Community Forums

TXBart · 10-10-2013, 04:27 PM

From page 52 of the Spartan Owner's Manual - "If the auxiliary brake is used it automatically activates your trailer brake lights."

Sounds like our toad brake lights come on when the aux brake is activated. Pretty cool.

It's amazing what you can learn by reading a little. :-)

HDrider · 10-10-2013, 05:01 PM

That may be cool but if you take it a bit farther,,, some aux brake systems that attach to your toad are also activated when those brake lights come on.
I for one do not want my toad brakes applied all the way down some long hill just because I'm using my MH aux brakes.
Thats why we use the Air-Force One system.

TXBart · 10-10-2013, 05:03 PM

My toad brake system is based on deceleration, not brake lights, so I am happy.

Mr_D · 10-10-2013, 05:18 PM

Our BrakeMaster system works directly off the service air brakes so only used if I hit the brake treadle and only in proportion to the amount of force I use.

Cruzer · 10-11-2013, 07:07 AM

Auxiliary braking systems can be actuated in a numer of ways. Some systems use deceleration sensors to activate the brake system, while some systems are directly coupled to the motorhome and can be either air or electrically actuated. Your toad brake lights are normally not affected by the braking system unless your aux braking system actually depresses the brake pedal in the toad.

The toad brake lights, turn signals and tail lights are fed through the umbilical cord that connects the toad to the RV. The brake lights on the toad will come on whenever the brake lights on the back of the coach come on.

On most every diesel pusher the brake lights on both the RV and toad are set to come on whenever the engine compression or exhaust brake comes on as well as when the brake pedal is used. The reasoning behind this is that if you were to back off the throttle and use the engine brake to decelerate (without using the service brake) any trafic following you would be warned by the application of your brake lights. So it is a safety concern.

However, some owners don't care for that because the brake lights come on when the engine brake is being used to hold a constant speed and prevent speeding up on a long downgrade. We do lots of mountain driving so I can relate to that. In some cases I've heard where owners had their ECM reprogrammed to change this but I'm not sure on which chassis can and which can't.