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Old 10-22-2022, 03:37 PM   #99
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Great post. Thank you. Our motorhome days are behind us but we always had the brake buddy in anything we towed behind our pusher. Now I will be paying extra attention to our little trailer brakes though.
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Old 10-22-2022, 04:57 PM   #100
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I always thought the point of toad and trailer brakes was to prevent a jack knife situation?
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Old 10-22-2022, 05:21 PM   #101
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I always thought the point of toad and trailer brakes was to prevent a jack knife situation?
I would think it does that for sure. Which brings to mind the fact that combos that have an electric vehicle as the tow vehicle really don’t use the trailer brakes much…or at all in normal driving. Even on a 13 percent grade our electric tow vehicle’s regenerative braking does all the braking. The only time the brake pedal gets touched is in an emergency at which point the Tekonsha brake control activates the trailer brakes. It’s something one would have to pay attention to in snowy conditions. One would have to be ready on the hand control on the Tekonsha. I hope to never find out.
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Old 10-22-2022, 05:31 PM   #102
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I always thought the point of toad and trailer brakes was to prevent a jack knife situation?
That would be the case on a large heavy trailer and a lighter tow vehicle, but when a large RV is pulling a lighter car, it's more about total stopping distance.

Wouldn't you rather stop a few feet behind that stopped tractor trailer, rather then push a few feet of your front bumper into your engine.
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Old 10-30-2022, 09:36 AM   #103
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Electric Brake Tow Dolly's and the brakinf effect on Toads

Hi, I just read the post on inertia, etc and their affect on the coach/towed unit braking distance. Very impressive. It's been along time since I took physics!
I think it answerd a question I have but I'll ask it anyway.
I have a 24' motor home on a Mercedes chassis. I am thinking about the possibility of towing a Chevy Spark (curb weight about 2600lbs). Though the chassis is rated at 4000 lbs towing capacity ( that's optimistic in my opinion) I think its brakes would have trouble stopping the chassis /toad combo in a panic stop with no toad braking system.
So I considered a 4500lb capacity tow dolly with electric brakes. Certainly simpler, but maybe not enough.There may be other factors which would argue against the dolly.
Thoughts?
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Old 10-30-2022, 06:23 PM   #104
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Hi, I just read the post on inertia, etc and their affect on the coach/towed unit braking distance. Very impressive. It's been along time since I took physics!
I think it answerd a question I have but I'll ask it anyway.
I have a 24' motor home on a Mercedes chassis. I am thinking about the possibility of towing a Chevy Spark (curb weight about 2600lbs). Though the chassis is rated at 4000 lbs towing capacity ( that's optimistic in my opinion) I think its brakes would have trouble stopping the chassis /toad combo in a panic stop with no toad braking system.
So I considered a 4500lb capacity tow dolly with electric brakes. Certainly simpler, but maybe not enough.There may be other factors which would argue against the dolly.
Thoughts?
Ray Nordstrom
Your best bet is a four wheel supplemental braking system. Dolly brakes are only for the dolly wheels, leaving you an unbraked axle.
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Old 10-30-2022, 11:44 PM   #105
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If your really concerned with panic stop braking, a surge, disk brake dolly makes more sense.

With electric brakes, you need to setup the braking action by feel, and that's just a judgment call on your part.

Surge brakes base their application on inertia. The harder you stop, the more brake application is applied thru the coupler.

I tow a 4500 lb Honda Ridgeline on a disk, surge brake dolly and stopping feels the same with or without it back there.
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Old 10-31-2022, 05:54 PM   #106
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If your really concerned with panic stop braking, a surge, disk brake dolly makes more sense.

With electric brakes, you need to setup the braking action by feel, and that's just a judgment call on your part.

Surge brakes base their application on inertia. The harder you stop, the more brake application is applied thru the coupler.

I tow a 4500 lb Honda Ridgeline on a disk, surge brake dolly and stopping feels the same with or without it back there.
It might feel the same, but your braking capacity is reduced by the weight on the unbraked axle.
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Old 10-31-2022, 07:25 PM   #107
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I'm fairly new to RVing, have owned my 34 foot Class A diesel pusher for about 18 months. From the very start I did my research and determined that most states require toad brakes and so would not even consider towing without a toad braking system. I was fortunate in that I purchased a new toad (2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee) and so was able to purchase a vehicle that could be flat towed, and my used coach already had the motorhome portion of the Demco Airforce One installed. Then too, my brother is a Chrysler mechanic and so helped me install the vehicle portion of the Air Force One unit on my Jeep along with wiring to operate the Jeep lights, signals and brake lights using power from the coach.

I cannot say enough for the Air Force One. It installs permanently in the toad and does not interfere with normal driving and it has vacuum assist to operate the brakes. When braking with the toad it feels no different than braking the RV without the toad. This system works great. In the past 18 months I've already had a couple of instances where I've had to brake hard because of other drivers. One was an oncoming dump truck that turned in front of me across my lane. You would think a truck driver would know better. Then there was an instance on a multi-lane highway in heavy traffic where a car cut in front of me and braked hard so they could turn off. I like to leave a large gap between me an the traffic in front of me, but that also encourages people to cut into that gap.

I understand that some people want to travel with the tow vehicle of their choice and all of them cannot be flat towed, but that is just adding complexity and additional equipment. And I'd bet that most modern vehicles with the advanced braking systems of today have better braking ability than most trailers or tow dollies. And the trailer or dolly adds weight and cuts into fuel mileage. And then where do you park the trailer / dolly at the campground; some that I've used are pretty short on additional space.
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Old 01-11-2023, 05:27 PM   #108
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If your really concerned with panic stop braking, a surge, disk brake dolly makes more sense.

With electric brakes, you need to setup the braking action by feel, and that's just a judgment call on your part.

Surge brakes base their application on inertia. The harder you stop, the more brake application is applied thru the coupler.

I tow a 4500 lb Honda Ridgeline on a disk, surge brake dolly and stopping feels the same with or without it back there.
Most electric brake controllers are also inertia based, as you stop an internal pendulum, whether physical or electronic based picks up on the stopping force (inertia) and applies more brake the harder you stop.
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Old 01-11-2023, 05:43 PM   #109
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Most electric brake controllers are also inertia based, as you stop an internal pendulum, whether physical or electronic based picks up on the stopping force (inertia) and applies more brake the harder you stop.
That inertia force is still limited by the gain setting, something under the users control.

To little gain, little braking.
Yo much gain, locked up brakes.

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Old 01-11-2023, 06:00 PM   #110
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No gain setting on mine, only the inertia force setting takes three or four stops to get it dialed in and it's all set
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