Brake Controller Power like Water Explained

Why is power important? What does the brake controller have to do with power?

Plenty.

In any electric circuit, one component becomes the bottleneck for power. Think of it in terms of water. If you run a water line through several connections, or valves, one will be smaller than the others. That valve becomes the limiting factor in the amount of water that gets to the end of the line.

Your trailer braking power starts with your vehicle’s battery. It runs through fuses, connections, a brake controller, and on back to the trailer, where it encounters more connections. Each of these components becomes a “drag” in the system, limiting the amount of power, measured in Amperage, that gets to the trailer brakes.

Here’s what we found: in most trailer braking systems, the brake controller provides the biggest limiting factor in your trailer braking power. It makes sense. The brake controller is the single most expensive component in the system. So, naturally, it’s the component that manufacturers strive to cut costs on. In our competitive market, they went too far. We tested every major brake controller on the market and did not find one that provided sufficient power to the trailer brakes.

What’s sufficient power?

Brake magnets come in different sizes, so power draw varies. The average draw, however, is about 3 Amps per brake. Therefore, if you have a two axle trailer, your 4 magnets will draw about 12 Amps of power.

Up to a year ago, the best brake controllers put out about 3.2 Amps of power per brake. In a perfect world, that would be fine. But remember our water analogy? As that 3.2 Amps passes through a long stretch of wire, connections, and plugs, power is lost. By the time it gets to the brakes, you’ve lost as much as 25% of the power. And that’s on the most efficient systems.

As if the lack of power in current brake controllers weren’t enough, we also found that the circuitry in most controllers contained a high amount of impedance, or resistance. Resistance, in the world of electricity, means heat. The coils in your toaster are nothing more than large resistors. Hot toasters are fine. Hot brake controllers are not.

Heat can be overcome the right way or the cheap way. The cheap way is to add a lot of heavy steel to your component to absorb heat. Check the bottom of your brake controller. Is it steel or plastic? No, steel does not mean well built. That’s old-school thinking. How tough does the case of your brake controller need to be, after all? The reason the manufacturer didn’t use plastic is because their brake controller would get too hot and fry the components, leaving you without trailer brakes on a steep mountain road. The right way to overcome heat is to use heavier circuitry and electrical components rated for high amperage draw.

So In a perfect world what exactly do we want?

• At least 4 Amps of power to each brake to overcome inefficiencies.
• Don't Heat up the circuitry and cause more power loss when pulling high amps.
• Don't requiring the use of heat sinks or metal bottoms. Use plenty of high amperage switches to overcome this problem. Yes, this increases cost, but safety and performance must be the top priorities.
• Avoid the power loss found in “plug n’ play” connections. Use soldered  heavy gauge pigtails and instruct customers on how to splice wires.

What we got: the TruControl™

• 4.5 Amps of power to each trailer brake.
• 48 Amps maximum surge, 32 Amps sustained.
• Low resistance. No heat. No need for metal bottoms or heat sinks.
• Soldered connections. Butt splices included with simple wiring instructions.

TruControl™ is the only brake controller on the market to deliver this level of power and safety! Click here for the TruControls Power Secrets.

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