Electric brakes controller installation is one of the most comprehensive and efficient ways to guarantee safety for people who drive trailers and caravans. This is highly important because these types of vehicles are the easiest to land up in catastrophic accidents and as such, safety becomes a primary consideration.

Any trailer or caravan that has a GTM of 750 kgs and above needs to be fitted with efficient and comprehensive brakes. In these cases, the most common type of brakes is electric brakes that have an additional brake controller with connections to the trailer. These connections are often fitted in the tow vehicle. An electric brake controller is a device that is tasked with activating the brakes of your caravan when you apply the brakes of the towing vehicle. This means that no matter the speed at which you are moving, if you would apply the brakes to the moving vehicle while driving, then the brakes of the caravan you are tagging along will also kick into action preventing the caravan from crashing into the rear of your vehicle. For this reason, electric brakes controller installation is compulsory for any caravan setup. This is even more important when one considers that caravans add a significant amount of extra weight to the vehicle

In certain circumstances like going downhill, slowing down or stopping the vehicle which is towing the caravan can be extremely dangerous in the absence of electric brakes controller installation. This is because the centre of gravity completely shifts and the caravan being significantly heavier will pick up a lot more momentum than the towing vehicle on a downward slope. However, if you have applied electric brake controllers, then you do not need to worry about your trailer smashing into the rear of the towing vehicle. Even better, you don’t need to worry about causing a sway because the brake controllers will activate and keep the trailer in a linear orientation with your towing vehicle.

But how does an Electric Brake Controller Installation Work?

The principle is quite simple. The electric brake controller is able to sense the amount of pressure required to slow down and eventually stop your trailer altogether. The amount of pressure placed on the brakes of your towing vehicle will be directly transferred to the caravan as well thanks to the brake controller.

With many individuals using trailers and caravans to travel in the wilderness, safety becomes an important concern as most of these drives will occur on non-paved roads. In these situations, the aforementioned centre of gravity becomes even worse, causing the tailor to sway around and sometimes pull the towing vehicle along with it. Furthermore, on rocky terrain, there is always a risk of the trailer breaking away from the towing vehicle. In these situations, an electric brake controller installation can be a lifesaver as it will automatically activate the trailer brakes and keep them powered for a minimum of 15 minutes should they get detached from the towing vehicle. So even if the caravan were to break away there is no risk of it rolling away for a long distance unsupervised by itself.