First thing first, I want to note that Amazon said this would not fit my 2010 Dodge Ram 1500. I bought it anyway because it says 2010 right in the name and it looked correct. And... it works exactly as it should. Installation was a breeze, took me maybe 30 minutes. So I think Amazon's vehicle matching service isn't working in this case.My understanding is that you only need to involve the dealer if you want to integrate the brake controller into the control panel (between your speedometer and tachometer). This is entirely optional, it will work just fine without that integration.