Ready brake opinions.

[Easyrider]

Originally Posted by bgholson

I too have the ready brake. Towed a Ford Explorer and now a 1/2 ton Ram with my motorcycle in the back. Like the braking system due to its simplicity. However......I often wonder how much stopping power the brake actually exerts. My coach pulling the toad stops fine but I wonder if I could tell the difference if the toad brakes were not hooked up? Not that I will try tests to find out but I surmise my coach brakes are capable of stopping an additional 5000 lbs just fine......just sayin cause at the moment I have nothing better to do!

Yes, I think you would be able to tell the difference if you didn't have the toad brakes hooked up. We used to tow a motorcycle in a small enclosed trailer that didn't have brakes. When we switched to towing a car with the ReadyBrute Elite we noticed immediately that we were stopping with shorter braking distances towing the car with brakes than we did towing the motorcycle and trailer without brakes. It's a common sense fact that the more weight you try to stop with the same brake the longer the distance it will take to stop. To shorten the distance you can either lighten the load or add more braking power. I think that's where people that say they can still stop fine without toad brakes make their mistake, they don't understand that while they can still stop, it is taking more braking distance to stop, and in an emergency they may not have enough room to stop before hitting something.

[millred1]

Thanks for all the great advice. All I need now is to find a Toad to install it on.

[MikeD1]

Yes, you will love it. We bought our Ready Brute system last Fall. I did the install myself with a Blue Ox baseplate on the Wrangler. Shortly after we headed west on a nearly 5000 mile trip. No problems, easy hookup. I am very pleased with our choice!

[docj]

After 5 years and 50,000 miles of towing I sent our ReadyBrute towbar back to the factory to be refurbished. I wasn't charged for anything other than shipping. We continue to use it at the ~8,000 miles per year level.