trailer prep of brunnhilde - part 5

As a part of preparing for a Trailex open car trailer I had to install an electric trailer brake controller. As Mercedes Benz didn't provide the wire for the trailer electric brake I needed to retrofit a wire with adequate current carrying capacity all the way from the cockpit to the trailer hitch connector. I wanted to retain the existing connector. This requires finding the right crimp contact for this Delphi type connector that is a part of the interconnect between the harness and the trailer connector.

Brunnhilde's trailer connector

this is a plastic safety lock for the Delphi connector used for the factory equipped harness

the Delphi type connector is the rectangle one

it is a waterproof design

the missing contact and conductor for the trailer brake signal

I managed to find the right crimp contacts after some research to identify the correct one; only one is needed for the job

I wanted to find a better location for the brake controller over the obvious in front of a knee location most owners choose

the ashtray is a perfect location after I conducted some human engineering assessments

Next is to get the Sprinter motorhome provisioned with the trailer brake control. Just like anything else you can spend a lot on a fancy trailer brake controller. With a bit of research I tentatively chosen the Curt 51140 Triflex. It is an inertial controller that utilize a solid state 3-axis accelerometer (only 2 axis is used).

Curt 51140 Triflex was my initial choice

As I gave more thought to the controller I found a much better design that cost not much more. It has a dot matrix display the low cost Curt does not. The operation is much better designed without the pain points of the Curt.

Tekonsha 90195 P3

Strangely with all the gorgeous product images there is not one that shows the manual brake lever which is one strong suit of this controller over all others I have seen. You can barely see it in the images below.

For my luck I found a deal on Amazon for an opened box return. All set for the installation to finish the trailer prep before taking a trip across the country to pick up the made to order Trailex trailer in late August. Remember this is a catch up post.

I like the design of the manual override lever

Writing catch up post is painful and this post took me 45 minutes to write. The most painful part is to round up and process the photos and images to tell the story. The dates and chronology are also challenges. I think I will let the photos to do most of the job of story telling in the remaining catch up posts.