I understand your frustration with the ratcheting mechanism, but a simple pretrip inspection of your lighting (which should ALWAYS be performed before travel) would've alerted you to something being amiss. Great video, though, and I'm confident others will benefit from your experience.
When I burned up the brakes, it was a "perfect storm" in a sense. I was in pain from a bad case of tendinitis, we were in a rush, and it was raining, so the headlights on the motorhome were on when I did a check. I mis-interpreted the brakelights for the taillights.
I have owned an RV1 (same functional device as newer units) for several years and am pleased with it. What I suggest doing after it is all set up is to check for a little "wiggle room" of the brake pedal to make sure there is no pressure applied to the brake pedal by lightly moving the brake pedal by hand. I have caught an incorrectly installed unit myself a couple times without having to check brake lights.
Great job on the video! 👍 I have the RVI Brake 3 and noticed RVI made changes to avoid the break pedal being partially depressed. I'm sure this video was a major contributor to that upgrade. Nice work!
Great video! Thanks for sharing. I just bought one of these things for my 2002 Jeep Wrangler and will learn from what happened to you. So sorry you had to go through all that. Don't know if the company watched this so or contacted you but I hope they make the improvement to the cylinder track you recommended. Seems like a simple solution to a major potential problem. By the way is there any way I can get a copy of your checklist since I am new to this whole RV towing thing (and forgetful too)? Thank you kindly and thanks for doing this video.
Rango Six Other than the items I mentioned, the brake system is actually pretty good. I have not been contacted by the company, so I am not sure if they have watched it or not. Here is a link to my checklist: www.rv-project.com/resources/ToadChecklist.pdf Just realize that part of the checklist details pulling fuses and items specific to my 2002 Grand Am, so your procedure will slightly differ. Feel free to take what I started with and modify it for your use.
awboater Thanks! This is a great check list and easily adaptable to my application.Well done! I have the same tow bar system. Thanks again for making this video.
I wonder why you could not tell the brakes were on by the way it pulled. IE: youlet off the gas you slow down faster than normal or you need to use more accelerator to move or hold speed. ???
The brakes were not on fully, merely lightly. And I do recall we were in an area with a lot of hills, so the RPMs were constantly changing, so it kind of masked the symptom. So it was kind of a worst case scenario...
I have owned an RV1 (same functional device as newer units) for several years and am pleased with it. What I suggest doing after it is all set up is to check for a little "wiggle room" of the brake pedal to make sure there is no pressure applied to the brake pedal by lightly moving the brake pedal by hand. I have caught an incorrectly installed unit myself a couple times without having to check brake lights.
I to made the same mistake of not walking to the rear to see if brake lights were on,costly but not as bad as yours. Since my error I ALWAYS have a co- pilot stand at the rear after hookup to be sure. It’s definitely cheaper and much safer to do so. That aside it’s a great system that I trust and has never failed us.
Although you did have a problem with the ratcheting system on the RVI, I can also see problems with your idea of adding a thumbscrew to the ratchet. Since everyone has their own ideas, the best idea to avoid a catastrophe is to have a checklist. I use them. Pilots use them. They are essential for a non-eventful trip. Towing a vehicle behind a motor home is a big responsibility. If you miss one important step, you could be losing a lot of money or endangering someone's life. Thank you for the video. I plan on buying a RVI3 soon for my Jeep Wrangler. Like always - I will make a checklist and I will use it. Safe travels friend.
Thank you for taking time to respond. I actually do use a checklist, but the failure was a "perfect storm" of issues. I had tendinitis at the time, so my arm was in a sling, and in a bit of pain. And it was raining. I did check to see if the brakes were on in the towed vehicle, but I interpreted the brake lights for the running lights as they were on as well due to the rain. It was just one of those things.
I'm still a little confused about what the system does, they say it's proportional. Will it be a good choice for a smaller motor (12000 lbs)home that pulls a 2500lb car? I guess I'm somewhat concerned about mountain driving and the toad brakes helping throughout the entire brake pedal range, not just a panic stop. Also do you know how it compares to the Brake buddy advantage select, I own the classic and Brake buddy will give me a trade in so I only have to pay another 600 instead of the RVI 1200 price tag.
Proportional means the brakes are applied on the towed vehicle in proportion tot he brakes being applied to the motorhome. For example, the harder you brake your motorhome, the harder the towed vehicle brakes. One thing about this, along with any of the self-contained inertia sensing brake systems is they won't work when you lightly brake, as there is not enough change in momentum for the system to detect the braking action. You have to apply brakes to the motorhome hard enough that your body moves forward enough that you feel a pull against the seatbelt for the brakes to be applied on the towed vehicle. So no, the brakes will not be applied along the whole braking range, especially when braking softly. Can't compare the RVi system to the Brake Buddy as I have not used the latter. But I only know that the person that designed the Brake Buddy is the same person that designed the RVi system (he sold Brake Buddy, then after a period of non-compete agreement, started making the RVi systems). Mountain driving may be a challenge... but it's going to be a challenge anyway, with or without a towed vehicle.
@Elwood Anderson - Could you go into some more detail regarding the issue you had and why you added the bungee cord into your RVi setup to solve help solve the problem(s) - Thanks!
I understand your frustration with the ratcheting mechanism, but a simple pretrip inspection of your lighting (which should ALWAYS be performed before travel) would've alerted you to something being amiss. Great video, though, and I'm confident others will benefit from your experience.
When I burned up the brakes, it was a "perfect storm" in a sense. I was in pain from a bad case of tendinitis, we were in a rush, and it was raining, so the headlights on the motorhome were on when I did a check. I mis-interpreted the brakelights for the taillights.
I have owned an RV1 (same functional device as newer units) for several years and am pleased with it. What I suggest doing after it is all set up is to check for a little "wiggle room" of the brake pedal to make sure there is no pressure applied to the brake pedal by lightly moving the brake pedal by hand. I have caught an incorrectly installed unit myself a couple times without having to check brake lights.
Great job on the video! 👍 I have the RVI Brake 3 and noticed RVI made changes to avoid the break pedal being partially depressed. I'm sure this video was a major contributor to that upgrade. Nice work!
Great video! Thanks for sharing. I just bought one of these things for my 2002 Jeep Wrangler and will learn from what happened to you. So sorry you had to go through all that. Don't know if the company watched this so or contacted you but I hope they make the improvement to the cylinder track you recommended. Seems like a simple solution to a major potential problem. By the way is there any way I can get a copy of your checklist since I am new to this whole RV towing thing (and forgetful too)? Thank you kindly and thanks for doing this video.
Rango Six Other than the items I mentioned, the brake system is actually pretty good. I have not been contacted by the company, so I am not sure if they have watched it or not.
Here is a link to my checklist: www.rv-project.com/resources/ToadChecklist.pdf
Just realize that part of the checklist details pulling fuses and items specific to my 2002 Grand Am, so your procedure will slightly differ. Feel free to take what I started with and modify it for your use.
awboater Thanks! This is a great check list and easily adaptable to my application.Well done! I have the same tow bar system. Thanks again for making this video.
I wonder why you could not tell the brakes were on by the way it pulled. IE: youlet off the gas you slow down faster than normal or you need to use more accelerator to move or hold speed. ???
The brakes were not on fully, merely lightly. And I do recall we were in an area with a lot of hills, so the RPMs were constantly changing, so it kind of masked the symptom. So it was kind of a worst case scenario...
I have owned an RV1 (same functional device as newer units) for several years and am pleased with it. What I suggest doing after it is all set up is to check for a little "wiggle room" of the brake pedal to make sure there is no pressure applied to the brake pedal by lightly moving the brake pedal by hand. I have caught an incorrectly installed unit myself a couple times without having to check brake lights.
It's my understanding that RVi fixed this issue with their RViBrake3 product.
You can start the vehicle in neutral or park
I to made the same mistake of not walking to the rear to see if brake lights were on,costly but not as bad as yours. Since my error I ALWAYS have a co- pilot stand at the rear after hookup to be sure. It’s definitely cheaper and much safer to do so. That aside it’s a great system that I trust and has never failed us.
Thank you for your input.
Decent review but half the video is of the author wanting the system redesigned because he did not follow the instructions. Which he even admitted to.
Actually the RVI Brake 3 was redesigned.
Great through review. It is now Aug 2018 and I'll be purchasing the RVi 3. Is there any chance you could maybe post a pdf copy of your checklist?
Sorry. I cannot find the original checklist.
Although you did have a problem with the ratcheting system on the RVI, I can also see problems with your idea of adding a thumbscrew to the ratchet. Since everyone has their own ideas, the best idea to avoid a catastrophe is to have a checklist. I use them. Pilots use them. They are essential for a non-eventful trip. Towing a vehicle behind a motor home is a big responsibility. If you miss one important step, you could be losing a lot of money or endangering someone's life. Thank you for the video. I plan on buying a RVI3 soon for my Jeep Wrangler. Like always - I will make a checklist and I will use it. Safe travels friend.
@wrdturkey - Do you by chance know if the RVi3 by chance was redesigned to solve the (potential) user setup issue on the RVi2(?)
Thank you for taking time to respond. I actually do use a checklist, but the failure was a "perfect storm" of issues.
I had tendinitis at the time, so my arm was in a sling, and in a bit of pain. And it was raining.
I did check to see if the brakes were on in the towed vehicle, but I interpreted the brake lights for the running lights as they were on as well due to the rain.
It was just one of those things.
I'm still a little confused about what the system does, they say it's proportional. Will it be a good choice for a smaller motor (12000 lbs)home that pulls a 2500lb car? I guess I'm somewhat concerned about mountain driving and the toad brakes helping throughout the entire brake pedal range, not just a panic stop. Also do you know how it compares to the Brake buddy advantage select, I own the classic and Brake buddy will give me a trade in so I only have to pay another 600 instead of the RVI 1200 price tag.
Proportional means the brakes are applied on the towed vehicle in proportion tot he brakes being applied to the motorhome. For example, the harder you brake your motorhome, the harder the towed vehicle brakes.
One thing about this, along with any of the self-contained inertia sensing brake systems is they won't work when you lightly brake, as there is not enough change in momentum for the system to detect the braking action.
You have to apply brakes to the motorhome hard enough that your body moves forward enough that you feel a pull against the seatbelt for the brakes to be applied on the towed vehicle. So no, the brakes will not be applied along the whole braking range, especially when braking softly.
Can't compare the RVi system to the Brake Buddy as I have not used the latter. But I only know that the person that designed the Brake Buddy is the same person that designed the RVi system (he sold Brake Buddy, then after a period of non-compete agreement, started making the RVi systems).
Mountain driving may be a challenge... but it's going to be a challenge anyway, with or without a towed vehicle.
An excellent and very thorough review, thank you. Most professional and informative.
Glad it was helpful!
i messed up my brakes too but had a even brake. I put a bungee cord from brake pedal to headrest to hold a little tension. It wont do that anymore !
@Elwood Anderson - Could you go into some more detail regarding the issue you had and why you added the bungee cord into your RVi setup to solve help solve the problem(s) - Thanks!
Need one for the gas pedal too!
Don't think that will help much...
Over priced
Interesting... what do you suggest then(?)
They are within the same price range as their competition.
some one will be selling on on Facebook Marketplace, or craigslist. Got all of my toad stuff for 75% off list. slightly used.