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Full transcript: www.etrailer.com/tv-install-t...
Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today on our 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan with the factory tow package. We're gonna be showing you how to install the Tekonsha Prodigy P3 Trailer Break Controller. But before we get into that, I want to just take a minute, check this out and make sure it's gonna work for it. The Dodge Caravan are really popular vehicle and they're very capable. People do a ton of different things with them.
Whether you got a car load of people and you're trying to go maybe do some camping or whatever the case is, if you have a trailer that has trailer brakes you're gonna need a way to apply them. That way you can help slow down as opposed to just relying on just your van to do all the stopping. So that's for a brake controller, like this one is going to come into play. So what happens when you have this hooked up is whenever you hit the brake in the van it's gonna apply the brakes on the trailer. And this one is a proportional type brake controller which is definitely what I prefer or always recommend.
And what that's gonna do is give you a smoother stopping experience. So essentially just kind of simplify things, however hard you hit the brake in your van that's how hard the trailer breaks are gonna be applied. So let's say if you're just coming to a normal stop and you're just kind of barely on that brake pedal and hitting it, depending on some of your settings too, it might not even come on which we'll get to in a minute. But to give you an example, I'll turn this up. So you're barely on the brake, you're getting a little bit of output there.
On the other hand, let's say if you come to an emergency stop you're gonna stand on that brake pedal. It's going to match that type of pressure. And so it just makes for a more smooth and controlled braking experience. The P3 here it has a ton of different options and features. You can make a lot of adjustments, which is perfect for those of you that really wanna fine tune your towing experience, or if you tow multiple different trailers, or just want to have the option to be able to do this type of thing.
So what I was pushing a minute ago was the boost button which is this here and you're gonna have level one, two, three and off. So generally speaking, the heavier the trailer the higher you wanna set that boost. So off or boost level one, usually be a load little bit lighter than your vehicle. Boost three. Oh I'm sorry, boost two, about the same weight as your vehicle and the highest boost level three, that's if it weighs more. But, that's just a general rule of thumb. You can make them adjustments and how you feel 'cause what this is gonna do is kind of change how aggressive the brakes are gonna be applied, how quick and things of that nature. So the higher the boost the more stopping power you're gonna have so to speak. So maybe if you're on the highway, say something pretty heavy, maybe boost two is all you need. But then if you start getting in the mountains, or start going up big hills and stuff you can always crank that up a little bit and give you a little more aggressive breaking. You're also gonna be able to adjust the power level and honestly this is the first thing you wanna do once you get this all hooked up. So that's what these buttons over here do. So it goes max 14 and all the way down but good rule of thumb start about halfway, six or something like that. Hook up to the trailer that you're gonna be towing. Go on flat, dry ground, and go about 25 miles an hour and then you're gonna apply this manual override now which I'm gonna talk about in a second. But push it all the way over and apply full voltage back there and the brakes lock up, trailer brakes lock up, turn it down, and try it again. And if breaking isn't high you would expect if you want it to brake harder crank it up and and keep repeating that until you find that sweet spot of how you like to tow and how your trailer reacts and everything else like that. Which brings me to my next point, this manual override. So whenever you hit this, what it's gonna do is apply just the brakes on the trailer. So you would use this in the event of a sway situation primarily. Something like this, especially in this van if you had a bigger camper or something that might start wanting to get away from you. So it's kind of going on the highway and bouncing a little bit and windy day. If that happens, you wanna just supply this smoothly and that'll send power back to the trailer kind of slow it down, square it up and get it riding true and straight behind your vehicle again. The brake controller can pull trailers wi