Never got to a parking lot to test the brakes on this Tacoma+Elkmont combo as we had to cut our trip short for family reasons. But there were several very steep, curvy grades on the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and we did have to make an emergency stop along the way.
The emergency stop caused the truck tires to squeal but not the trailer, as the brake controller was at a fairly low setting of 5. And there was a slight jack-knifing as the trailer pushed the truck forward a little. Luckily there was no damage, but I reset the Prodigy brake controller to 7 and plan to leave it there from now on.
The 7 setting came from those long down-hill grades in Cape Breton, most of the time in third gear, often in second and once even in first gear. Despite the low gearing, braking was always necessary. There were frequent scenic pull-outs available, and I used those to test the trailer and truck drum brake temperatures with the spit test (put a little spit on it and time how long it takes to evaporate). After trying different brake controller settings, it seemed that 7 gave about the same temperature on both sets of drums. At 9, the trailer brakes got hotter than the truck brakes and vica-versa at 5.
The thing I don't like about the 7 setting is that the brakes seem grabby during urban stop-and-go, and the trailer braking can be felt before the truck's. But this can be lived with.
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