Tekonsha Voyager XP vs. Prodigy

[austinado16]

My 'burb has a Tekonsha Voyager XP installed.  I've not used it, until now, because the PO of my PU had removed the brake assemblies.

Last week I installed new brake assemblies, and got to set up and use the Voyager.  I liked it alot.  About 2 weeks earlier I'd towed a near twin to my PU for almost 200mi and really liked how the Voyager took care of trailer braking.

The plan was to keep the Voyager and not upgrade to a Prodigy, until last night.  Craigslist strikes again!  

Installed the Prodigy today and took the camper out for a short drive and set up.  My initial impression is that both controllers are equally good, and honestly, I can't tell them apart by "feel" during braking.  Both operate perfectly.  The only difference is that the Prodigy is self leveling and continually adjusts for level.  That may be handy for my situation because I do most of my towing in the mountains and there are even a couple of 1,200'+ passes to the north and south here on the coast.

[JohnandLeann]

I gather from this that you added brakes to your pup.  It also seems that the PO of your camper removed the original brakes, correct?  Was it very difficult to add the brakes?  
My Coleman/Fltwd camper has four holes on the mounting flange on my axle.  It also appears that I have a wire that is wound up near the left side of the axle that is coming from the front of the frame and is in the wiring harness.
If we decide to keep our very used pup with a twisted frame and other things, do think it would be worth adding brakes?

[austinado16]

Hi John,
Yes.  Added.....or should I say, "put back"....the brake assemblies last week.  The PO of my PU had the axle assembly fail out on the road somewhere.  It appears the big metal flanges that are welded to the torsion axle, and then bolted to the frame of the PU cracked, broke and sent the axle back into the wheel wheels while being towed.  The solution for them was to have a shop remove the brake assemblies and then weld the torsion axle directly to the PU frame using some L brackets as gussets.  Needless to say, the camper has not had brakes in the 3 seasons I've owned it.

Having never worked on campers or electric brakes, I didn't know what they even looked like, let alone how they could be purchased, etc. until Wavery posted about buying complete assemblies and that they just bolt right up.

So I paid $130 (incl tax) for a pair of actual Dexter brand assemblies from American Muffler & Hitch here in SLO.  Unbolted my brake backing plates and tossed them, and bolted up the new assemblies.  The wiring was easy, and like you, the PU wiring was still there in the frame on the left.  There are 2 wires in the frame, and typically they are run as a pair, in their own plastic jacket.  White is always ground, and the blue wire is the "feed" from the electric brake controller.  

You'll have 2 wires coming out of the magnet on each brake assembly.  One wire....doesn't matter which.....goes to the white wire in the PU's 2-wire harness.  The other wire goes to that blue "feed" wire in that 2-wire harness.  You'll run some wire from one brake assembly across the axle to the other brake assembly and connect up, just as you did on the left side.

Then up on the tongue, that white wire is grounded to the frame and the blue wire is going into the 7-pin harness that goes to your Ford.  You'll install a controller under the dash (4 wires.....one is ground, one is power, one is the input from your brake light switch on your brake pedal, and one is the feed back to the PU's blue wire).

That's it.  Typically a break-away switch is also installed on the tongue so that if the trailer jumps off the hitch ball, the brakes lock up and stop the trailer/camper.  That's 2 wires....one connected to the camper's battery charge wire, and one spliced into the blue brake feed wire.

My camper is 11' box and 2,000lbs loaded.  The Suburban doesn't notice it, but when stopping, we could definately feel the camper was there.  It was never a problem except over near Fresno where there are all those traffice lights on the freeway.  Never fails that one would turn yellow and I'd be too far away to make it, and too close to get stopped without really coming down hard on the brakes.  Since we do almost all of our camping over on that side of CA, up in Kings Canyon, I decided it was time for brakes.

About 3 weeks ago I towed a PU that was a twin to mine, and it had working brakes.  What a joy to pull.  Got into freeway construction traffic down in Santa Barbara where normally it would be a real pain in the butt on and off the brakes, and trying to anticipate the next wave of braking.  Nope, no problem at all.  It was like driving a small car.  So that motivated me to finally do mine.

Sorry for the long winded response.  I'd be happy to do the brakes on your camper, so just email me and we can trade phone numbers: austinado16  at  cs  dot  com

[JohnandLeann]

My camper is 11' box and 2,000lbs loaded. The Suburban doesn't notice it, but when stopping, we could definately feel the camper was there.

Ours is a 10' box and I only really notice it when stopping also, especially if we are just starting out with a truck bed full of firewood and iced down goodies, etc. as well as the rest of our stuff.
We need to decide if we think the camper is worth this or not.  Have been possibly considering going to the dark side but not sure when that will happen.  I have the name of the company that you bought your goodies from so thank you very much for that.  If I do decide to do this and I get into a bind, I will contact you, OK.

Thanks again,
John

[austinado16]

It think //www.northerntool.com had cheaper prices, but I know the guys at American real well and it wasn't worth a 20 not to throw them some business.  Plus, I got real OEM Dexters, so I knew the quality would be nice.

The dark side eh?  As in a MH, or TT/5er?

[JohnandLeann]

Thinking of a TT about 24 ft or less.  It is just the 3 of us, me, DW and TJ.
We want a trailer with a walk around queen bed that we don't have to make when ever we get some where.  Leann really wants our own toilet and shower so we don't have to wait in line for pay showers, etc.  
I am thinking the shorter the better for weight considerations, plus a lot of the places that we like to stay have a max vehicle length of about 25 ft.  There are some good deals out there but we also have a storage issue as well.  We currently keep our pup in her mom's driveway but we are working towards renting out the house since she has passed on.
"Things will happen when they are supposed to", Leann says, so I have to be patient, not one of my strong points but learning.

[austinado16]

I've got my Tekonsha Voyager XP for sale with mounting bracket and the Ford wiring harness (or it can be wired up directly like it was in my 'burb) if anyone's interested in a bargain!

[revmrf]

I'm pulling a Starcraft 1710 w/o electric brakes with my wife's 2000 Honda Accord - 4cyl.  I've had no problems as yet on the braking... yet, I wonder how difficult it would be to install.