Community Forums

bbarrydeb · 10-09-2014, 09:01 PM

Prospective first time owner. Today we test drove a 2015 Tiffin Open Road 36LA on Ford chassis with the Ford v10. Was surprised by brakes. To come to full stop had to apply excessive force to pedal and still felt like coach was not going to stop. Has anyone else experienced this and is this a defect or normal.

guardrail53 · 10-09-2014, 09:32 PM

If this was a new coach, that has been sitting on the lot for awhile, could just be the rotors were rusty, and after a few stops, or slightly dragging the brakes for a ways, cleans the rust off, and they work as they should! My previous class A had 4 wheel disc brake's, and I had to do this every time I took it out. It became a habit! I would put slight pressure on the brake pedal for a ways, then let it free wheel for a ways, then it would be fine!

Hikerdogs · 10-10-2014, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbarrydeb

Prospective first time owner. Today we test drove a 2015 Tiffin Open Road 36LA on Ford chassis with the Ford v10. Was surprised by brakes. To come to full stop had to apply excessive force to pedal and still felt like coach was not going to stop. Has anyone else experienced this and is this a defect or normal.

There have been several discussions about this on the Ford Chassis forum. The short answer is that it takes more brake pedal pressure to activate the brakes than it did for the older generation chassis.

We went from a 2001 chassis to a 2013 chassis. There is a noticeable difference in the amount of brake pedal pressure needed to activate the brakes. It's normal for the newer chassis. It takes a little getting used to, but once you are used to it you'll find everything works well.

We have a little over 16,000 miles on our 2013 Adventurer. It took about 1,000 miles of driving to get acclimated to the new system. It works well, it's just different than what you're used to.

**CLIFFTALL** · 10-10-2014, 05:47 AM

Welcome to iRV2 . I've moved your post over here to get some owner input.
Cliff

CoastieSCPO · 10-10-2014, 05:08 PM

I totally agree with what Hikerdogs said. The brakes on the 36LA should be just fine and it does takes some effort to get used to just how much pressure to apply to stop the coach. I had a 2004 Allegro 32BA on a Workhorse chassis and the brakes worked very well. I now own a 2012 Allegro 34TGA and it took some time to get used to the brakes on this heavier motorhome. We have nearly 25000 miles on it. The 36LA is the largest and heaviest gas coach that Tiffin builds and the heavier they are, the harder the brakes have to work.

streamcamper · 10-10-2014, 05:16 PM

Same subject a bit further down this forum...

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f23/heavy...re-222274.html

TeJay · 10-14-2014, 12:07 PM

The SOP (standard operating procedure) is this. According to the DOT and those that certify new vehicle brakes or even when new linings are placed on a used vehicle it takes about 200 moderate stops from about 40-45 MPH down to about 15-20MPH with about 1-2 minutes of cooling off period between stops before brake linings are completely burnished or broken in.

The linings when fully burnished will provide the maximum amount of braking for that vehicle. If the linings are not properly or completely burnished you will not have reached the best stopping power for that vehicle.

During the burnish procedure material from the linings is transferred and imbedded into the cast iron rotor surface.

I have read and heard individuals say that all you have to do is hit the brakes hard enough to cause them to smoke and they are burnished. That is absolutely false. You will ruin a good set of linings by doing that. It will harden and glaze the bonding/binding agent used to make the linings and they are ruined.

This is not my information but sound industry information available from most any good technical source.

TeJay

spanuts · 10-14-2014, 09:27 PM

it all comes down to the HydroMax brake assist on the 20500# chassis and heaver the ratio is 21.1:1 the 16000# and 18000# chassis uses the hydro-boost at 8.19:1 ratio. which translates into the HydroMax system takes more than 2.5 times more energy from your foot to make it stop. when you get a chance go try a unit new or used that uses the HydroMax brake system i think it starts at 32 ft. and up, you will be surprised how much more the pedal needs to stop. feels like power brakes with no power. the HydroMax brake assist has been around for 20 years and a lot of different manufactures use it .i just think that real men need to put there foot down more.