I've seen the Tekonsha Prodigy recomended on the boards befroe, but what about the Tekonsha Voyager? It's a little less exoensive.

Which should I go w/? I'm only going to be towing a 12 or 14' foot tandem axle cargo trailer w/ my 2000 F150. It's not like I've got an F350 and am goaing to be pulling a backhoe or 30' camp trailer. Do I need to spend the extra $ on the Prodigy, or will the Voyager suit my needs just fine?

Thanks.

 

It is not the power of the brake controller that makes the difference, it is the features and convience. The Prodigy is very easy to use and set up. Auto leveling helps with that. Also, it has the nifty manual override. The whole Tekonsha line is good, but take the Prodigy if you can afford it. You will spend a lot less time fiddling with it.

 

I have both and prefer the Prodigy hands down 500%. Hows that for a difference. We tow a travel trailer on a regular basis. With The Voyager you feel the jerkiness stops of the trailer. With the Prodigy it is more proportional to how much stopping power you need.

It depends if you are going to be towing a lot or a little.

 

I tow an 18' 10k trailer with an 86 Ranger on it so the trailer and truck come out to 4500lb give or take. I've pulled it with a standard controller like the Voyager before. I don't recall right now if the voyager even lets you up the voltageat all. Most controllers have a voltage control which lets you send more power to the trailer brakes which in turn applies the brakes harder. When unloaded with high voltage its too much braking, when loaded and too little voltage then you can't stop. It takes quite a bit of fine tuning and even then won't be perfect. When you hit the brakes it applies the set amount of voltage regardless of how you're braking. This is what causes the jerking typically felt with that type of controller. Even if you get into a panic stop it applies the set amount of braking power so its up to the tow vehicle to make up the extra stopping power, which usually isn't sufficient. Now this is where the prodigy is different. It uses a proportional system. This means that it senses how you're braking and applies the proportional amount of braking on its own. To set it up with the trailer brakes warm go 45mph and raise the voltage and use the manual brake lever at full until you have enough voltage to lock up the wheels. Then back it off a little bit. This tells the controller the most brakes it should ever apply since you don't ever want to lock up the trailer wheels since that can cause a jackknife. This way if you get in a panic stop the trailer continues to do its fair share of the braking making you stop much faster. The other benefit of this controller is that you don't continually have to adjust for city, highway, loaded, or unloaded conditions. The prodigy gets setup once on each specific trailer and doesn't have to be changed again. It is a MUCH nicer system than most others out there. The only other one I've seen that can compete with it is the Brake Smart, but thats significantly more money and it includes a pyrometer readout as well since this controller is aimed at guys with 3/4 ton + trucks that pull heavy loads. When I bought my Prodigy I got mine online for $115 shipped for both the controller and the Ford pigtail. Last I heard there was someone selling them on yahoo auctions for $89 ea.

 

Thanks everyone for the information, it sounds like sounds like the Prodigy is well worth the difference in price.

Powerstroke 73 - thank you for describing how the sytem works. I appreciate your post - this info has allowed me to make a much better decision.