OrdnanceMarine
New member
In my book if you want to go cheap on brake controllers you get the Tekonsha Prodigy P2 which shows up at $112 on Amazon. If you want to go all out you get the P3 for $132
(They can be found for a bit cheaper if you look around). With the P3 you basically get a more detailed graphical interface with some more diagnostic features that I thought was worth the extra $20. These two controllers have an exceptional history for reliability and performance that made it a no-brainer for me. What you DON'T want is a timer based trailer brake controller. The digital proportional controllers do a far better job at adapting between different braking conditions than the timer based systems could ever do. In a nut shell the timer based controllers look at how long your brakes have been applied and keep increasing the voltage to the trailer brakes the longer you're on the brakes while a proportional controller (P2, P3, etc.) uses an accelerometer to determine how much deceleration is happening and applies a proportional voltage to the trailer brakes. In addition, the P2/P3 have an adjustable boost feature that will automatically ramp the brakes up to a set level and then go proportional from there to compensate for heavier trailers or braking situations where you are applying the brakes lightly for extended periods of time. Timer systems will not fully apply your trailer brakes right away during a panic stop while a digital proportional system will. I care the most about having my trailer brakes do everything I can to avoid a hazard so I don't want to be waiting a few seconds for my trailer brakes to begin working at full potential when fractions of a second count! There are other functionality issues with timer systems you can read more about with a Google search.
While I don't know for a fact that your 4Runner has the connector (Every US one does as far as I know and I'm guessing yours is prewired also.) From there you either use the included pigtail that requires you splicing wires OR you can spend an extra $15 and order their factory one that just snaps in. I've spliced a lot of wire in my time on vehicles in aircraft, solar panel systems, home electrical, etc. and for me the $15 to get a production-grade connector was absolutely money well spent.
If all of this is too much detail for you, just get the P3 (#90195) and the adapter (#3040 if I remember correctly) and you can have confidence that you have the most capable and easy to use system on the market. There are few things automotive that I've found as cut and dried after doing the research myself.
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