Tekonsha Prodigy installation price?

[rluhr]

I'm buying a new Honda Pilot and called our local RV shop to install the brake controller. I asked for the Prodigy based on many positive reviews I read here and in other forums.

The RV shop quoted me $140 for the unit, and said, "I've never seen a Honda pre-wired," so the labor & misc. parts estimate was $210, for a total of "about $350." How does this price strike you? Reasonable?

Tomorrow I will also talk to the dealer who is selling the car to see if they will do it prior to delivery, and *perhaps* give me a deal ... but I'm not holding my breath.

-- RL

[Rog0525]

My local RV shop quoted $80 for the Prodigy plus 2 hours labor at $65 per for the installation for a total of $210 on my Jimmy. If you do a search using Tekonsha as the keyword, you will find some interesting threads.

Rog

[Pahaska]

Having personally installed in a Prodigy two trucks, one prewired and one not prewired, I think both prices are way too high. You should be able to get a Prodigy for about $110 to $120 by shopping around. I can't believe it would take anyone competent over an hour to install. That is assuming tat the rest of the wiring is in place for the trailer (lights, 7-way plug, etc.).

On my Dakota, which was not prewired, I ran a fused wire from the battery to the controller. I tapped ground from the cigarette lighter socket, and tapped a wire into the the brake light circuit. Spliced in the wire to the trailer plug, and I was done. If I recall correctly, it wasn't over 40 minutes of work total. Hardest thing was getting the wire from the battery through the firewall.

[drboyd]

...let's just say I hope you get kissed.

You can get a prodigy for $106 with free shipping from the very nice folks at www.rjays.com. There's four wires to connect. And two screws to mount it to your vehicle.

The only, only deal here might be if you have zero trailer wiring right now, and they're gonna run the battery charge lead and fuse everything and so on.

But if their standard shop rate is $60, that's roughly an hour per wire. I've installed trailer wiring, power door locks, alarms, remote trunk pops, and a zillion stereos, and an hour a wire is just nuts.

[rluhr]

Well, let me clarify:

This is a new car. The assumption of the installer was that it completely lacks any factory pre-wiring (7-way plug, wiring harness,etc.) for this application. I have not yet ascertained that. So the labor price is sort of "worst case". But still, it seems high.

-- RL

[Sav'h Steve]

I just ordered one from rjays.com for the $106 (free shipping) and that is the best deal around now.

I did order the Ford connector for an extra $8 which made it a plug-in deal for me. My Expy is prewired. Pulled out old controller and mounted the new one. The hardest part was aligning the screws to a good position keeping the unit "in line" with the direction of travel.

The job took less than an hour with 50 minutes in the mount.

Another satisfied customer.

Steve