Air Force One or . . .

[jillie]

Our old braking system box went out on us this summer so it's time to dig into the wallet and get something new. I've read up on the Air Force One and read the reviews here and thought this might be the one for us. Now I see there's a new Roadmaster InvisiBrake available. Seems these are two different types of systems. Does anyone here have experience with the InvisiBrake? Looking for pros and cons and things to consider before we purchase. All comments welcome.

[wa8yxm]

Air Force one uses compressed air from the towing motor home.. Though you can leave the in-car device in the car you have to hook it to the pedal every time you tow and likelly should bleed off the booster vacuum...

Invisi brake, once installed, you do NOTHING, period.. Just hook up your tow lights (As you normally do) and turn on your headlights before you tow.. that's all there is to it.

This is the absolute winner in the KISS sweepstakes as it just does not get simpler than that. It is an electric system as well, works with ALL motor homes, gas or diesel

US-Gear Unified Brake Decelerator... Works like the InvisiBrake except you do plug in one extra cable. This unit (in addition to the above) gives you full control of the towed's brakes from the cockpit of the motor home.. You can apply the towed's brakes independent of the motor home (useful sometimes) you can disable them or change the "Gain" (Ratio of towed to motor home) Personally I like this one best.

Both InvisiBrake and the US-Gear product feed power to the towed's battery and both include vacuum pumps to keep the brake booster fullly "Charged" as it were (no need to bleed)

The other system I would consider is the ready brake.. it too looks good on the KISS chart.

(For the record, Systems like the Even Brake and Brake Buddy... Not even close to KISS)

KISS = Keep it Super Simple

[majfrizz]

I have the Air Force One and there is nothing to hook up on the pedal. it has one more connection line when i hook the tow bar and that is the air line coming from the MH. i have had no issues at all, and if you have questions theay are great to work with.

[KSDP_PA]

Also have Air Force Once.
Pedal hook up was a once-and-done thing (just like the other guy says).
We're not their oldest customer but we have used in since 2009 with no problems.

[FlyingDiver]

One other thing to consider is that the AFO is true proportional braking - the harder you press the pedal in the RV, the harder the AFO will apply the brakes in the toad. The InvisiBrake is what they call "progressive" - the LONGER you press the brakes in the RV, the harder the InvisiBrake will apply the brakes in the toad. Which may not be what you really want.

joe

[Iron Man]

We use air force one. As stated before 1 air line to hook up

[wa8yxm]

I stand corrected. That puts the AFO up with the M&G and the others for convience.

(Forgot the M&G)

Question for the AFO owners. Does it push the pedal, and if so do you bleed off the vacuum when you hook up? (M&G does not)

[majfrizz]

there is no bleeding required. connect n go....

[KSDP_PA]

no brake bleeding for our AFO setup either.

it does push the brake pedal in the TOAD.

when not in use, we cover the air connection on the back of the MH and on the front of the TOAD - so no road debris gets in. went to local hardware store and found plastic sleeves to fit each connection.

our hookup for AFO is 5 cables/hoses:
2 steel ropes
1 breakaway
1 air
1 electric

check that the lights work and away we go !

[Elkhartjim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wa8yxm I stand corrected. That puts the AFO up with the M&G and the others for convience. (Forgot the M&G) Question for the AFO owners. Does it push the pedal, and if so do you bleed off the vacuum when you hook up? (M&G does not)

I hope my M&G isn't broken, the pedal does move. Thats the way you can test to make sure its working.

[photoadjuster]

With the Air Force One you always have power brakes on the towed vehicle. Most of the other ones push on a dead pedal.

[majfrizz]

the AFO also has a set of LED lights mounted on top of the tow bar, so when i hit the brakes, they light up and i can see them in the rear camera to let me know the TOAD brakes are working also

[jillie]

What if we buy a new toad? Can the AFO be moved to the new car? And if we hit the lottery and buy a new motorhome, can we save our winnings and move the AFO to the new MH?

If we can't install this ourselves, what would be the best kind of place to do the installation?

[FlyingDiver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jillie What if we buy a new toad? Can the AFO be moved to the new car? And if we hit the lottery and buy a new motorhome, can we save our winnings and move the AFO to the new MH? If we can't install this ourselves, what would be the best kind of place to do the installation?

Yes, we've moved the car portion to a new toad. I had to buy a few new parts (hoses and connectors) from SMI, I think it was about $30. I don't see any reason you can't do the same for the RV portion. Again, you might need a few connectors that can't be reused.

We had the original install for both the RV and car done at Mastertech in Elkhart, IN. I think any competent RV shop can handle it. We had the reinstall for the new toad done at a shop the specializes in installing after-market gear in vehicles. The do a lot of custom stuff on Jeeps, so it wasn't a big deal for them. Since we're full-timers, I don't have a good place to do that kind of work, so I had to have a shop do it.

joe