When I got my first travel trailer years ago, I installed a trailer brake controller made by Kelsey Hays that tapped into the brake line of that old 1963 Chevy Sub. As you stepped on the brakes it moved a piston in the brake controller that varied a resister in the controller, and the trailer brakes pretty much followed the trucks brakes.
Then they started building vehicles with dual master cylinders with split braking systems for the front and rear of the vehicle as a safety measure. And that was the end of the old Kelsey Hays controllers and the displacement of fluid caused problems in a split system.
This site list the history of some of the different controllers over the years.
http://www.trucontrol.com/brake_control ... chart.html
Digging around a bit it appears that the Hensley Trucontrol Gold is very similar technology to the Prodigy P3.
So in the last few weeks I decided it was time to replace my old Prodigy brake controller with a more modern one. I had wanted to get a BrakeSmart controller a few years back, however they were very expensive, and are now gone! So I choose the similar product from Max Brake.
http://www.maxbrake.com/ purchasing it online from http://www.plugitright.com
The Max Brake uses a Honeywell hydraulic fluid load sensor in one of the brake lines at the master cylinder. This sensor measures brake hydraulic pressure with very little fluid displacement and turns that into a electrical signal for the brake controller. So once again, like many years ago, trailer brakes can follow what the driver is doing with the brake pedal in the tow vehicle, along with the advantage of modern electronics to handle gain and other settings.
Nice things like monitoring the trailer brake connections, looking for shorts, measuring and displaying amperage to the trailer and auto night dimming are included.
There is also another new kid on the block. It is Direclink. http://www.direclink.com/ This new controller plugs into the vehicle data bus and gets it's braking information directly from the vehicle. I decided this was a little to new for me. And I plug my scan tool into the port from time to time, because of the tuning of my truck for higher hp and torque.
Well, last Friday morning I could not take it any longer, so I aired up the rear tires on the truck, put the tow mirrors on and went for a spin. All I can say is wow! It stops as a single unit now. Before the truck always had to lead the trailer. City and highway were two different things.
Now it is just a single unit that behaves the same at any speed, with the feeling of a lot less braking required on the trucks put.
I have new brake shoes that will be here on the 7th. I do have one little issue with the brakes to try and figure out. The front axle on the trailer is getting more braking than the rear. This is noticeable in brake drum temps and locking them on gravel. The shoes have always worn about the same, so it is a bit of a mystery. Will look at things very carefully this time, including wiring, magnets and mechanical.
In this picture to the right of the brake fluid tank you see the hard line coming from a T at the front line of the master cylinder up to the sensor.
In this picture I secured the sensor from vibration.
In this picture is the mounting location and color that I painted the silver case. I painted it with RustOleum Hammered spary paint Black.
