etrailer | Blue Ox Patriot Portable Flat Tow Brake System: The Breakdown

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Hey guys, it's Jake here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at the Blue Ox Patriot portable supplemental braking system. Now, there's a lot of reasons why you might be looking into a portable braking system, but what really makes the Blue Ox Patriot shine is its smaller size. In their past versions, the Patriot 1, 2, and 3, the unit itself was a lot larger, so it didn't fit very well in a lot of floorboards. Well, they've made the same machine in a lot smaller package, so that you can get it to fit in those tighter spaces. The other reason and to looking into a portable system, which you may already know your reason, but a portable system is going to be able to move from vehicle to vehicle.
So if you have multiple vehicles in your family, and you wanna flat tow with both of them, the only thing that you'll have to add is a breakaway switch on both vehicles. Otherwise, the Blue Ox Patriot can simply be moved from one floorboard to the other. This is what the braking system's gonna look like when it's installed in your vehicle. There's only one wire that hooks up to the front of our braking system. That's going to be your breakaway wire.
And then you're gonna have a 12-volt wire that comes down off the backside and plugs into a 12-volt outlet. And one of the things that people like about the Blue Ox Patriot 3 is that it is much smaller than the Blue Ox Patriot 2. Not only is it a portable system, but it's going to be able to fit in the floorboard of a lot of different vehicles. We are inside the floorboard of a 2023 Ford Escape right now, and it is not a very big floorboard. And you can see how much more room we have because of how small it is.
To get the Patriot set up, it's gonna be very, very simple, and I think this is one of the biggest selling points for it, is that it's very, very simple to get set in place. The first time you set it up, you're gonna have to make some adjustments to these screws. You'll have three different locations that you'll need to match up to your brake pedal. Again, in our Ford Escape, we've got a medium sized pedal, so we went for the middle screw holes, but to get it set up, you simply open the jaws by pulling up on this till it clicks into place. We'll set our system in place.
We'll slide it over, over top of the brake pedal. I'm gonna stay away from this arm if you've got one. If it's centered, you can usually stagger the fingers over it and then push this button. It'll grab onto the brake pedal, make some minor adjustments, make sure that it's pushing straight. This is when you'll adjust your seat. So since we're using that lower bracket, you'll want it to sit like that. Then we'll take our 12-volt, plug it in. If you do not have a 12-volt in your vehicle that runs all the time, you're definitely going to want to install an auxiliary one that is directly connected to the battery, which we do have on our website. And all you have to do is take your breakaway switch wire, plug it in, turn the unit on, and see, we'll wanna move it back just a hair. You're gonna have flashing blue and green lights. That will tell you whether or not it's set up correctly. Now you'll know you've got it set up correctly when you've got just a little bit of play in the unit, not much at all. I'd say about an eighth of an inch from the seat. And that your brake pedal is completely relaxed. So you can pull back on the brake, and it does not come back any further. And then all you have to do is press Setup. It will do one trial run. It'll pull back, and then you're ready to hit the road. Now let's go over the components that are involved in getting this kit installed. This is gonna be a huge component. Why a lot of people like this kit is one, it's gonna be portable, and two, it's gonna take next to nothing to get it installed. The only thing that you will have to install is going to be the wire that is for your breakaway switch. And then you'll have to install the breakaway switch on the front of your vehicle, typically mounted to the base plate. The only other thing that you may or may not have in your vehicle, which we already mentioned, is that you'll want to have an always active 12-volt plug. There are some vehicles, like I know my vehicle has a 12-volt plug that has a battery on it. That means that that is always on 24/7. There are some vehicles that can kind of trick you that you may test it with a cell phone charger, or something like that that has an LED on it. And whenever you see it, you get out of your vehicle, turn it off, and you can still see the LED on. You'll wann

[@larrycox6614]

Very extensive & clear demonstration...even pointing out some of the gotcha's (I really appreciate that!). Thanks for doing this. I've never had to tow a vehicle until now; just bought a Class C RV, so looking for the entire package (toad, hitches, braking system). I think I've found the braking system...now on to the rest.

[@etrailer]

Thank you, we're glad the video was helpful! Let us know if you have any questions, we'd be happy to help!
www.etrailer.com/Tow-Bar-Braking-Systems/Blue-Ox/BLU37TR.html