Tow vehicle brakes for diesel pusher

jpnj2 · 05-23-2022, 03:23 AM

Is Air Force one the best braking system on a diesel pusher, towing a 2014 Honda CR-V

**16ACE27** · 05-23-2022, 04:38 AM

"Best" in what way?

Bob Nodine · 05-23-2022, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpnj2

Is Air Force one the best braking system on a diesel pusher, towing a 2014 Honda CR-V

Air Force One is a good system and well known but has the disadvantage of requiring permanent installation on the toad. If you later want to change toads or have two different toads that can be towed then you need a braking system that can be easily moved from toad to toad. If the motorhome has air brakes then the Roadmaster Brakemaster is a good choice but has the disadvantage that the brake-away system must be permanently installed on each vehicle or removed from the old toad and transferred to the new toad. A great choice for a toad braking system that can be easily moved from toad to toad is the RViBrake3. This system cost more but is light and easy to install and remove. It does require a brake-away switch at the front of the vehicle for brake-away protection. Brake-away switches are cheap and easy to install.

We used the Roadmaster Brakemaster for 13 years on three different toads and love it. The only problem is it requires the motorhome to have air brakes. When we decided to downsize to a Class-C coach we choose the RViBrake3 because it does not require the motorhome to have air brakes. We did purchase the Toad Charging System and the Tire Patrol sensors for the toad (the 2021 Ford E-450 has tire pressure monitoring for all six coach wheels). The RViBrake3 comes with a tablet computer that allows you to monitor the braking activity, toad battery charge, and tire pressure form the coach. We have been using this system for 2 years now. Started with it on the large motorhome and the Chevy Sonic and now with the Class C. Takes some learning but once you get the hang of it things are smooth. One lesson we leaned the hard way is to power the RViBrake down at each overnight stop and re-initialize each morning before starting the driving day.

Jimbo56 · 05-23-2022, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Nodine

Air Force One is a good system and well known but has the disadvantage of requiring permanent installation on the toad. If you later want to change toads or have two different toads that can be towed then you need a braking system that can be easily moved from toad to toad. If the motorhome has air brakes then the Roadmaster Brakemaster is a good choice but has the disadvantage that the brake-away system must be permanently installed on each vehicle or removed from the old toad and transferred to the new toad. A great choice for a toad braking system that can be easily moved from toad to toad is the RViBrake3. This system cost more but is light and easy to install and remove. It does require a brake-away switch at the front of the vehicle for brake-away protection. Brake-away switches are cheap and easy to install.

We used the Roadmaster Brakemaster for 13 years on three different toads and love it. The only problem is it requires the motorhome to have air brakes. When we decided to downsize to a Class-C coach we choose the RViBrake3 because it does not require the motorhome to have air brakes. We did purchase the Toad Charging System and the Tire Patrol sensors for the toad (the 2021 Ford E-450 has tire pressure monitoring for all six coach wheels). The RViBrake3 comes with a tablet computer that allows you to monitor the braking activity, toad battery charge, and tire pressure form the coach. We have been using this system for 2 years now. Started with it on the large motorhome and the Chevy Sonic and now with the Class C. Takes some learning but once you get the hang of it things are smooth. One lesson we leaned the hard way is to power the RViBrake down at each overnight stop and re-initialize each morning before starting the driving day.

Nice review.

jpnj2 · 05-26-2022, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbo56

Nice review.

Thanks for the info Will install AF1

halfprice · 05-26-2022, 02:26 AM

Look into the Ready Brute brake system. I've been using it for 6 years. Great system and easy to use

Jerry

chunker21 · 05-30-2022, 10:05 AM

When I had my Itasca DP I towed a short wrangler. M&G Engineering also makes an "air powered" toad braking that connects the coach to toad with a single airline connections like used in air tools etc. Takes seconds to connect BUT it has permanent parts in the Jeep/toad and can't readily be switched to different vehicles. I now use the RVi3 and it's easy, can be moved to either the Gladiator or Ram for "toad duties", but takes longer to set up, few minutes vs few seconds. Cost probably similar but haven't checked on AF or M&G pricing in a while.

chunker21 · 05-30-2022, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Nodine

we choose the RViBrake3 because it does not require the motorhome to have air brakes. We did purchase the Toad Charging System and the Tire Patrol sensors for the toad (the 2021 Ford E-450 has tire pressure monitoring for all six coach wheels). The RViBrake3 comes with a tablet computer that allows you to monitor the braking activity, toad battery charge, and tire pressure form the coach. We have been using this system for 2 years now. Started with it on the large motorhome and the Chevy Sonic and now with the Class C. Takes some learning but once you get the hang of it things are smooth. One lesson we leaned the hard way is to power the RViBrake down at each overnight stop and re-initialize each morning before starting the driving day.

Comment on the RVi Tire Patrol. When I bought the Omni I got the RVi3, the toad battery charger and the tire patrol TPMS with 10 sensors. Brake and charger worked fine but had nothing but problems with the TPMS. Regardless where I put the puck/command center it would lose tire sensors and it would vary which ones failed. To RVi credit they responded and worked with me on various suggestions and even replaced all sensors. When I got rid of the omni and got the Renegade Valencia, not much different in Tire patrol performance and reliability. After the last trip of 3700 miles and trying all their suggestions, I concluded that every system won't work in every motor home. I returned all the sensors for a refund and will go back to my older EEZtire TPMS for the next trip. Waiting on refund to be issued but should be soon. It would have been nice to have the TPMS info displayed on the RVi tablet and not have another monitor on the dash, but reliability is more important than a "clean dash".

Bob Nodine · 05-31-2022, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunker21

Comment on the RVi Tire Patrol. When I bought the Omni I got the RVi3, the toad battery charger and the tire patrol TPMS with 10 sensors. Brake and charger worked fine but had nothing but problems with the TPMS. Regardless where I put the puck/command center it would lose tire sensors and it would vary which ones failed. To RVi credit they responded and worked with me on various suggestions and even replaced all sensors. When I got rid of the omni and got the Renegade Valencia, not much different in Tire patrol performance and reliability. After the last trip of 3700 miles and trying all their suggestions, I concluded that every system won't work in every motor home. I returned all the sensors for a refund and will go back to my older EEZtire TPMS for the next trip. Waiting on refund to be issued but should be soon. It would have been nice to have the TPMS info displayed on the RVi tablet and not have another monitor on the dash, but reliability is more important than a "clean dash".

Sorry for your troubles. We had one sensor that needed to be replaced but have not had any trouble since. We are only 32 feet long and tow a small car. With weak RF signals like the ones emanating from the tire pressure sensors it does not take much interference to cause problems. On previous 10 tire TPMS systems I have used we had a 40 foot coach and towed a full size pickup. Had to add a repeater and also noticed that when camping near other RV's in a campground or rally the sensors would often not work. If there is something else in your coach operating near the frequency or a harmonic of the frequency of the tire sensors it could be causing an issue. If you know the old system works then switching back to it is the right thing to do.

chunker21 · 05-31-2022, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Nodine

Sorry for your troubles. We had one sensor that needed to be replaced but have not had any trouble since. We are only 32 feet long and tow a small car. With weak RF signals like the ones emanating from the tire pressure sensors it does not take much interference to cause problems. On previous 10 tire TPMS systems I have used we had a 40 foot coach and towed a full size pickup. Had to add a repeater and also noticed that when camping near other RV's in a campground or rally the sensors would often not work. If there is something else in your coach operating near the frequency or a harmonic of the frequency of the tire sensors it could be causing an issue. If you know the old system works then switching back to it is the right thing to do.

I haven't set it back up yet, doing other things. I tired everything reasonable and suggested to make the TP work but no luck. I wasn't running any extraneous electrical devices that could cause interference. TP doesn't have a repeater like the EEZtire and I think that's one of their issues. Reading on other forums I'm not the only one with those issues either and every RV has different electrical systems with varied disturbances. For me I couldn't get reliable operation in either the omni or Valencia with the TP. With the EEztire I could in both my DP and Raptor 5th wheel but I used the repeater. Thus the life and trials of RVing.

Hope you have a good travel season in spite of the ever increasing cost to do it.

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