Flat Towing a Chev Pickup

mowermech wrote:
"The reason I say that about Ready Brake is this. MY system, the actuator in particular is worn out. I can literally push that actuator forward BY HAND! Needless to say, it's shot. Well, me being me, I tore that thing apart. Folks, there's noting scientific or miraculous about the inner guts of a Ready Brake.

All there is, is spring, about 1.25" in diameter by about a couple of inches long. It's a pretty stout little spring. There's also a small, again, about 1.25" in diameter, little piston. That little piston has some tiny holes in it. And, it's got about three or four O-rings around it. That piston sits in a small bore. Inside that bore with the piston is a ounce or two or three of oil.

So, as the actuator moves, due to your toad pushing on it, that spring and, the piston move forward. The piston is supposed to act as a shock. All that oil, is forced through the tiny holes, from one chamber to another. And, the spring, pushes it all back.

But, as stated, mine is worn out. That makes for un-necessary brake action in the toad. Well, in all reality, all I needed from Ready Brake was the four O-rings and, maybe their oil, if it was something special.

But, Noooooooooooo, they didn't want me doing this. THEY wanted me to package that 50 lb. actuator up and, send it all the way to them, so THEY could put the four O-rings in it and, replace the spring. Well, to say the least, that's ridiculous. I mean, I've got it apart, OBVIOUSLY I know how the system works, and, what's needed to bring it back to life. There's nothing complicated about this system. No adjustments, no settings, NOTHING that some high trained technician has to do that I can't do.

So, my decision to walk away is my own. While it's a pretty good braking system for the money and, for the most part, about 99.999% of folks that use it are happy, including me for quite some time, I'm not all that happy with that much "slop" in the tow system anyways. There's plenty of movement, in multiple directions that I've never really been fond of.

So, hence, I might be migrating over to the M&G system, especially since I've got an air braked coach which would make the that type of system work flawless. We'll see."

I don't understand your problem.
O-rings are readily available from many sources, and they are pretty much standard sized, and Buna-N is the most common material. go buy some to fit.
Oil: Same thing. If it is red, it is probably Dexron ATF. If it is clear, it can be almost anything. If it matches your o-ring material, and is approximately the same viscosity, no problem.
Spring: All kinds of compression springs are available from many sources. Grainger and McMaster-Carr come immediately to mind. Again, no problem.

So, save your self some money and get the parts to overhaul your unit.
If it doesn't work, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
Good luck.

Well Sir,
It's not a "Problem", Yes, I could have simply done a bit of research (as I've done on a zillion other projects) and most likely find the appropriate O-rings, oil and spring. I considered all that, way in advance. But, I thought I'd give them a shot at supplying me with THEIR components simply because of all the PRAISE I've read about how well they handle after-sales issues. Well, I suppose if I'd have driven a few thousand miles to end up in their parking lot, I might have gotten this unit rebuilt for next to, or nothing.

But, based on others opinion about "legality" of todays society, I most likely understand their reasoning for not wanting to send me simple rebuild components. And the oil, was not red, brown or any other color. It was BLACK due to the few zillion times of being compressed and shot through those tiny holes and, possibly contaminated by O-ring deterioration.

While I had it apart, I simply threw away the old oil and, installed some 80-90 wt Gear oil to see if that would help suppress the action. So far, it didn't. So, we'll see what comes in the future. One of the nice folks on here has offered a reasonably new one for a negotiated price and, is not that far from us so, we'll maybe take him up on it.
Scott