Braking not smooth with travel trailer attached.

[Newtron]

Hello,
I have a Swift SLX 154BH and tow it with Toyota Sienna, there is no problem with the towing part but when I start to brake, it does not brake smmothly. I have a Reese brake controller installed with 7 pin wiring. When I start to brake, initially it starts smoothly but when it gets to lower speeds, thats when the jerking starts. I have tried adjusting the settings on the brake controller from 2.5 to 6 but still end up with the same results. Currently I have it set at 3.5 and the jerks have reduced a bit but still present. Any ideas / suggestions????

[Crabman]

My first brake controller did the same thing, I think it was a Hopkins. My Tekonsha P3 brake controller eliminated the problem.

[tinlizzie23]

What is happening is that your trailer electric brakes are coming almost full on even when you are only lightly braking on the TV. When you ease up a little on the hydraulic TV brakes, the electric ones totally release suddenly, and give you jerking. The cheaper brake controllers do not have any type of resistor to give you trailer braking in between full on and full off. The better ones do, hence the elimination of the problem with a controller upgrade, such as Crabman's Tekonsha, mentioned above. Hope this helps.

[Newtron]

Thanks for the replies, I will surely change the brake controller to a better one. I think that the dealer short changed me by installing the cheaper version as this was my first trailer purchase and I totally relied on the dealer's words.

[Chakara]

You won't regret it. I also had a linear break controller. It ramped up the voltage to the brakes over time - with no concern for how hard I was pressing the breaks. Very annoying and jerky. Upgraded to a Tekonsha and LOVE it!

-Chak