{"id":3603,"date":"2013-07-20T15:28:16","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T19:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/?p=3603"},"modified":"2013-07-20T15:28:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T19:28:55","slug":"tekonsha-p3-brake-controller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/tekonsha-p3-brake-controller\/","title":{"rendered":"Tekonsha P3 Brake Controller"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tekonsha<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tekonsha<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tekonsha<\/p>\n

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My old homemade brake controller has not been acting right lately. \u00a0Leaving Harlan last month somehow it got twisted and the manual activation button got pushed without my knowing it. \u00a0 It took a few mile for me to figure out what was wrong. \u00a0Before I did, one of the magnets was shot as and there was a melted spot in the case.\u00a0It has been working intermittently ever since.<\/p>\n

After some research, I decided on the Tekonsha P3. \u00a0The feature that sold me was the Boost feature. This gives a few extra volts when you first hit the brakes to get things going. \u00a0Due to the way the magnets work, a little extra voltage at the beginning seems like a good idea. \u00a0The P3 also had a load sensor to give voltage in proportion to the braking force as measured by a load sensor. My old one just had a timer that ramped up the voltage.<\/p>\n

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I ordered from nueratrailerparts.com.<\/a> \u00a0 My son works there now so my box said “Hi dad” on it.<\/p>\n

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As I was sorting out the wires I began by promptly blowing the fuse in the power line. After I found a spare, I was able to proceed. \u00a0I may have found the reason why the old was one intermittently working as the wire to the brake switch di not always seem to have contact. \u00a0I re crimped it and it seems to work all the time after that.<\/p>\n

The P3 needs a brake light signal, power and ground and of course output to he brakes. \u00a0I crimped the blue wire to my existing blue wire going to the back of the Suburban. \u00a0My 1995 Suburban has a built in blue wire from the factory for the brakes.<\/p>\n

The instructions warn about the unit needing a very good ground and power supply, so I sacrificed my seldom used wire for a 2M radio and used it to power the P3. \u00a0This wire feeds directly off the AUX power terminal of the Suburban power supply box and has a good ground.<\/p>\n

For the brake signal, I just tied into the old wire. I am not sure where it is tied into the Suburban wiring but since it works, I just reused it.<\/p>\n

I mounted the quick release bracket to the dash with the supplied self tapping screws. I drilled 1\/8 inch pilot holes.<\/p>\n

I quickly found out why the unit comes with such a nice storage case. \u00a0When the wire is plugged in, the unit is always on. \u00a0The only way to turn it off is to unplug the connector.<\/p>\n

Set up was simple enough. I just left the voltage set at maximum as it did not lock up on pavement. \u00a0I set the boost at level one and it made a very noticeable difference. \u00a0I could see gravel spraying off the tires in the driveway but on pavement it worked great.<\/p>\n

It took me a few tries to get the reverse lock out mode to activate. You have to hold a button down for five seconds which seems like forever when I am getting ready to back up.<\/p>\n

I think I am going to like it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  My old homemade brake controller has not been acting right lately. \u00a0Leaving Harlan last month somehow it got twisted and the manual activation button got pushed without my knowing it. \u00a0 It took a few mile for me to figure out what was wrong. \u00a0Before I did, one of the magnets was shot as … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Tekonsha P3 Brake Controller”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[210,496],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3603"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3603\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikestrawbridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}