Brakes on towed vehicle or not?
Just wondering how many of you have supplemental braking on your toad vehicle or not. Our toad weighs about 2700 lbs. towed behind a 30 ft. Class C 450 Ford chassis so I believe brakes are not legally...
Forum Discussion
These debates are always interesting, but never really conclusive.
Many people say we should always run supplemental / auxiliary brakes on a toad for the sake of a few extra feet in a panic stop; that the purchase of one of these products is worth the extra margin of stopping performance.
But if you agree with that logic, then the same applies to spending a similar amount for brake upgrades to your daily driver... My high-performance sports-car stops much faster than someone else's entry-level sedan, so they should spend the money to upgrade their brakes to stop as quickly as my car; after all - they might be behind me when traffic quickly comes to a standstill, and I can stop in time while they might not be able to.
For that matter, maybe we should abandon these heavy RVs altogether, as they're never going to stop as quickly as regular cars on the highway, no matter how many components are added or improved.
Obviously, I'm being facetious here, but only to point out the logical falasy in these arguments. There will always be vehicles that can stop faster than others; who is to say what is right, or what is enough?
Actually - there's is an answer to that one: the answer is the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) braking performance standards. It is an accepted standard for how quickly a vehicle or combination of vehicles must be able to stop.
Based on that, I believe each RV owner should evaluate their vehicle's capabilities and decide what their rig needs to meet those performance standards (and applicable laws where they travel). There is no one-size-fits-all answer.
Many people say we should always run supplemental / auxiliary brakes on a toad for the sake of a few extra feet in a panic stop; that the purchase of one of these products is worth the extra margin of stopping performance.
But if you agree with that logic, then the same applies to spending a similar amount for brake upgrades to your daily driver... My high-performance sports-car stops much faster than someone else's entry-level sedan, so they should spend the money to upgrade their brakes to stop as quickly as my car; after all - they might be behind me when traffic quickly comes to a standstill, and I can stop in time while they might not be able to.
For that matter, maybe we should abandon these heavy RVs altogether, as they're never going to stop as quickly as regular cars on the highway, no matter how many components are added or improved.
Obviously, I'm being facetious here, but only to point out the logical falasy in these arguments. There will always be vehicles that can stop faster than others; who is to say what is right, or what is enough?
Actually - there's is an answer to that one: the answer is the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) braking performance standards. It is an accepted standard for how quickly a vehicle or combination of vehicles must be able to stop.
Based on that, I believe each RV owner should evaluate their vehicle's capabilities and decide what their rig needs to meet those performance standards (and applicable laws where they travel). There is no one-size-fits-all answer.
