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Anybody running a tekonsha prodigy?

B

botboy

1/2 ton status
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Aug 11, 2004
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Delano, MN, USA
I've been looking at brake controllers, and the Tekonsha prodigy looks like a good buy. With the pocket dock, it seems like it could be pretty easily swapped between my truck ('71 K5, not yet on the road) and my friends truck that we use pretty often ('97 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4). Anybody running this brake controller? I've got a few Q's about it:

1) how fast is swapping the Prodigy in/out with the pocket mount?
2) what do you like/dislike about the controller?
3) any other controllers on the market that are of comparable quality, features, and have a digital display?
 
Had my prodigy for about a year and a half. I have used 3 others in the past 10 years, towing landscape equip. and a tractor and the prodigy has been by faaaarrrrr the best.

1. unplug harness from prodigy and pop out of the bracket, all of 5 seconds. I switch mine between two vehicles sometimes also. I got an extra harness for the other vehicle, swaps in quick

2. like everything, dislike nothing. Once you get it set for your taste, it does the rest and knows what to do and when to do it.

3. there are some out there but I did not waste my time trying any, a friend of mine works at an RV shop and he knows what is good so I took his advice on the prodigy and it was well worth it.

Clay
 
I have used a tekonsha envoy and now the prodigy. The envoy sucked. The prodigy makes towing alot more comfortable. Switching from car to car is real easy like bushwacker said. I also have no dislikes about it. The boost feature is great. I tow two different trailers of different weights and I just put the boost up one when I haul the heavier one and I can't tell the difference between the two.
 
My girlfriend has a prodigy in her truck that she regularly tows a 9k horse trailer with and she loves it. You cant go wrong with it. I have a tekonsha voyager, which is one step down from the prodigy. The only reason I have it is it came in the truck and it works just fine, it just isnt as baller.
 
I have one in each of my tow vehicles. One for over 2 years, they're pretty reliable. I thought about using the pocket kit, but the price was right on a anouther controller. I'm glad I bought one for each truck, my buddy borrows one for towing his trail rig.
 
Can't complain about mine. It's as good as an inertia controller is going to get. My trailer is empty at times and loaded to capacity at others, so the ease of adjustment and boost setting is pretty handy.
 
Just today, I dropped off my cheap tow rig ('94 F350 4x4) at the Uhaul place to have a controller & wiring installed. The Tekonsha Voyager was $89, and the Prodigy was $149. Yeah, those aren't the best deals on the controllers, but I need to be able to tow with it by this coming Saturday. The Prodigy was able to handle up to 4 axles (I think) and the Voyager was only able to control two axles. I have a new 10K trailer, with 4WB. Both claimed to operate based on inertia. I told the guy I wanted the Voyager controller.

What exactly is the difference between the two?
 
I run the Prodigy myself and wish I would of had one years ago. No more manually adjusting the trailer brakes for conditions. The little bit more it costs you on the purchase, you will save in brake costs. I feel it will make the brakes on both the truck and the trailer last alot longer.
 
78Buford said:
What exactly is the difference between the two?
Click to expand...

The voyager you set to your likeing and it applies the brakes to that. So if a deer jumps out in front of you and you have the brakes set at 50 percent you get 50 percent braking unless you grab the manual lever and apply full brakeing.


The prodigy senses by inertia how much brakeing you need. You set it to the owners manual, which is like .6 volts. Then as you stop the controller senses how hard the trailer is pushing the truck and applies the amount of brakeing needed. There for if you jam on the brakes and need everything that it can give you, you get it instantly.

A feature I like is when I have my Allison in Tow/Haul mode when the tranny downshifts for coming down a hill, the prodigy senses this and applies trailer brakes with the tranny. So the tranny isn't trying to slow down the weight of the trailer too.
Hope this helps.
 
hell yes it does :P i now know im getting a prodigy, now i just need to figure out where to install it :P
 
Not true about the prodigy braking force thing. You set the max power on your Prodigy and that's all it will apply the brakes up to even if you hit the manual lever or panic stop. It's better that way anyways, if my trailer tires locked up while my rig was on it during a panic stop, all holy hell would break loose.
 
Just installed a Prodigy and tried it out over the 4th. Towed about 350 miles and it works great. I had two different older Tekonsha controllers in the past and thought they were OK. Now there is no jerking or skidding, no panic adjustments. It just seems do what it should by itself. Found it on eBay for about $90, NIB. Also, if you have a newer truck, get the wiring harness ($12 for mine) that you can just plug in to your towing package equipped truck. Doesn't get much simpler.:D
 
I'm going to install a Prodigy on my '85 K5 sometime later this month (no big hurry, don't plan to tow anything soon, so it sits in the box right now). While I rarely tow anything - if I did tow frequently, I wouldn't be doing it with a 106" WB 1/2-ton truck - I figure it's best to be prepared for those few times that I do tug a trailer.

It has the Z82 tow package with the usual class III hitch, oil cooler, and 7-pin wiring, but I didn't see a reason to make my 1/2-ton brakes do any extra work. The prodigy looked like the best bet for a controller, and I really like the mounting dock and the easy removal of the theft-bait controller, considering that I'd almost never need to have it in the truck.
 
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