Brake Controller Calibration

Your trailer brake controller is the difference between stopping and not stopping. Most owners run it at factory default. That's wrong. Here's the five-minute calibration.

Brake controller — usually mounted near your knee. Two settings — gain and boost. Gain is how hard the trailer brakes hit. Boost is how aggressively at the start.

Calibration — empty parking lot, dry pavement, 25 miles per hour. Manually apply the trailer brakes only — using the controller's manual lever. If the trailer brakes lock up — too high. If you barely feel it — too low. Adjust gain until you feel solid trailer braking without lockup.

Then — drive at 25 again, do a normal foot-on-brake stop. The trailer should brake slightly before the truck. You're not feeling truck push. You're feeling trailer pull. That's the goal.

Calibrate empty. Calibrate again loaded. Trailer brakes need more gain when loaded. Same parking lot, same procedure.