What is the best Tow/Brake set up for a Towed Vehicle?

We have been using the RVI Brake for approximately 5 years and are very pleased with the unit and the service. After about 3 years our unit developed a leak in the vacuum chamber, and all we had to do was return it, and RVI replaced it with a new unit at no charge. Can't ask for better service than that.

wa8yxm wrote:
Everyone has their own idea of what's the best, but the fact is it depends on several things.

For example.. I do not like the "Box in the driver's seat" systems because though they claim NO INSTALATION (meaning you do not use a wrench and drill) the fact is you have to install them EVERY TIME YOU TOW, and it's so easy, on a short trip, to just say "Forget it".

However, if you have multiple towed's That the way to go.
snip

that is one of the reasons that I went with the brake buddy, I used it on several different toads. that installation video totally turned me off on that one. and proportional is sort of a meaningless attribute to me. I had my braking system set so that it would only come on under fairly strong braking, didn't want my toad stopping my RV. apply the brakes, feel the toad pull, nothing "proportional" about that and it worked just fine.
I thought about going with the US Gear model but took extensive $$$ installation and was dedicated to one toad.

JMHO
bumpy

Everyone has their own idea of what's the best, but the fact is it depends on several things.

For example.. I do not like the "Box in the driver's seat" systems because though they claim NO INSTALATION (meaning you do not use a wrench and drill) the fact is you have to install them EVERY TIME YOU TOW, and it's so easy, on a short trip, to just say "Forget it".

However, if you have multiple towed's That the way to go.

M&G makes a very fine Air/Hydraulic system that many folks with air brakes just love. But it won't fit every car and not everyone has air brakes.. They do make a more expensive kit for motor homes with hydraulic brakes, but. I would not consider till I upgrade to air.

US-Gear has a nice electric/hydraulic system Fully electric powered this unit gives the motor home driver FULL CONTROL over the towed brakes.. Both automatically (By applying the foot brake in the motor home) or manually (With an manual activation lever) you can also adjust the ratio of towed to motor home braking from the driver's seat.. I consider this the best. but....


Ready brake is a far simpler system, it's self adjusting, the only thing you can not do is adjust it from the motor home driver's seat or set/disable towed brakes from the Motor home driver's seat. This will be my NEXT system in all likelyhood.

There are others as well.

RedG wrote:

The one advantage I can think of over ready brake and some others is that it has a break away function when they do not. At least if the unlikely event of a break away ever occurs, I know my toad's brakes will be locking up to possibly prevent a disaster. A toad with a Ready brake will be veering to God only knows where.

Mine with Readybrake will not be, cause it has ReadyBrakes brakeaway system. Very nice little KISS fail safe mechanical package too!

RedG wrote:
I have a Blue Ox Patriot "box" system (as referred to above). One of the main reasons I have it is because I found it for a good price on Craig's List when I was looking for a braking system.
I was considering a Readybrake unit.
So far, it has worked good for me. If it's set up right, it works great and I've had no problems with the brake pedal bracket coming off or any error codes. It has a dash mount monitor inside the coach so I can see what's happening, adjust the gain, or see if any error codes emerge.
The one advantage I can think of over ready brake and some others is that it has a break away function when they do not. At least if the unlikely event of a break away ever occurs, I know my toad's brakes will be locking up to possibly prevent a disaster. A toad with a Ready brake will be veering to God only knows where.

Where did you ever get the idea that you couldn't install a break away feature with the READYBRAKE system or that they didn't offer one of their own in fact? It's called the READYSTOP and see no reason why it won't work as well as any, after I personally installed one.

mowermech wrote:
The Ready Brute/Ready Brake systems DO have an available "breakaway" system. It costs an additional $100, IIRC.
Out of the literally thousands of towed vehicle on the roads at any given time, (especially during the summer), how many have broken away?
In all the years I have been a member here, I can only remember two reported breakaways, and they were receiver failures, where the "breakaway" feature never activated!

If the breakaway never activated, it's because the thing was hooked to the receiver that broke away and not to the frame itself like it should be.

supercub wrote:
Isn't the Readybrake baiscally a surge brake? One thing I've always been concerned about in a surge brake is burning up the brakes on a long down hill grade. Seems like the tow brakes would be activiated continiously.
Brian

Can't happen. Once the brakes are applied to the toad, it slows immediately and is no longer catching up with the coach, so they release. Also if you wire your dash indicator light properly you'll know immediately when the toads brake pedal is being depressed, even so lightly.
I vote for the complete package of the READYBRAKE ELITE and a baseplate of your choice with Demco being my choice for the Jeep Wrangler or you can pay a lot more and in most cases get a lot less. Also the only light weight Alum. bars that are rated for 8000lbs that I know of.
TOWBARS UNLIMITED has the best prices and best support that I've found so far.

We started with a Roadmaster tow rig with the brakemaster system on our Saturn and used that for 3 1/2 years. We recently bought a Jeep Wrangler 4 door and used the same tow system. We bought a new base plate, and also this time went to the Invisibrake system. It seemed like I was always having to install the brakemaster when it was 100 degrees and I would be dripping sweat.

Our experience with Roadmaster is that it is a high quality durable system. We never had any kind of failure in 3 1/2 years. I just picked up my Jeep this afternoon after having to replace the first Invisibrake as it failed. Actually I don't think it ever worked. If it did for five minutes and then poooof. The second one worked for the 15 miles I towed it this afternoon. So so far the second one works.

I am sold on Roadmaster. However I think the jury is still out on Invisibrake.

Invisibrake pros

1. It is there and no need to install it every time like brake master
2. No air hose hook up

Invisibrake cons

1. You must turn on your parking brake lights to use it. The problem is me remembering to turn them off.
2. Invisibrake activates the Jeep's brakes when my engine brake goes on and the brake lights activate. It only keeps the brakes on for 15 seconds, but still I don't think I like that. Brakemaster did not have this issue.

Good post, Dave.

Some other points. While a mechanical system may or may not be as reliable as an electronic system, the mechanical system can be checked for wear----------an electronic system can't.

I started with the Unified/US Gear system. It worked fine for the first year and a half. Then I had 2 black box failures (poor soldering on the circuit board) and than the vacuum pump failed. All happened in the middle of trips. Lots of white knuckle driving pulling a 5000 lb toad without toad brakes!!!!

I replaced it finally with a Ready Brake system. It was easier to install than the Unified system and worked great. I'll never have an electronic system again.

desobelman wrote:
RedQuad,

While I agree that the ReadyBrake Elite System is pretty bullet proof, it is a surge braking system, not fully proportional.

The InvisiBrake System, also by Roadmaster, is fully proportional and once installed there is nothing to do but hook up the car to the tow bar and go! I had it added to my new towed vehicle and love it! I use the Blue Ox tow bar because I already owned it from previous RV/Towed. I like the Blue Ox because of the "hidden" connector system. When the tow bar is unhooked from the car, you hardly notice any connections on the front of the car.

I also prefer the proportional braking system as it applies the brakes in the same proportion as the MH brakes instead of only when enough surge is transferred to the braking system. I do not mean to infer that the ReadyBrake is inferior, the InvisiBrake is just my preference.

Happy Trails! :W

Darryl

Incredible amount of misinformation all over this thread. First of all read the FAQ second item down on Roadmatser's site, it clearly states Invisibrake is NOT proportional.

Second item, virtually all proportional breaking systems except for a system that connects to the motorhome air brakes, ARE SURGE BRAKES. Electronic proportional braking systems have a inertia sensor that senses deceleration - ie surge, and applies the brakes, based on the motorhome rate of deceleration. Regardless of how the sensor works, these systems are fully dependent on the ability of the motorhome to be able to stop.

Lastly, ReadyBrake is fully proportional. It will provide variable braking, based on how hard the motorhome is stopping. Not only that, but it is the only closed loop systems that is self monitoring, in that it only provides enough braking to make the car neutral in its deceleration. When I set up the damper spring on my ReadyBrake, I towed my 4600 LBS Grand Cherokee with my 3100 lbs XJ. I adjusted the damper so that I had perfectly neutral response from light braking to very hard braking. Under stopping, the toad made no measurable difference in my ability to get stopped. 2 conclusions that can be drawn from this. First of all, the fact that the toad vacuum assist is not active is a NON-ISSUE. If vacuum was necessary, a 3100 lbs car would not be stopping a 4600 lbs car. Plenty of available stopping power. Secondly, the fact the the car had a neutral effect on my stopping ability, means the proportional effect of the system is extremely accurate.

Something else to think about: A car is very capable of out stopping any motorhome. This means that a compression sensing braking system is very capable of providing every bit of stopping power necessary to result in ZERO impact on the motorhome stopping distance. Compression surge systems get a bit of a bad rap on trailers, mainly because the tow vehicle is often lighter than the trailer. On snow and ice, it is possible for the tow vehicle to not provide enough stopping to overcome the damping spring. This will never happen in a motorhome, because the motorhome's shear weight compared to the toad will always be enough to overcome the damping spring.(for clarification, the damping spring is adjusted relative to the trailer weight. Heavy trailers will need a stronger damping spring, and therefor will hinder the compression aspect on snow and ice. Motorhome weight relative to toad weight means the spring will be plenty soft enough to work properly on snow and ice).

And a last observation. I was in a panic stop once. The motorhome brakes locked up, but I also heard the toad brakes screech as well. The screech was short lived, as the system equalized to the appropriate amount of braking. It should also be noted that the system equalized smoothly.