I have a Ford F150 with the towing package minus the break controller on dash. Do I have to have a break controller or will the trailer brakes still work but not be adjustable?

 

Electric trailer brakes will not work without a brake controller. Surge brakes do. Surge brakes have a master cylinder mounted to the tongue of the trailer, and it automatically puts on the trailer brakes when the tow vehicle slows and causes the trailer to surge forward.

 

what he said.

If you are planning on doing serious towing, then I would recommend getting the built in controller installed. It interfaces with your brake system to do a much better job applying the trailer brakes.

If you are doing a 1 time tow (or very rare towing), then you can just get an aftermarket trailer brake controller.

 

Ford will have a pigtail behind the dash above the throttle pedal to plug a controller into. On the new trucks without a built-in controller, it should have a pigtail included in the truck. I wired the pigtail into my Tekonsha brake controller and it worked fine on two trucks. My '12 has the built in so it is mounted in the dash. The factory one is nice, but the aftermarket ones work well enough.