Brake Controller

[arniesea]

Originally Posted by curru

Photos would be great! It looks like on my year Taco the cubbies are reversed. I have a flip down one on the left, behind which is a fuse panel and not a lot of room. On the right is an open tray/cubby that looks to be removable. Hope there is enough room behind it!

I was out of town the last couple of days. And you are correct, the cubby is to the right to the steering wheel. Let's see if this works.

[gbaglo]

Looks like the cubby was made for it.

[arniesea]

Originally Posted by arniesea

I was out of town the last couple of days. And you are correct, the cubby is to the right to the steering wheel. Let's see if this works.

I now remember that I used a couple of faucet washers as spacers on the bracket to make it level. You can see that detail in the first photo.

Arnie

[curru]

Thanks for the info and photos, Arnie. I like that the coin tray can be put back after the installation, tho it might be a bit tricky to get to the coins that slide over to the left under the controller!

[Great Eggstrications]

I have a Prodigy P2 installed in my 2012 4Runner - which I suspect has the same or similar dashboard and console as your 2016 - and love it. For the mounting location, I ended up going back and forth - in the cubby hole, hung on the dashboard (avoiding the knee airbag), in the glovebox somehow, etc, and ended up making a mount that just slips into the cup holder. The controller lifts out in about 2 seconds and hides in the console when parked at trailheads and in dark alleys - no point in arousing curiosity about the interesting-looking techno-gadget amongst the after-hours "shoppers" - and it's easy to access the manual trailer brake lever if needed.

It was a bit of a chore cutting the hole for the wiring in the front wall of the cubby hole; just be careful with the Dremmel tool and Exacto-knife. I actually ended up taking the center stack apart enough to get the cubby unit out and sitting on the workbench where it was a lot easier to work on. The only thing forward of the front of the cubby was a section of heater/defroster duct - no wires or anything too fragile. Not a lot of clearance, but plenty of room for the wiring to pass through, then under the dash and over to the vehicle factory brake wiring behind the driver's side kick panel.

Note that apparently it's advisable to add an extra ground between the factory trailer wiring plug and the controller. In fact, the adapter harness from e-trailer comes with the extra ground wire already attached: Tekonsha Plug-In Wiring Adapter for Electric Brake Controllers - Toyota and Lexus Tekonsha Accessories and Parts 3040-P and they say that without a good ground the controller may not work consistently. I'm guessing that the same harness would work for both 2012 and 2016 4Runners.

As an added benefit, if the passenger notices that the driver has dozed off, the brake controller can be grabbed and briskly shaken, causing the driver to be jolted back the task of driving. I'm only joking about this - please don't do it and then sue me.

Finally, three words of advice: Transmission Oil Cooler. Not joking about this.

[arniesea]

Originally Posted by dsfra

.

Finally, three words of advice: Transmission Oil Cooler. Not joking about this.

I agree with the Transmission Oil Cooler comment. Very important. But if you have the factory brake harness behind the kick panel, don't you also have the factory tow package? On the Tacoma's, the tow package includes the Tranny cooler, plus oversized alternator and battery. Perhaps the 2012 4Runner did not include it.

I like your clever solution for mounting the brake controller. What is the RCA plug for? A mod of some sort to the radio?

[Great Eggstrications]

Originally Posted by arniesea

I agree with the Transmission Oil Cooler comment. Very important. But if you have the factory brake harness behind the kick panel, don't you also have the factory tow package? On the Tacoma's, the tow package includes the Tranny cooler, plus oversized alternator and battery. Perhaps the 2012 4Runner did not include it.

I like your clever solution for mounting the brake controller. What is the RCA plug for? A mod of some sort to the radio?

I believe that 4Runners don't have a factory towing package per se - at least not US vehicles - although Ray B's Canadian 4Runner may. I vaguely recall something on a 4Runner forum that indicated that Canadian vehicles are configured differently than their US counterparts. In any case, my 4Runner has the usual AT cooler built into the coolant radiator, but based on what I was seeing on my ScanGauge for tranny fluid temperatures it is woefully inadequate, e.g. going up Stevens Pass in the Washington Cascades, lightly loaded on a 70 degree day, I was seeing the ATF temperature flirting with 230 degrees and climbing rapidly. I added a B&M 70264 cooler, and although it didn't fully resolve the issue, it did lower the temperature by 20-25 degrees.

The cup holder mount for the controller has worked out very well, even though it looks sort of cheezy. The RCA plug is the coax feed from the camera mounted on the back of the trailer. Wouldn't tow without it.