Patriot brake

I inherited a Patriot with my rig. I kept getting battery low errors from the unit, and couldn't get it to charge up overnight by plugging it it in overnight. I figured the Patriot battery was bad, so replaced it. The same problem continued.

Next I hooked the hot lead on the RV tow plug to the toad battery. I also bought a small $6 float charger at Harbor Freight. I now use the float charger on the Patriot the night before we travel and don't have any issues at all. I don't want to change my process to see if I could drop the float charging, as I don't want it to find out I should have.

Jeff

Many tow with brake in a box systems like the Patriot (including some who use that exact product) and report no problems.. However that said I share your concern. As batteries age they loose capacity more often than not, And there will come a time when all these proud must be installed every time you tow brake systems get where they are going and the towed will not start.. or the system will start to malfunction due to low battery voltage.. Of course. this means they need to replace the battery (I just got done replacing the batteries on my Motor home... OUCH,, Did the car last October).

So a Towed Charge line (Towed charge is the brand name) is not a bad idea.

or if you like KISS you can go with a different braking system.. (Unless of course you change towed's often) The invisible Brake system is designed to recharge the towed's battery slowly off the tail light circuit from the motor home so to charge the battery in the towed.. Turn on your headlights for safety as you drive.

The US-Gear Unified brake Decelerator includes a battery tie line, Not as complex as the towed charge it basically is a heavy wire with circuit breakers on each end of it.

M&G Air/hydraulic system (Egads you just solved someone's problem) does not use ANY electricity, (Except in a break-away) it is air powered by motor home compressed air (Works well if MH is a DP with air brakes, IF not, they make a model with a compressor for Gassers). Some others are like that too but work diferently inside the towed.

NOTE: all 3 of the systems I just mentioned are "Invisible" to the driver of the car, you do not see them, they are installed once, hopefully done right (mine was not), and to hook 'em up is no harder than hooking up your tow lights, Just plug it in.. IN the case of the invisible brake it's even easier, Just hook up the tow lights, that's all. (oh and the break-away cable) 2 to 5 seconds to do it. No "Install every time" and nothing to remove and stow either.

I have had the Patriot for three years and have several trips where we did 500+ miles each day for three or four days straight without disconnecting the toad or starting the toad engine. No problem. Naturally these were highway miles and the brake system was not activated very often. The Patriot does have it's own internal battery so there is no need for the system to receive all of it's power from the toad battery.

I’ve used one for 3 seasons and had several 500 mile travel days. Never gave a charging line a thought and never had a problem.

I would be a good idea to have the charge line.

No charge line here for over three years, without any problems. But.... then again we very seldom tow for more than 200-250 miles in a day and usually unhook for local exploring a couple of days before moving on. If you are one of those that travel 14-16 hours before stopping it might be a different story.

I have the Patriot brake and a charge line. I don't think it would take too long for the Patriot brake to drain your towed vehicle battery.