Well Sir,
I've got a few zillion miles on my Ready Brake system and, for what it's worth, the Ready Brake system, is not a real smooth operation. How can it be? It's a surge brake system and, it's cable operated. Now, I'll probably catch some flack out of this but, that's ok, been there done that. Most of the time, an R/B system is a fairly tight operation, as far as the actuator is concerned. Meaning, it kind of takes pretty good brake pressure from the motor home to cause enough surge to activate the actuator on the R/B.
Now, again, the term "pretty good pressure" could mean different things, to different folks.
One of the things that you really need to do, in order to satisfy your curiosity of the toad brakes working or, actually "releasing" after the surge is, to install an indicator light on the dash of your motor home, that would be actually energized by the brake switch on your toad, not the switch on the surge actuator of the R/B.
That switch, the one that comes on many of the newer R/B actuators, is driven or, switched, by inertia from the surge of the toad, pushing on the tow bar, thus, pushing on that switch. It does in no way, tell you that the brakes are being applied or, released in your toad. You could have a mal-adjusted link cable or, no cable at all and, you'll still get a signal on the LED on your dash, IF, you set it up with that switch in the actuator.
But, if you set it up from the brake light switch in your toad, you have a 100% assurance that the brakes are being applied and, released. It takes just a bit of time and effort to setup that kind of notification system but, it's well worth the effort.
Now, what I'd like to know is, what the original problem was with your "jerking" when using it in the first place? You see, inside that R/B are two things. One, a tiny, oh about, 1 1/8" x 2", seriously heavy duty little spring. The second unit in there is, a tiny piston, about the same size in diameter of the spring and, there's about four or so, "O" rings on it. There's also a tiny hole in that piston. As the unit is surged forward, it presses on the spring and, the process is slowed down due to the piston, trying to push a few CCs of oil through that tiny hole and, into another chamber.
Then, the springs plan is to, push the little piston and, your toad, back to the travel position. Then, the whole process, starts all over again, if and when needed. It's really that simple.
But, as in my case, the spring is seriously WEAK and, I can actually activate it by hand. That's a no-no in my book and, most likely Ready Brakes too. Sooner or later, I'll do something about it. But, in your case, the first thing I'd do is, get that notification system installed that is activated by the brake switch in your toad. It's the most accurate notification you can do for that Ready Brake system.
The second thing I might suggest is, set up that "Link cable", the one that attaches between the toad and the actuator, with a "turn buckle" like I did. You can get infinite adjustment that way. No need for tools and all that crap. Just a slight turn, in either direction for ultimate proper adjustment, IN SECONDS!
Once those things are done, and, if your R/B is working properly, you should be good to go. One more thing, I don't know who did your original install but, the cable housing, the one that's under the hood of your toad, must be VERY STICTLY SECURED at every point that it can, especially at or near bends. If it's not secured, and can flex, it will have tendency to want to "straighten" out, when the brakes are applied and that will not allow proper operation of the entire R/B system and therefore, will not pull on your brake arm, in the toad.
So, there's some things to think about.
Scott
