Tekonsha 90195 P3 Electronic Brake Control

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tekonsha 90195 P3 Electronic Brake Control

Product Details

Item Weight: 1.5 pounds
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
ASIN: B000P17NXQ
Item model number: 90195

By : Tekonsha

Item Description

Tekonsha P3 Electronic Brake Manage is straightforward-to-see, distinct LCD display with select-a-color solutions. It has electric or hydraulic switchable effortless-to-fully understand diagnostics, dash-hugging design and is compact. Selectable patented enhance function to customize stopping painless access and up-front controls. Speedy disconnect for simple storage with storage pouch included.

Tekonsha 90195 P3 Electronic Brake Control

Customer Reviews

Consider this... The combine cost of your tow vehicle and trailer... The combine weight of your tow vehicle and trailer... The fact that your trailer may well weigh more than your tow vehicle... And that moron that just jumped in your lane then slammed on his brakes... This is NOT the time to think to yourself, "maybe I should've gotten a better brake controller." Seriously, when the difference in cost is under $100, is it really not worth buying the best?
I've used the Tekonsha P3 for two and half years now and I have nothing but praises to sing! Features, user friendliness, and results! This unit has it all. First lets talk about the mechanism. It uses a digital G-Sensor as apposed to a physical pendulem. Why is this a benifit? Because there are no downhill issues that you see with the physical and analog type sensors. Prior to digial sensors, the downhill slope would throw off the pendulem and the brake controller either would send a weaker current to the brakes or none at all. Some people have questioned the reliablity of digital sensors. But with more than 10 years of full production digital units, complaints are actaully less than the older analog units. Consider this as well, the sensor is not only quicker but more accurate as well, hard to soft braking is much safer now. How does it work? Just like any other accelerometor...it senses the volume deceleration and then computes an appropriate voltage and current to send to the trailer brakes based on a percentage of the user's max output setting.
Let's talk interface. A four button face with a roughly 1.5" LCD display plus a belly mounted manual switch. With no brakes connected, this unit will dispay the default "Tekonsha Screen". Once brakes are connected via the trailer plug, the unit will display the "Tow Screen". It has a large two/three read out that displays 0.0 as a default. While sitting still and once brake pressure is applied it will jump to approximately 10% of the max set output, after 3 seconds of being stationary it will move up to 25% power. This is designed to "hold" the trailer if stopped on an incline or decline. Setting the max brake power is a snap with the two "Up" and "Down" buttons on the left side of the face. The value moves up and down by 0.1 increments and quite quickly if you hold the button down. The last two buttons are "boost" and "page" which I will discuss when I talk features. The last button is the manual brake override. This bottom mounted spring loaded slider switch will manually add braking power to the trailer brakes (up to the user set max) even without depressing the vehicles brake peddle. This is a standard feature on all brake contorllers, but I wanted anyone looking for their first brake controller to understand what this was. Lastly, is the warning screen. It's a deep red screen with a trailer and a "no" sign. This indicates that the controller which had previously sensed brakes connected no longer can sense them. Generally an indication of a poor trailer connection at the wiring harness or a problem with the brakes themsleves.
Let's talk features. I've mentioned the "Boost" button, but what is it? There are 4 levels of boost for trailer brakes. Off, LV. 1, LV. 2, ; LV. 3. Boost adds a brief (fraction of a second) burst to the trailer brakes which slows the trailer slightly more than the normal pressure would and keeps it from bumping or pushing the tow vehicle when brake pressure is initailly applied. Very important if as many are these days, your trailer weighs more than your tow vehicle. After the burst it returns the voltage and current to the G-sensors reccomended output. There isn't a real scientific method for figuring what you need to use. The picture on the home screen shows LV1 as small trailer, 2 as a med tailer, and 3 as a large trailer. My trailer is a 6K lb. TT and I just leave it on the default LV. 1 boost. Everytime the units is powered it returned to the default LV. 1. The unit will power down after 15 mins with no trailer connected AND no input from the brake signal wire. The "Page" button will take you to a second screen that you navigate with the "up", "down", and "Boost" (now "enter") buttons. This sceen has some cool features as some useful features. "Backlight" allows you to brighten or dim the brightness of the display. "Color" lets you set the color of the display. (Yeah I know, unessesary, but cool) The default color is "White" which is more of a light blue. There's also Magenta, Orange, Dk Blue, Violet, Lt. Green, and Dk. Green. Red is not availible as it's reserved as a warning color for the "no trailer connection" warning screen. Back to the page screen. There's also a VERY USEFUL troubleshooting screen. It lets you view diagnostics on the fly and over the road that can give you four digit readouts of battery voltage, stoplight (brake input signal) voltage, brake voltage, and brake current. This screen alone is worth the cost of this brake controller! When you first connect your tailer do some tests and record the max input you set, the output under normal braking conditions, as well as the brake voltage and amperage. If down the line you get the feeling the brakes aren't working properly, you can re-run this test and see if it's an electrical problem or not. Finally when your done, pressing the page button will return you to the "tow screen."
Installation. A snap for anyone that has a factory tow package. Tekonsha offers plug and play wiring harnesses that plug into most make and model years of trucks. If you have to have it installed or choose to install it yourself as I did, it can be challenging. But it's a simple four wire hookup. A 12V input from the battery (running thru a 30A auto reset breaker NOT a fuse), an output to the brake pin of your 6 or 7-way trailer connector, a stoplight input running to your vehicle's stoplight switch behind the brake peddle, and lastly a frame ground. The mount can be a little challenging to install because of the akward access to the screws, but it can be mounted at nearly any angle other than strait up or down and provided the face is facing a close to directly rearward as possible.
All in all, this is probably the most important review I've ever done. This controller will save you grief and keep you and your vehicle safe. Make sure for your safety, your families safety, and the safety of all those on the road you buy the brake controller that does it's job the best. Buy the Tekonsha P3.

One of the great features this product includes is monitoring the voltage of the battery. The normal volts for an automotive battery is 12 volts. On a recent trip to pick up our new camper, our voltage begin to drop like a rock! This product warned me that something was wrong with my vehicle. This product continued to monitor the voltage which dropped to about 7 volts! The problem was 2 dry-rotted wires to the alternator. If it would not have been for this product and it warning me of this problem occurring, I would have continued to drive and probably broke down in not such a desirable of a location. This products ability to monitor the vehicles voltage system allowed me to prepare myself in planning on where to get off the exit and prevented me from having to call a tow vehicle to assist with the problem that I was having!