US Gear braking system

[dlovitt]

Has anyone on this forum have experience with the U S Gear braking system for which our coaches are prewired? Any good installers in the San Antonio, TX area?

[PizzaGuy]

I did a self install of the US Gear on my 07 Vue. Although Installation wasn't a piece of cake, it wasn't really hard either. The major problem I had was that my coach was not wired correctly. That took two days to figure out but the tech support folks at US Gear helped me solve both problems.

I don't have a lot of miles on the coach since installation but what I have done so far, ---- I am very happy.

Good luck -- don

[TurtleBack]

Love this system. You couldn't make a better choice - so easy to just get in and drive away. No hookup required and the piston for the brake is hidden. It's under the passenger seat in my Jeep.

Can't tell you about San Antonio installers but definitely do not have it installed by Guaranty RV in Junction City OR. I won't get into the details but it was so bad it resulted it a lawsuit.

Here are some things to watch for. For a prewired coach there is a separate kit for a Monaco product - as well as one for Freightliner and Winnebago. Each manufacturer has a different plug under the dash and the pigtail supplied by US Gear for the Brake Control Module installed in the cockpit is unique. I think the kit you need is TV1000-Mon. Make sure they use they pre-wire kit and not the UTB1000 kit or you'll lose the promotional discount from US Gear for a pre-wired coach.

It seems obvious but only one cable from car to coach is required. US Gear recommends a six pin to six pin connector with an adapter to convert it to the seven pin connector on the coach. The adapter recommended is a Hoskins MFG. 37xxx model. It now is a 47000 series and there are another two Hoskins adapters that will also work. (You'll find this in the installation instructions.) This is important as the wiring at the seven pin connector on the coach - while a standard configuration - does not conform to the standard six pin to seven pin connector, i.e. a Roadmaster cable. The adapter allows one wire to be switched as needed so that the car battery is trickle charged. (No cable wire goes to the seven pin connector where the 14 volt hot charge is located.) Everything would work with a standard six pin to seven pin connector but you'll get no trickle charge with the result that you'll do frequent jump starts for your car and eventually ruin your car battery.

By the way once your battery is dead, and it will happen without the trickle charge, the braking system will not operate and you will be both unsafe and illegal. Verify that you have a 1 to 1.5 volt increase (say about 14V) at your car battery when hooked up and the coach running.

Hope this helps. It's more labor intensive to install but well worth it. Great braking system.

Ed

[TurtleBack]

I forgot to mention that the pigtail suppled by US Gear for a Monaco product comes without the plug attached (but provided.) This allows for adjustments to any wiring inconsistencies by Monaco. Confirm how the coach is wired and push in the matching wires into the plug.

Ed

[Gordon66]

Try Iron Horse RV in San Antonio. They are great to deal with.

[GaryKD]

This is another vote for Iron Horse. The owner and staff are very skilled and great to work with.

[H. Miller]

There are two wires from MH to toad. The blue one goes between controller and "brain box" in the toad. The red one goes from MH batteries to toad battery (to keep it charged).

[moisheh]

I would never use an adapter from 6 to 7 pins. They can be problematic and just another thing to go wrong. Also be aware that the 6 pin plugs and receptacles are all made in China. Very poor quality. I have had some problems with the split pins closing and not making contacts. The US Gear system is one of the best. We have had ours for 4 years.

[dlovitt]

The responses you folks gave are awesome. I have heasrd good things about Iron Horse and will give them a try. Thank you all.

[wa8yxm]

When I got my class A I researched and choose the US-Gear system... And frankly I'm very very very very very pleased with it. To date I've had only two failures of the system.

ONe was the break-away switch, in routine testing it failed to activate the brakes. about eight bucks later the new switch works fine.

The other was an idiot technician who disconnected part of it while testing.. I caught that one before I needed to use the brakes. He got properly reamed by his boss. Fixing it took.. A lot less time than the reaming (perhaps 5 seconds)

[gg]

Very satisfied with US Gear, the product works great. The best is how quick it is to hook up toad, no box in driver seat, battery in toad is maintained.

I did the install myself. The tech help is great, in my case the 4wire plug under dash from monaco didn't match but USgear had shipped and adpter in the package so no problem.