Community Forums

Sue46 · 08-27-2016, 01:50 PM

Before we went with NSA I did a lot of research and could find no problems with their system. Have you thought about setting up a video of your setup while you drive and hope you video when it occurs. Maybe even just a video of your backup screen in the MH. We have our backup screen setup so that we always see the car and most of the setup. Won't be great video but maybe you will see something. Even just tape a phone to the MH since it occurs fairly fast.

With the number of Ready Brakes being used it needs to be something unique that is causing this.

Cover Dog · 08-27-2016, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sue46

We have towed with our Ready Brake 12000 miles with no problem. Ours is much tauter than yours. We can pull it up and down 2" without feeling like we are invoking the brake. I think yours is too loose and it is catching on something. Slack means different things to different people. We had someone email his setup to us and his was like this.

[IMG]http://s1379.photobucket.com/user/swharton08/media/_M
G_7242_0119_edited-1_zpsn4j16vu7.jpg.html[/IMG]

In your picture your cable does not go through the center bracket
just in front of the surge brake area. Is there a reason for this or just a mistake?

Sue46 · 08-27-2016, 02:35 PM

Just a mistake. Must of picked up the wrong picture. Hard to tell on tablet. I was just looking for one that showed a taut cable. The pictures I looked at always seemed to show a very loose cable.

Brockx · 08-29-2016, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjsupersonic

.. I have the brake indicator light on in the coach so I know when the brake is activated.

The brake indicator LED supplied by NSA only shows you the brake arm is moving. It tells nothing about cable slack etc,. You could forget to hook up the cable and the light would still work.

erstanfo · 09-01-2016, 11:53 AM

If you have a marine supply store like Boats US, just take one of the spare (old failed) cables you have, remove the plastic sleeve and use there crimp tools to make up a new cable. The boat stores have crimp tools for customers to use.

spikecopilot · 09-01-2016, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erstanfo

If you have a marine supply store like Boats US, just take one of the spare (old failed) cables you have, remove the plastic sleeve and use there crimp tools to make up a new cable. The boat stores have crimp tools for customers to use.

If the new cable, with no cover, works then I am going to personally go to a hardware store and buy the tools to make cables all day long so we can make spares while in the coach. And then I'll call NSA and ask them to reconsider their design (adding the wire covering). John will be doing some local testing tomorrow, but the real towing doesn't happen until Monday. (He's heading down first; kiddo has Kindergarten tomorrow, so I can't take her down until later -- we intend to tow back. *fingers crossed that this naked cable holds*)

spikecopilot · 09-05-2016, 06:53 PM

Today we successfully towed the Jeep home from Luray, VA -- about 150 miles including up and down the mountains. The brake cable (installed & adjusted EXACTLY as it was the previous three times) held! We're declaring success and attributing the previous cable failures to the wire covering interfering with the ferrules. I'll give NSA call tomorrow to let them know.

CJ7365 · 09-05-2016, 07:07 PM

I have the ready brake and been using it for about 6 months with monthly trips of 300 miles.

Although I do agree with no plastic cover on the cable for crimping, I feel that the cable is not designed to pull a whole lot of weight. That cable is only to pull the brake pedal down, so how much pulling weight is that?

This cable is NOT designed to pull the vehicle or anything to that affect.

Would like to see some kind of experiment on a cable with a plastic cover and a bare cable and see how much pulling differences it would make before the cable comes undone.

Im glad that the OP got his problem resolved but I think something else is going on besides the plastic covering on the cables.

There are plenty of these ready brakes on the road and this is the first time I have heard of this.

spikecopilot · 09-05-2016, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJ7365

I have the ready brake and been using it for about 6 months with monthly trips of 300 miles.

Although I do agree with no plastic cover on the cable for crimping, I feel that the cable is not designed to pull a whole lot of weight. That cable is only to pull the brake pedal down, so how much pulling weight is that?

This cable is NOT designed to pull the vehicle or anything to that affect.

Would like to see some kind of experiment on a cable with a plastic cover and a bare cable and see how much pulling differences it would make before the cable comes undone.

Im glad that the OP got his problem resolved but I think something else is going on besides the plastic covering on the cables.

There are plenty of these ready brakes on the road and this is the first time I have heard of this.

I can assure you that the cable isn't being used to pull the vehicle (we have installed it per their instructions with the appropriate amount of slack), and that NSA vetted our installation via photographs after the third failure. In all three failures, the ferrules clearly were crimping the wire cover and stretching it, which means that they weren't grabbing the actual wire. It could be a bad batch of cables -- who knows. But the "naked" cable worked, so that's all we care about at this point. I talked to NSA and they told me the covering was added because it looked nicer. If anyone has a concern about their cable, call them and custom order one without the covering. My guess is that there will be either no or minimal charge for it.

There's a reason that wire coverings aren't used with ferrules in aircraft. This is an example of what can happen when the ferrules grab the covering instead of the wire. Maybe we're a one-off or a batch of bad cables. We love the simplicity of their system and are SERIOUSLY happy to finally have successfully towed with it. Would we recommend the Readybrake system? YES.

SATXJeep · 10-19-2016, 05:55 PM

I had the same issues as the OP. 2016 Ventana towing a 02 Jeep Wrangler. First trip out worked fine on a short trip of about 60 miles. 2nd trip we went down to Big Bend TX. Found the cable pulled out of the ferrule. NSA shipped on down to us so we had it on the way back. First stop on the way back the second sling cable had pulled out of the ferrule leaving the coating. Spoke with NSA 2 days ago and they are sending another sling cable. Did not see this post before now or would have asked specifically for one without the crimp on the cable coating.

pilotspike · 10-22-2016, 08:45 PM

We have had a couple of successful tows since they replaced the sling with one that did not have the coating. Once we got that out of the way the system has worked like a champ! Its really quite quick and easy to hook and unhook the toad.

My recommendation would be to anyone that has the coated sling cable to replace it with a non coated one. Alternatively, NSA could strip the coating off for the ferrule application (making sure not to damage the underlying strands of course.)

John

Quote:

Originally Posted by SATXJeep

I had the same issues as the OP. 2016 Ventana towing a 02 Jeep Wrangler. First trip out worked fine on a short trip of about 60 miles. 2nd trip we went down to Big Bend TX. Found the cable pulled out of the ferrule. NSA shipped on down to us so we had it on the way back. First stop on the way back the second sling cable had pulled out of the ferrule leaving the coating. Spoke with NSA 2 days ago and they are sending another sling cable. Did not see this post before now or would have asked specifically for one without the crimp on the cable coating.