Invisibrake by Roadmaster

Thanks Wingspan..That is pretty much what Roadmaster told me. I have a Fusemaster device but it is a real bear to install. Not much room and the wires are barely long enough. I managed to break one of the spade connectors with all of the pushing and bending it. The fuse block is in a bad place as you know. I am having a hard time finding a replacement connector. I emailed Roadmaster (Fusemaster) and got no reply. I have ordered the closest thing I could find on the internet and it seems to thin to stay in the fuse block connector. I have also taken a round wire connector I got at Radio Shack and beat it into the approximate shape/sizee I need. I will try to get it to work again tomorrow. Glad I am retired. Else, I wouldn't have time for all this trial and error.

Has anyone used the Roadmaster Direct Proportional braking system ? If so are you pleased with it.

Has anyone used the Roadmaster Direct Proportional braking system ? If so are you pleased with it.

Bought a 2011 Honda Element to flat tow .Does anyone flat tow a 2011 Honda Element EX ?

moose888 wrote:
Has anyone used the Roadmaster Direct Proportional braking system ? If so are you pleased with it.

If you mean Brake Master I have the system on my Honda Fit and am happy with the performance. Sucuring the clamp to brake pedal is not as easy as it could be. Good luck.
jack

moose888 wrote:
Has anyone used the Roadmaster Direct Proportional braking system ? If so are you pleased with it.

We used the Roadmaster 9060 proportional braking system for over 75,000 miles on our 2001 Winnebago Adventurer. I just finished installing a new one in our 2013 Adventurer. It's a great system and works well. I especially like the fact that there's only an air cylinder to remove and store in the Jeep.

There are 2 models. 1 for a gas powered motorhome and another for a diesel powered. The diesel power one is easy to install and should take about a day to complete. The one for gas powered coached includes an air compressor and takes considerably more time to install.

If you're considering this system go to the Roadmaster website and read through the instruction manual. It takes a couple days to install if you want a "professional" look.

A couple notes of caution. If you're installing it on a gas powered motorhome decide where you want to put the compressor before you begin. On our first motorhome the compressor was mounted in a compatrment just to the rear of the entry door. There was plenty of air hose and wiring in the kit for this application.

The best place to mount it in our new motorhome was a rear compartment. I had to order more air brake tubing from McMaster Carr to run from the compressor to the proportioning valve (mounted near the front of the coach on the drivers side frame rail) and then all the way to the back of the coach. I also had to add more wire to get from the compresor relay to the fuse box in the front of the coach.

You might also want to check to see what size brake lines you have on your motorhome. Our older motorhome had 1/4" lines so all the fittings were included in the kit. The new one has metric lines so I had to order the fittings seperately.

The fittings offered by Roadmaster do not fit the 2013 Ford F53 chassis. Ford uses a double inverted flare (same as the sae fittings) but with a 12 mm-1.0 thread. You can get the appropriate Tee fitting from Belmetric.com. You'll also need to get a 12mm-1.0 nut. They're made by Edlemann and available from O'reilly Auto Parts.

The kit comes with a 1/4" line with SAE fittings. The line will work but for metric brake lines you need to replace the original nut with the metric one. You can either cut the line, slide off the old nut, slide on the metric one, and reflare the line, or take it to an auto parts house and have it done.

How does the "Invisibrake" work from the cable harness and back into the black box? Why do they hook it into the vacuum line? There shouldn't be much vacuum if the engine is not running. Or is there an air pump in the black box or a geared motor used to pull the cable? How does this work? I would think an electrical motor would not respond fast enough like an air cylinder would. If it uses air, where is the tank and is it pumped up and ready to go at the first tap of the brakes?

Does it run off the towed battery? Someone spoke of a charging cable. Why would you not use a charging cable already in place?

don_a wrote:
How does the "Invisibrake" work from the cable harness and back into the black box? Why do they hook it into the vacuum line? There shouldn't be much vacuum if the engine is not running. Or is there an air pump in the black box or a geared motor used to pull the cable? How does this work? I would think an electrical motor would not respond fast enough like an air cylinder would. If it uses air, where is the tank and is it pumped up and ready to go at the first tap of the brakes?

Does it run off the towed battery? Someone spoke of a charging cable. Why would you not use a charging cable already in place?

All your questions should be answered here in the Invisibrake Install Instructions.

Cochise49,
I have a CRV with NAV. The Honda dealer gave me a short test cable to bridge the fuse that must be removed when towing the vehicle. I think it was a 5 amp fuse. Whatever it was, I ran the test cable from the fuse block to a switch hidden in a storage pocket on the left side of the dash. I added an in-line fuse of the same value I removed to connect the test cable to retain the fuse protection. Turning the switch off, eliminates the NAV system drain.
Roadmaster uses a lead from the running light circuit to overcome the remaining minor current drain, and the higher drain when braking due to the vacuum pump, and brake lights that will operate when the braking unit activates. That actually works pretty well with one minor glitch that I will address if someone mentions it. I simply used an extra wire in the cable between the MH and the CRV to feed voltage (current) from the motorhome to the CRV when towing. I put a 12 volt ignition operated relay in this line to disconnect the CRV charge line when the engine is not operating on the motorhome. All this has worked for thousands of miles, with no dead battery.
The trick is setting the amount of braking since, due to the weight of the motorhome as compared to the CRV, it’s impossible to determine how hard the CRV is braking behind the motorhome. I overcame this by making a portable wiring harness that permits me to operate the braking system in the CRV while separate from the motorhome. I just go out on a back road and operate the Roadmaster to see how hard the CRV brakes, without any influence from the heavier tow vehicle, and set the amount of braking accordingly.

I've got a 2006 CRV that I'm getting set up to tow. I want to get the Invisibrake installed along with the Fusemaster. Are you CRV folks happy with the Invisibrake and were there any headaches with the installation. I plan on getting it professionally installed but just want to make sure there aren't any issues I'm not aware about. Thanks!!