RVi3 portable brake

[RVROSE]

What do you think about the RVi3 portable brake system?

[Mile_High]

I have the RVi2 and it works fine - A key advantage to the RVi3 is the piston foot has a sensor to detect if it has a constant steady pressure on it, which sends an alarm to cab or tablet.

The main screw up with the RVi2 was depressing the brake after everything was set up, letting the piston slide down the rail to a new position causing your brakes to drag ruining your car in short order with no real warning. The sensor on the RVi3 is supposed to at least give you warning.

[JohnG3]

The tablet is nothing more than a gimmick. Once the RVI3 is properly installed the braking is inertia activated over 25/30 mph. Used our tablet on the first trip then put it away.

[T18skyguy]

What would be nice on the hub is an on/off switch. Fully charged, it's good for 10-12 hours I think. When you get to your destination it just discharges. You have to remember to charge it up the night before. I lay the tablet where the cupholders are on my E 450 rig, but I agree that thing is big. It does work well though. I was worried that being a wifi system it might lose signal etc. but that hasn't happened.

[Ductape]

We have a lot of miles on ours and it works well. That said, we had the RVI2 before this one, and I preferred it. The actual braking hardware is the same.

The tablet is larger than the dedicated remote for the 2, it takes up too much dash real estate. And the required WiFi hub is one more piece of electronic hardware to manage. Spend a couple of days boondocking and the hub will discharge its internal battery. So remember to charge it in advance of departure or you'll spend 15 minutes with an inoperable brake monitoring tablet because the network is down.

Now I do still think it's a good braking system. But they've traded plug in and go simple reliability for too much techno bling.

[JohnG3]

wa8yxm wrote:
Two situtations.
1: You have a "Stable" of cars you tow. OR you change often (IE: Annually) in this case a portable brake system may be the best.

2: You plan to tow the same car a long time... IN this case I would avoid the portable systems as you have to INSTALL them every time you hook up and REMOVE them when you want to drive the towed and
A: every install is a chance to screw it up like the dealer did mine
B: For a short haul. Tempting to "Oh Forget it" and regret later.

We have the RVI-3 and installation of the braking device is about one minute. Not a big deal.

[MetalGator]

I have the RVi3 brake system and also the tire patrol that works with the system. I really like the setup. I tow 2 different Jeeps so it's nice that it's portable. The tire patrol has given me issues but they replaced the tire sensors a couple of times and now they seem to work well. The redesigned the sensors which seems to have taken care of the problem. The customer service at RVi is first rate. They are very responsive.

Burch

[wa8yxm]

Two situtations.
1: You have a "Stable" of cars you tow. OR you change often (IE: Annually) in this case a portable brake system may be the best.

2: You plan to tow the same car a long time... IN this case I would avoid the portable systems as you have to INSTALL them every time you hook up and REMOVE them when you want to drive the towed and
A: every install is a chance to screw it up like the dealer did mine
B: For a short haul. Tempting to "Oh Forget it" and regret later.

[T18skyguy]

I'm on my second season with it and I like it a lot. It has both inertia control and tablet control. When your under way, you just tap the brake symbol to test the system, or if you brake hard it shows brake activation on the tablet. The brake unit itself is very compact and comes with a nice handle. It self adjusts by pressing the button 3 times, and it confirms that it's ready to work. It's a wifi based unit and there is hub you need to charge and also the tablet. It's no problem. You can also pair a TPMS system with it if you like. I find brake activation mostly occurs in heavy city traffic when you need to stop quick for a yellow light. The Ford V10 with the 6 speed and tow haul takes a lot of work off the supplemental braking system. I think the instant brake action of a pneumatic system is the best way to go.