beat to death!

[oldbird1965]

I guess if you have a new truck you don't care about the subject of brake controllers! I have had several and the most disappointing is the Tekonsha P3. I have sent three of them back and they have sent me three replacements. I swear this thing has almost killed my wife and I. If it wasn't for the brake handle on the controller we would have been in a wreak. I have gone over the setting with their tech department and nothing seems to work. Its not the pickup or the wiring or fuses. I have put on a cheap one and when set on a high mode it will put you thru the windshield. My 5er has disk brakes and I want your opinion on what is the best brake controller out there. Any thing besides a Tekonsha, that will never be in my truck again. If any of you have a Tekonsha, I hope I didn't step on your toes. It just doesn't work for me. Thanks!

[oldbird1965]

I mounted it as per instructions, flat and straight.

[Me_Again]

How is the P3 mounted? Manual says front must be horizontal, with no tilt left or right. I would also think that it must be aligned parallel to the front to back of the truck and not angle towards the driver!

http://hitchpro.com/application/support/instructions/N90195.pdf

Chris

[oldbird1965]

Jeremiah, I have not used it in awhile but I had it on the highest setting.

I had it turned all the way up and could only get 3 or 4 volts out of it. Scary!

[Allworth]

Another Question:

When you brake hard, what voltage shows on the display screen of the P-3? Under a hard, but not panic, braking mine shows about 8.2 volts and the trailer starts to lock up. (That is a 13,600# trailer behind a 3500 Chevy)

[jerem0621]

Question...have you tried to activate the boost setting on the P3? With that large of a trailer I would have it on B2 as a baseline.

Just curious.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[oldbird1965]

Me Again, I haven't heard of this problem with 'older trucks'. I sent cummins12v98 a pm. I love my old 7.3, I have done a ton of work to it and that's one of the reasons I keep it, I CAN WORK ON IT!!! I keep saying I'll buy a new pickup one of these years because as time goes on my body is breaking down, LOL. New pickups I can't work on for obvious reasons. OK, enough off topic, if this is my problem then I would like to correct it before my wife and I get killed. Why wouldn't the tech guys talk to me about this possibility instead of just sending me new ones?

Edit: My pickup with the new brakes can stop that 5er, no problem. I was towing my Travel Supreme and lost its brakes all together. I didn't have far to go so I went for it and my pickup stopped that 5er fine. Found out the fuse next to the Carlisle disk brake controller blew the fuse. The Carlisle people (now Cargo Brake) told me in cold weather to up the number on the fuse, I did and never had a problem again, except the one we are discussing. Thanks you guys for this help!

[shepstone]

Mile High wrote:

shepstone wrote:
Sorry guys, but I have to go with the OP here. I am on my second P3 , the up & down keys get stuck down and wont return on both of them, they worked fine for first couple of days then started sticking.

Maybe so, but that has nothing to do with the OP's issue he is having.

I thought that maybe it would "if" his down key is getting stuck down like mine does which brings the controller to zero, the up key doesn't get stuck all the way enough to trigger a change *yet*. I am not knocking the tekonsha controller I have had them before and they are great but a P3 is new to me as I have always used P2 before & wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

[Me_Again]

oldbird1965 wrote:
Sorry I haven't gotten back. My P3 will only apply the brakes a little bit even though I have the setting all the way up, unless I use the manual override. I have a 97 F350 Dually Powerstroke that I have checked and double checked all the wiring. I have the correct settings, walked thru the proper setting on the phone with them. I just sold my Travel Supreme and bought a Mobile Suites but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I still have the last P3 they sent me and will give it a try on the Mobile Suites. It just didn't want to work very well on the Travel Supreme so I put a old Activator II in there. It worked very well, the higher the settings, the more brakes. Its not proportional like the P3 and can be very jerky if set to high. Thanks for all your reply's, when I finally run the Mobile Suites I'll report back. If it works good with that then the problem must have been in the Travel Supreme! Thanks again!

If you read my reply above, you might see that the problem is an old truck that is not capable of slowing the combination enough to get a brake controller that uses an accelerometer to trigger trailer braking. The fact that the manual lever works fine proves that.

Again, find an used Maxbrake controller, they work on brake line pressure. Cummins12V98 had one for sale.

Chris

[oldbird1965]

Sorry I haven't gotten back. My P3 will only apply the brakes a little bit even though I have the setting all the way up, unless I use the manual override. I have a 97 F350 Dually Powerstroke that I have checked and double checked all the wiring. I have the correct settings, walked thru the proper setting on the phone with them. I just sold my Travel Supreme and bought a Mobile Suites but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I still have the last P3 they sent me and will give it a try on the Mobile Suites. It just didn't want to work very well on the Travel Supreme so I put a old Activator II in there. It worked very well, the higher the settings, the more brakes. Its not proportional like the P3 and can be very jerky if set to high. Thanks for all your reply's, when I finally run the Mobile Suites I'll report back. If it works good with that then the problem must have been in the Travel Supreme! Thanks again!

[Mile_High]

shepstone wrote:
Sorry guys, but I have to go with the OP here. I am on my second P3 , the up & down keys get stuck down and wont return on both of them, they worked fine for first couple of days then started sticking.

Maybe so, but that has nothing to do with the OP's issue he is having.

[shepstone]

Sorry guys, but I have to go with the OP here. I am on my second P3 , the up & down keys get stuck down and wont return on both of them, they worked fine for first couple of days then started sticking.

[tko9900]

I have had a P-2 for over ten years, absolutely no problems.

[jerem0621]

Let me get this straight....

The brakes on the trailer do not work when you hit the brakes on the truck with the Tekonsha but they do work when you use the manual lever?

Sounds like the brake light circuit is not sending a signal to the P3 to send the trailer brakes the signal.

What year truck do you have and what pigtail model # are you using?

I have a Prodigy and it's the BEST brake control I have ever used. And it's not even close.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[houstonstroker]

P3's have a setting for electric over hydraulic.