sorta tractor related-added brake controller to F600

I had a hitch made and installed onto the back of my 1970 Ford F600 truck. I want to use this truck to pull a trailer to antique tractor events. The
hitch cost $150 including the steel, receiver hitch, etc. I thought this was reasonable. Then I had a 12 volt outlet put on the hitch and a brake
controller put in the cab. Are you sitting down? $1,040.90! Absolutely NO itemization for parts and labor. AND the controller in the cab is mounted
under the dash right next to the gear shift. Because it is a stick shift, I'm not happy with the location. There are two cable knobs for (pto &
stop/go) dump control on the far left under the dash, but I believe the controller could still be mounted on the left of the steering column.

(quoted from post at 12:45:06 07/02/22) I had a hitch made and installed onto the back of my 1970 Ford F600 truck. I want to use this truck to pull a trailer to antique tractor events. The
hitch cost $150 including the steel, receiver hitch, etc. I thought this was reasonable. Then I had a 12 volt outlet put on the hitch and a brake
controller put in the cab. Are you sitting down? $1,040.90! Absolutely NO itemization for parts and labor. AND the controller in the cab is mounted
under the dash right next to the gear shift. Because it is a stick shift, I'm not happy with the location. There are two cable knobs for (pto &
stop/go) dump control on the far left under the dash, but I believe the controller could still be mounted on the left of the steering column.

Click to expand...

At one time I owned a 1971 F100. Same cab as your F600. I installed a trailer brake control under the dash on the LEFT side of the steering column. Plenty of room for it there, and easily accessible.

ouch

To me it looks like they lost money on the hitch and corrected their mistake on that when adding the controller and wiring. I would have expected a shop to get in the range of $500.00 plus to install a hitch, on a F600, of a capacity that I would want to tow a trailer with.

Did you request an estimate on the wiring and controller? Have you requested a breakdown of cost?

Did you specify where you wanted the controller or just say install one? If you just said install, not where, it just landed it in an easy spot for the installer.

$150 for a Prodigy P3 controller and a few more bucks in wiring and you could have saved yourself almost a grand.
AaronSEIA

Well with the Cables which will give plenty of trouble latter for the hoist. They had to make a bracket to have mounted the controller under the cables which at those costs would have been another 500 so I guess you will want to remount it yourself now. This ia why I have to do things myself I can't afford that kind of highway robbery. For a hoist I use levers to shift the PTO in and out and another rod with lever to work the valve for the hoist control. If it has Air brakes then an air controlled PTO and valve is the berries for that. Air can freeze up but not get stuck like cable to not work. Mounting the controller under the cables. I would move the cables to beside the seat next to the door so It would be easier to work the hoist valve from the ground so I didn't have to climb in and out all the time.

I ordered out my '96 F-250 Diesel with the Camper-trailer towing package, ALL the wiring for the elec brake controller installed including the female plug on the back of the frame. A $10 adapter cable connected my new Prodigy brake controller to factory installed connections.
I got a Putnam 15,000# receiver hitch I carefully attached to the frame, was special made so the drawbar extended under my big Shiney chrome 10 DMI drop bumper. That truck was a towing BEAST. I ordered the 5-speed manual Trans with 3.55 axles and I had a gear for every situation, sometimes two, not including lo range in the transfer case. Guess that's why I put 305,000 miles on it in 22 years.
Every medium duty truck I've driven, pto knob to engage pump was left of steering wheel, hoist raise/lower lever beside the seat. Trucks with the sand or chip spreader box had just the pto knob, to left of steering wheel, no hydraulics. The BIG 10-wheel ready-mix trucks had crankshaft driven hyd pumps mounted out ahead of the frt bumper to run the drum, had a control to right of the seat to adjust speed and direction of rotation, but over 95% of unloading was done with driver at rear of the truck.

All those complaining about price. Try running a shop. First off the fact that a shop would even bother working on anything from 1970 is amazing. Secondly medium duty vehicle labor rates are $100-$130/hr in my area. Im sure others are higher. Did you specify a location for the controller ? Did you ask for an estimate? Does it function as desired?

Hitch was too cheap, controller was a little high. Might have run into wiring issues that took time to route and tie down some of that stuff gets a little oddly.

Paul

Interesting comments. The hitch was made and installed by a welding shop. The brake controller was installed by a trailer manufacturing/sales business. Did I ask for an estimate? No. I ALWAYS do that, but I was dealing with a business I've used for years and have never been overcharged. BUT, they didn't do the work. Without asking or telling me, they took it next door to a trailer manufacturing/sales business I've learned I must be very careful with. Yes, I specified the controller in the cab needed to be on the left of the steering column. As to working on a 1970 model and/or a stick shift, if they don't want to or don't know how, why wouldn't they just turn down the job? Does it function as it is supposed to? I don't know as I haven't been able to use it as the radiator has plugged up and will need to be repaired prior to using the truck.