Flat towing Ford Focus

Sandy & Shirley wrote:

az99 wrote:
Sounds like you convinced yourself against the Elite. Good Luck.

We were totally leaning toward the Elite and then read some other posts about it. The posts were not glowing and also not bad. Some liked it some did not. We were disappointed that the monitor in the Motor Home was wired and only gave you a single led to say the brakes are on or off. The problem was that it was connected to the Elite and only told you if the Elite was asking for brakes, if the proper slack was not in the cable connection you might not have brakes! There was also no way to make any kind of adjustments from the RV for things like sensativity. The adjustments were made by stopping, getting out, and adjusting the cable by hand. Also, our RV dealer and car dealer had never installed a cable controlled braking system.

The unit we chose uses a two way wireless monitor and adjustment system, and the RV dealer was very familiar with the installation process.

Like I said, you convinced yourself the Elite was not for you. I got mine several years ago, adjusted the cable once and threw away the worthless warning light. I and many others on this and other RV forums would use nothing else.
Good Luck with all the expensive bells and whistles. You probably better check into a remote TPMS for the toad also. :)

az99 wrote:
Sounds like you convinced yourself against the Elite. Good Luck.

We were totally leaning toward the Elite and then read some other posts about it. The posts were not glowing and also not bad. Some liked it some did not. We were disappointed that the monitor in the Motor Home was wired and only gave you a single led to say the brakes are on or off. The problem was that it was connected to the Elite and only told you if the Elite was asking for brakes, if the proper slack was not in the cable connection you might not have brakes! There was also no way to make any kind of adjustments from the RV for things like sensativity. The adjustments were made by stopping, getting out, and adjusting the cable by hand. Also, our RV dealer and car dealer had never installed a cable controlled braking system.

The unit we chose uses a two way wireless monitor and adjustment system, and the RV dealer was very familiar with the installation process.

Sounds like you convinced yourself against the Elite. Good Luck.

az99 wrote:
Take it to a Mom and Pop auto repair shop and get the Ready Brute Elite installed. $4,000 is CRAZY.

We completely looked at the Elite. The Elite was $1,200 not including the parallel $110 emergency break away kit or the installation of the cables to the brake pedal.

Your total brake controls in the motor home will be a single led on the dash that tells you the toad brakes are on or off, and that wire also has to be installed through the motor home with a hole drilled in the dash for the LED.

If the brakes do not seem to come on at the right time, you stop your motor home and go back to the hitch and adjust the length of the wire cable attached to the car.

The road master bar we are getting is only $794, and we are adding the even brake system for $1,519 and a 12 volt receptacle for $30. Yes, our parts are about $1,000 more that the Elite, but the labor to install it will be far less and we get full wireless remote control of the brakes from inside the motor home. We both have to pay for the installation of the base plate and wire harness for the tail lights.

We figure that after labor ours will cost about $700 to $800 more and I’m not sure if the Elite tow bar will fold up against the motor home for storage and if it does, how far from the back of the motor home does it sit with that extra surge brake controller.

Our original estimates on the Elite were about $3,300 to $3,500 for the total install. The Road Master is going to be about $4,000 to $4,200 per the RV dealer’s estimate depending on estimate based on maximum expected labor. It will be less if no problems occur.

What we are getting for the extra $700 does not seem crazy to us.

8handicap wrote:
WOW!

Does your tow bar have a ball joint(s) to allow for the drop? I have to use a 6" drop receiver on my Tiffin Open Road.

Ron

There is no ball joint, it is a square heavy duty 2 inch receiver and post on the RV and tow bar. The tow bar is the Road Master Falcon 2 94-9628.

Take it to a Mom and Pop auto repair shop and get the Ready Brute Elite installed. $4,000 is CRAZY.

WOW!

Does your tow bar have a ball joint(s) to allow for the drop? I have to use a 6" drop receiver on my Tiffin Open Road.

Ron

This is getting very confusing. The extra white and green wires on the actual battery negative post are a battery sensor, per the dealer’s service department, those wires do not connect the battery to ground. If a wire that small did connect to ground it would melt quickly. So, you can disconnect the black wire at the fire wall connection. But one of the lower mechanics still said no. The other four and the lead mechanic said yes!

I am having a two position battery disconnect switch added to the left of the battery just below the front window where there is space to install it. The existing black wire can feed the switch and a second wire can then be added between the switch and the existing bolt on the firewall.



Just to be safe, I’m having the dealer cut the battery monitor wire and install a simple two wire connection outside the battery box. I can now throw the disconnect to the off position and unplug the sensor. That definitely takes care of the battery’s black wire.

I found a local RV dealer who will do all of the work to convert the car to flat towable, none of this you connect the base plate and you connect the wire harness. The RV dealer is going to use a wire harness that uses diodes to insure that current and ground from the motor home does not feed back to the car’s power system and he is also going to install a second power outlet (cigarette lighter) under the dash near the brake pedal. That way we can use a standard braking system and it will have its own power outlet direct to the motor home. The cost is not nice, a little over $4,000 including all parts and labor, but we are getting the best parts available, including a tow bar that does not require a drop hitch. I can just see us going over a driveway or incline that dips the rear end close to the ground and breaking the drop hitch, we no longer have to worry about that.

You guys are having an interesting conversation and I plan to take it to my dealer today. My problem with merely disconnecting the negative lead at the firewall is what do you do with the lead after? If it is merely disconnected what stops it from bouncing back to firewall stub or other ground connection while you are driving down a bumpy road? That is why I am leading toward installing a real disconnect switch on the firewall bolt with a turn key that you physically remove and put in the glove box.

8handicap wrote:
Hilldude,
Not trying to be smart just confused. If the negative cable is disconnected, how can these two extra positive wires cause a problem? I do not see the two extra wires. Are they bound to the positive cable?

Ron

Don't know why but there are two small wires connected at neg bat terminal on my 2013 focus.Couple years back some one on another forum complained about fried transmissions on focus.He was disconnecting neg cable at fire wall.Ford says disconnect neg terminal.