Well I've had some fun today! As I'm on holiday I thought I'd look into this brake controller thing a bit by going to a few "experts" - another dealer, two of the big 4WD accessory shops, and two local auto-sparkys.
To cut a long story short, the dealer wasn't interested, and the other four all recommended the Redarc Tow-Pro Elite same as Bob and Willem. However, none of them had ever fitted one to a Disco Sport (though two claimed to have, but on further questioning it turns out was a Disco 3 or 4 instead), and all confirmed what my first dealer had told me that you need to run all new wiring, some said through the car by removing trim, and others under the car to avoid this. Prices varied quite a bit from $550 to $850 for supply and fitting.
TBH none of them particularly inspired confidence that I should trust them with the job, nothing specific, they just didn't seem to be able to give straight answers to quite simple questions.
So I came home and decided to do a bit of research for myself. First thing I found was the LR wiring diagram for the Disco Sport Australian Towing Electrics -
Attachment 121742
You can see from this that the blue "service brakes" wire seems to go from the trailer socket to a box labelled "Module - Trailer brake controller". Not only that, but the same module also has connections to a fused 30Amp supply from the battery, a ground lead, and a feed from the brake circuit - in fact everything you need for an electric brake controller.
Getting excited now, I had a rummage around behind the panel in the driver's footwell, and sure enough I came across this plug dangling down which had all the wires as specified in the wiring diagram running to it
Attachment 121744
So looks like LR have thoughtfully provided all the connections ready to plug in an electric brake controller. Unbelievable that none of the "experts" I talked to (including my dealer) knew this, and wanted to run completely new wiring
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