Brake Buddy Classic II .... Update

So how are your knees?

Update for anyone needing to know. We had the old Brake Buddy digital classic which was pneumatic. Powered by a 12v cigarette style plug. It was trouble free for 7 years.

They don't make that unit any longer. The new replacement is the Classic II. On their web site it's just over $1100. The web site gives no information on how it compares to the old one it replaced. It's not pneumatic and is purely electric motor driven ( I was surprised and didn't expect that). It didn't fit my 2017 Jeep Wrangler as well as the old unit. I had to put about a 3/4" rise under the unit to make it more level. The brake pedal clevis that came with it was useless and cheap. It totally failed to work on my brake pedal and kept pushing off while doing the setup feature to bleed the brakes.

I had to remove the old one off my old unit and install on the new one. This worked. The changes besides it's an electric motor is a one touch setup. The old unit required during setting up for towing pressing the test button five times. The new unit is much faster.

Also the new unit no longer plugs into your cigarette lighter and must be wired to the battery thru the firewall and the break away is wired to that connection. So you can't use your old break away wiring. The power cable connect at the dash mounted plug and connects to the unit. One wire for power and break away switch.

The new Brake Buddy Classic II is much lighter and there isn't much inside the unit except a motor, actuator unit, and a computer board. Not sure how well it will compare. It does seem slightly slower than the old pneumatic one when applying the brakes and retracting.

Hope this helps anyone else looking into this. Not a thumbs up, but not a thumbs down. There were the four issues ( not saying it's all electric, really cheap adjustable clamp to brake pedal, height issue, new wiring required)

crawford wrote:
brake buddy advised me that I was having trouble because it needed a dedicated line so I ran a straight line from battery to unit never a problem since. Did you try that first?

It runs. Just won't build pressure

brake buddy advised me that I was having trouble because it needed a dedicated line so I ran a straight line from battery to unit never a problem since. Did you try that first?

I have one , the first one had to be replaced (it wouldn't release the brakes after the test phase) but they replaced it and haven't had any issues since.