing a couple of weeks ago and I thought I had the switches dialed in as good as I could, I was on some rough roads, due to road construction in the area, the output switch vibrated over to maximum and the next time I hit the brakes , the trailer locked up completely. So I had to turn it off until I could get to the next town where there was a parking lot I could readjust. I’m definitely getting rid of this thing and I definitely recommend you do not buy it. Buy something with digital output controls so you know precisely where the settings are. I firmly believe this controller is dangerous and I know if I keep using it I’m going to get an accident.
Supper easy to install the hardest part was deciding where to mount the controller. The whole installation took less than 10 minutes. Definitely get the wire harness it made things plug and play.
When used with part number C51515, easy install, hardest part of install is deciding where to drill into your new vehicle's dash to mount controller, or just ask your wife :). The included test light makes finding the correct "cold" brake wire a breeze.
Sorry for the late follow-up. I just wanted to let you know that the brake
controller and wiring harness I purchased through eTrailer worked very well
with my 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummins 6.7L diesel. Pictures are
attached for your use, as required.
The trailer was an 18-foot enclosed snow machine tailer with a steel
chassis. I can't remember the empty weight, but it's substantial. We towed
empty and full on dry and snow covered roads from Oklahoma to Colorado and
back. Even with th exhaust brake on my truck, I can't imagine towing this
load through the hills and mountains without a brake controller. It's been
done before, but I would say it's an unnecessary risk given the more than
reasonable prices at eTrailer...it was cheap insurance pulling such a heavy
rig with my family on board.
The controller was definitely not your top-of-the-line model, but the
adjustability and controls were more than adequate for somebody who tows
occasionally. A professional may desire more proportional controls and
adjustability, but not much more. This unit peformed flawlessly.
Thank you for your time. Please feel free to contct me if you would like
any clarification on my statements or pictures.
The CURT Venturer brake controller works as described in the user guide. It would be better if the display LED segments were bright enough to see in bright light. My installation is different from most. I mounted the brake controller and a trailer 7-pole socket to my Trailer Valet with a magnet and use the controller to operate the electric brakes on my trailer. This is far better than relying on the Trailer Valet brake alone, especially when moving the trailer on a grade.
With this brake controller and wiring harness installation was a snap in my 2014 Ford F150 STX. The unit is so light I used velcro to attach it to the dash rather then drill holes and use screws with the bracket provided. Easy to adjust the brake sync and braking force. Just a great product for the price.
Straight forward installation. Works flawless. Simple and effective. Nearly impossible to find more bang for the buck. Used for hauling a twin axle trailer when loaded with my skid steet exceeds 13k lbs. Set the strength of the braking and rate of application with an emergency whammy switch. I have no reason to get anything else.
I installed the Curt C51110 along with Plug & Play C51382 into my 2016 Frontier. The installation took me about 2 minutes. I did not drill holes or use the supplied mounting bracket, just Velcro. Works perfectly!
Super easy installation on my 99 Dodge Ram. I have only tested this item but I will be using it on a road trip soon. although I believe it will work perfectly. easy installation I recommend purchasing the wiring harness that plugs in under the dash. you can install this in about 10 minutes or less.
Received product very fast. Everything I ordered was exactly what I got. Plug and play with what i ordered. It was hooked up with in less than 2 minutes then a couple minutes to screw in the bracket screws. Very pleased . I needed trailer brakes because I bought a camper and I did not want to wear out my truck brakes faster than normal. I looked around locally and on internet Etrailer had the best deal .
They are the best at what they do. They found the parts I needed and got them to me the next day. I appreciate the dedication to their customers. This product worked for my 1997 Ford F350 with the factory-installed tow package.
simplistic and it works for my purposes. Small form factor to fit to the left of the driver side dash.
Everything was as described. Easy easy installation in 10 minutes. Not the top of the line controller but it's all I need. Very fast shipping as well. Couldn't be more happy with etrailer. I will be purchasing my fifth through etrailer soon!
Great job came on time. Installed easily. Works great. Better still is the service from etrailer. New what I needed for my truck. Deserves repeat business
Excellent site! Excellent information and How-To videos! Saved several hundred dollars installing myself. Free shipping was a bit slow, but that's expected. Will definitely recommend!
I ordered thru etrailer twice. Both for brake controller and wire adaptor. Pleased with first shipment as it came fast and packaged well in its own individual package. My second order was fast as well,but the brake controller was in a damaged plastic box and looked like it was opened and crushed. Try to close it and wouldn't close. The wire harness was lose and just thrown in the box unlike my first order, which was in its own packaging as well. All in all I would purchase from etrailer again.
We have a small car. So our trailer is reasonably light, but the added control is great! The controller works seamlessly with our driving
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!
Plugged right in to my expeditions factory plug quick easy install.
PERFECT. The etrailer.com employee (Roger R) that assisted me on my phone in order was fast, and efficient. He looked up my truck (2004 f250 diesel 4x4), and assisted me in ordering the exactly correct harness for my application. Plug and play. Thanks.
Received my brake controller but no bracket! Called E trade an talked to Phillip, fixed me right up! Great Customer service!
Installation pics on my Ford F-150
I purchased the Curt Venturer trailer brake controller to install in my '06 Tundra to tow a 3,000 lb, single axle, travel trailer. The controller was easy to install and I used one of the Curt custom harnesses that plugged directly into the pigtail connector of the truck. No wiring work required; just plug and play.
This little controller does what it claims and will stop the trailer, and truck, depending on how it is set and the road surface. It is a great value. I only with wish it had a rotary adjuster for the brake power level. See next paragraph for why.
There are two sliding adjusters on this controller; (1) for the power level applied to the brakes and (1) for the delay time prior to brake application. There is very little resistance to moving the slide adjuster for brake power level and there is a wide range of power in a fairly short slide travel. Therefore, it requires some finesse to get the power level set where I like it for changing road surfaces; sand, gravel, and asphalt.
Other than taking care to make power level adjustments, I like the value and performance of this controller.
Excellent. Perfect fit, exactly what was needed. Connected the Curt C51110 Brake control to factory wiring. Only thing that could make it better is if it came with someone to plug it in for me and save me 10 seconds.
Do you have a question about this Trailer Brake Controller?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer.com we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.