Unified tow brake question

[JLWoodward]

Morning.

Does anyone know if the toad components of the unified tow brake can be run by a regular brake controller?

Is the module in the toad looking for a power or ground signal?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[c_oneil]

Short answer is no, a regular brake controller won't work. The controller supplies a voltage signal to the toad thru the "blue" wire in the harness that is proportional to your deceleration. I have not put a meter on it but there is some trouble shooting data on the Unified Gear web site that could help you. There is another company called Smart Brake LLC that advertizes a nearly the same system as the Unified Tow Brake that does use a standard brake controller in the coach.

[JLWoodward]

Thanks for response I'll check out the troubleshooting guide. If it is looking for power seems a reg controller should work unless voltages different That's all it does is provide regulated voltage based off of accelerometer in controller when brake peddle depressed.
Thanks again for the input.

[JLWoodward]

Looking through the troubleshooting guide it says the controller in car sends 9 to 10.5 v to controller in rv on the blue wire.
A normal brake controller sends power out to brakes on blue wire, so yes a normal brake controller won't work.

I'm guessing the controller in coach is providing a variable ground to the blue wire based off accelerometer data or manual lever.

The smart brake uses regular controller, so I'm guessing it just deletes the old controller that stayed in toad and uses reg controller.

Will see what I can figure out.