Curt Bluetooth Brake Controller

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Br...LcOh_olQqZ5Bc70zGx1rrl1_jHpeK66xoCih0QAvD_BwE

This piece is added to the electric system that plugs the trailer to the vehicle. I will take pictures later. You download an app to your phone. You can have up to ten trailers talk to the device and you would move it from trailer to trailer as needed. When you are all hooked up and ready to drive you turn on the app, select your trailer and touch a red circle on the screen and it sets the brake level for your trailer. As I was first setting it up it asked fir the vehicle and trailer type. Based on my selection it set the app for 50%. It always remembers that setting for that combo.

For a couple of real time examples:
The car is a 2011 Subaru Outback. Trailer is a 550 teardrop. I hooked up on a driveway that had a bit of a slope to the street. The hitch was new to me and the brake controller was not activated yet and I was getting ready to go to the campinn factory for the tuneup work. So I hooked up the car and trailer and was practicing pulling into the street and backing up the driveway. At one point I released the gas in the backup process and the car was still in reverse and the trailer pushed the car down the hill back into the street. Surprise! Now this was before we discovered that there were basically no brakes on the teardrop anymore.

After that, I backed back into the driveway and went through the process to set up the CURT system.

Then spend two days at the campinn factory and new brakes and tires are installed on the teardrop.

Fast forward some days to I90 in Souix City, SD. I'm approaching a box truck to quickly, that appears to be stopped in the road. Hit the brake and instantly feel and hear the trailer become drag weight. And avoid parking in the box truck.

The solution was a combo of the CURT brake controller and new brakes and new tires.

I will take some pics and edit this a bit but time for coffee!

Maybe someone else has the CURT?

 

AutoW here that works same way. Probably saved me from unbraked trailer yaw/going off the road when I had a rear tow vehicle tire rapidly deflate as I was passing a semi going fast on a windy hot day...
A light tap to the brakes kept it straight as I let the power off, the semi pass by and then pullover to change tire.

To your point: I really like having brakes on the CI...

 

This might be very nice --- can you light up turn signals and brake lights with Bluetooth? during 'hookup' it would be great to be able to see if the connections were good, both from the TV and to the camper....

of course, doesn't help much with the autowbrake....

 

I've had the Curt Echo bluetooth brake controller for a bout 5 years now. It's been rock solid.
We had an experience 3 years ago that told me how well it worked when we were traveling up 95 north of Baltimore on a hot late June Saturday. Traffic was thick, then the car in front of us locked down and so did I. The car and trailer braked absolutely straight and I avoided hitting the car in front by maybe a foot or so. But before I could even breathe my sigh of relief we were rear ended by the car behind us which was pushed inti us by the car behind it. A real shit show. Those two cars were leaking fluids and got hauled away on rollbacks. Our stainless bumper saved us although the trailer frame was badly bent. See photo. The insurance company wanted to total the 550 but Cary said nah, we can fix that, and they did.
We drove from the site of the wreck to western Maine with the trailer in that condition. Cary said put the hitch end on something solid and jump on it to straighten it out, so we did that and drove it home, even camped in it.
Get the Curt, but especially get the bumper.

 

Woww!

 

YIKES! How long did it take to get the upholstery in the car taken care of? I would imagine the pucker-factor probably cut a few perfect circles in the seat....

 

you might think so but my concern was for our 10 year old grandson in the back seat. Turns out he was completely unhurt and unfazed and sat their contentedly with book and screen for almost three hours while we waited for all the paperwork to be done and for AAA to *not ever* show up. This was ultimately a good thing since the trailer was towable even in its bent condition.
It was for his benefit that we were even on 95 - we were taking him to camp in Maine where he needed to be by .5 pm the next day. We made it with 30 minutes to spare.
He still declares that the pizza we had delivered to the hotel after the wreck was the best he's ever had. Making good memories out of bad, a true talent.

 

Thanks so much for sharing this part of that experience. Sounds like you are really good grandparents!

 

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