Prodigy Brake

[maggie blair]

I bought a 2011 Coachman and it has a Prodigy break box mounted by the steering wheel. I already have a brake installed on my Honda Fit. Can I safety disconnect the Prodigy from the RV? 

Thanks in advance for your help. 

Maggie

[Darryl&Rita]

No.

[jblscooper]

The Prodigy is what makes the brake on the Fit work. Do a little reading and looking at online videos on the subject

[maggie blair]

7 hours ago, jblscooper said:

The Prodigy is what makes the brake on the Fit work. Do a little reading and looking at online videos on the subject

I have a brake that was installed on the car along with the tow package. Will the two brakes interfere with each other? I have a plug that goes into the car and plugs into the rv. The Fit was set up for towing before I bought this RV.  Do I have two brake systems now?

[Barbaraok]

In a sense you have two, the normal car braking and a secondary system that actuates the car brakes in response to your braking in the motorhome.  

[maggie blair]

Thanks so much. 

[lenp]

Maggie, 

what toad brake system do you have?  

The Prodigy brake controller is typically used in conjunction with a trailer with electric brakes.  If your toad brake system is a RVI or similar system it may not need a controller.

My RVI brake works without ANY device in the motorhome - strictly an inertia brake system totally contained within the toad.  It does have a remote mounted in the MH that allows me to "test" the brakes on the toad as well as monitor what the RVI unit is (or isn't) doing.

The prior owner may have towed a trailer and used it with the prodigy.

There may be some toad brake systems that utilize a cab mounted controller but I believe most are like the RVI unit - correct me if I am wrong here folks.

Suggest you read the owners manual for your toad brake system (or contact the manufacturer) and (1) tell us what model you have and (2) tell us what you find.

Lenp

[Barbaraok]

Maggie,

I'm sorry, I just skimmed the thread and didn't pay particular attention to the fact that the Prodigy wasn't installed in the car and the car didn't come with the motorhome.  It sounds like the motorhome had a controller hauling a trailer.  As Lenp said, let us know what you have in your car as that will answer a lot of questions for us.   

[Kirk W]

Lemp has given you the right answer. The Prodigy brake controller is one type of brake control of trailer brake systems and I have never seen one that was used for controlling the towing brakes of a towed vehicle. The best way to make sure is to know what brake system you are using for your towed vehicle but it is highly unlikely that you need it. On the other hand, since you really don't know what you are doing, I suggest that you get someone to help as you should not just start cutting wires to take the Prodigy out. I installed a Prodigy in our SUV to use towing our travel trailer and the SUV was pre-wired for a brake control so that It only needed to be mounted and plugged in. Most likely all, all that you need to do is to disconnect the plug from the bottom of the Prodigy and then tie it to something up behind the dash so it is kept out of sight but available if it is ever needed. 

14 hours ago, maggie blair said:

Will the two brakes interfere with each other? I have a plug that goes into the car and plugs into the rv. The Fit was set up for towing before I bought this RV. 

1

To the first question, no they won't but you need to know what you have. The Prodigy sends power done one wire in the motorhome wire harness & plug that is there to apply a trailer brake. It probably is not used, but you need to be sure. The plug between your Fit and the motorhome is what supplies power to the lights on the car and if it is used, the signal from the Prodigy. The fact that the Fit was set up for towing when you bought it does not mean that it has any brake when towing. In most cases, people will tell you that a car is setup to tow if it has a base plate installed but that may or may not mean that it has an auxiliary brake system. You Fit surely has brakes or you could not stop when driving but that there must be additional equipment added to the care for the brake to be applied from the motorhome when towing it. The first question you need answered is whether your Fit has an auxiliary brake system at all and if you do what system is it. If it came with a break then you need to make sure that it does not use the signal from the Prodigy(very unlikely that it does) and if not just unplug it and remove it. 

14 hours ago, maggie blair said:

Do I have two brake systems now?

The Prodigy is not a brake system a control device for trailer brakes or brakes of that type. The Fit only has a way to apply brakes when being towed if someone added that feature when setting it up to tow but that is not a part of the tow bar, base plate, & towing lights which is probably all that it came with. Towing brake systems come from aftermarket companies like the Ready-Brake, Blue Ox Patriot, Brake-Buddy, Roadmaster Invisabrake, or any of several others. You may not have braking on the Fit when towing as just having wires to connect the car to the motorhome does not mean that you do.

[maggie blair]

16 hours ago, lenp said:

Maggie, 

what toad brake system do you have?  

The Prodigy brake controller is typically used in conjunction with a trailer with electric brakes.  If your toad brake system is a RVI or similar system it may not need a controller.

My RVI brake works without ANY device in the motorhome - strictly an inertia brake system totally contained within the toad.  It does have a remote mounted in the MH that allows me to "test" the brakes on the toad as well as monitor what the RVI unit is (or isn't) doing.

The prior owner may have towed a trailer and used it with the prodigy.

There may be some toad brake systems that utilize a cab mounted controller but I believe most are like the RVI unit - correct me if I am wrong here folks.

Suggest you read the owners manual for your toad brake system (or contact the manufacturer) and (1) tell us what model you have and (2) tell us what you find.

Lenp

Thanks so much! You are exactly right in all areas. I contacted Prodigy and since my toad has a separate brake setup they told me to ignore the Prodigy. They assured me it was for towing a trailer and towing my toad would not be affected in any way. 

My toad is set up with the SMI Stay In Play Duo, Roadmaster Wiring Kit, Blue Ox Baseplate, Avail tow bar and Roadmaster FuseMaster. I will unplug the Prodigy and leave it in place as Kirk suggested. 

Thanks again and everyone’s support is greatly appreciated.

Maggie

[Chad Heiser]

1 hour ago, maggie blair said:

Thanks so much! You are exactly right in all areas. I contacted Prodigy and since my toad has a separate brake setup they told me to ignore the Prodigy. They assured me it was for towing a trailer and towing my toad would not be affected in any way. 

My toad is set up with the SMI Stay In Play Duo, Roadmaster Wiring Kit, Blue Ox Baseplate, Avail tow bar and Roadmaster FuseMaster. I will unplug the Prodigy and leave it in place as Kirk suggested. 

Thanks again and everyone’s support is greatly appreciated.

Maggie

You don't even have to unplug it.  It will not interfere with the towed vehicle so there is no reason to unplug it.  It will also be there if on the off chance you ever have to tow a trailer with electric trailer brakes.

[maggie blair]

3 hours ago, Chad Heiser said:

You don't even have to unplug it.  It will not interfere with the towed vehicle so there is no reason to unplug it.  It will also be there if on the off chance you ever have to tow a trailer with electric trailer brakes.

Thanks so much. That is great info.

[Kirk W]

13 hours ago, Chad Heiser said:

You don't even have to unplug it.  It will not interfere with the towed vehicle so there is no reason to unplug it. 

That is true, but if it is in the way you might want to remove it from its present location and then store it away just in case you ever want it in the future. The lead which the Prodigy supplies power to is one that is dedicated to electric brake systems and isn't used by your present setup if we assume that everything is properly wired. What its presence tells us is that the previous owner of your motorhome did tow a trailer that has brakes since that would not have been original equipment. The one thing that unplugging it will do is to remove the power so that the indicator lights do not come on that indicate failure due to no brake connection. That doesn't harm anything but it may make you feel better. 

[maggie blair]

2 hours ago, Kirk W said:

That is true, but if it is in the way you might want to remove it from its present location and then store it away just in case you ever want it in the future. The lead which the Prodigy supplies power to is one that is dedicated to electric brake systems and isn't used by your present setup if we assume that everything is properly wired. What its presence tells us is that the previous owner of your motorhome did tow a trailer that has brakes since that would not have been original equipment. The one thing that unplugging it will do is to remove the power so that the indicator lights do not come on that indicate failure due to no brake connection. That doesn't harm anything but it may make you feel better. 

Thanks Kirk.