Help finding Auto electrician to fit Tekonsha electric brake controller to my D3

[Leecewah]

G'day all, have just bought a caravan and need to get set up to tow with my '09 D3 TDV6 SE. I have bought the brake controller (Tekonsha P3 online as they received consistently good reviews) and need to find a reliable auto electrician in the Mandurah/Rockingham/Perth area to fit it. LR want to charge me $700 to do it, which sounds excessive to me, however I have read that it can be tricky to do properly and I certainly do not have the technical expertise to do it myself. If anyone has had theirs done in this area and can recommend an auto elec guy or gal, that would be great. Will also need an Anderson plug, however that should be less tricky (once again LR want between $250 and $350 to do it!).

Cheers,
Leecewah

[dominicbeirne]

Hi Leecewah

Don't know about the auto electrician but for what LR are quoting why not speak to drivesafe about a full 2nd battery set up. Only a wee bit more expensive but you can fit it yourself.

[FenianEel]

Those quotes are crazy, and BS. P3s are an easy fit. If you can follow instructions & solder, you can do it yourself.

[ADMIRAL]

Hi Leecewah,



Have a look at this thread. I think I have it correct. http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...-trailer-brake. If you don't believe you can do this yourself, send a PM to me, and I will give you the name of a good auto leckie. ( he may be pretty busy though ) The hardest part of this installation, is running the wires through the firewall. Everything else is reasonably straight forward if you are handy with electrical work.

You will still have to give this detail to the auto leckie, as the D3/D4's have some specific wiring processes to follow, or your brake controller will not work correctly, and you will also get some nasty surprises. I suspect the D3 will also require a stent or resistor in the indicator circuit, if your caravan has LED stop/tail, indicator lights. If you do a search there are several threads on fitting store bought resistors setups, or you can get the auto leckie to do it.

Hope this helps.

Neil

[shorty]

Hi Leecewah,

I am in Perth and am looking to add a brake controller to my D3 as well. i haven't bought one yet though so am not as close as you.

If you find someone good to do it let me know so I can use them too!

Thanks,

Matt

[shining]

I understand that not all types of DIY work is for everyone but I had no problem fitting my brake controller a few weeks ago. Redarc with remote head. I spent a lot more time thinking about the job than actually doing it. Now that I have done one the next one would only take a few hours. A bit of skill with a soldering iron does help. Running the wires was OK. I took a few photos but haven't posted them yet.

[jafir]

I just used all plug and play stuff when I added a brake controller to my LR3. No soldering required.

I had to get the electric brake controller, the ford style pigtail for under the dash, and the land rover harness for behind the left tail light.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

The Tekonsha leads for the LR3/D3 seem to only be available in the US, nothing would stop you ordering them online and fitting when it arrives.

[jafir]

The Tekonsha leads for the LR3/D3 seem to only be available in the US, nothing would stop you ordering them online and fitting when it arrives.

Just searching this site, I found a post where someone said that the AUS/UK spec D3 don't have the harness under the dash. I find that quite surprising, because the Discovery isn't a very common tow vehicle here, but it seems to be popular for that purpose just about everywhere else on earth.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...-tekonsha.html

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - NAS Trailer Socket Pin ID and Wire Colours/Tekonsha Ford Brake Controller Adapter part number 3035-P

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Its a conundrum why they would design a harness modification for one market but not include it for other markets.

In the UK it seems electric controllers are rare but in Oz, just like the US their use is very common.

The only difference I can see in the regs is that under Australian Design Rules (Federal Regulations) the stop lamps on the trailer have to illuminate when the brake over-ride is activated on the controller. It is why the Prodigy RF is not legal in Oz.

I don't know if that would affect the Ford interface leads however.