Car tow dolly brakes

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MauleSkinner

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MauleSkinner
We’re looking to get a tow dolly to pull my wife’s car behind the RV. Choices are no brakes, electric brakes, or surge brakes.

The trailer dealer I talked to said most people don’t use trailer brakes on a tow dolly behind a 25’ or larger RV. I have reservations about that, plus, the RV may not be the only tow vehicle I use it with.

Electric brakes require a brake controller, which I don’t see on my RV (I haven’t actually tested the wiring), but I think they’re relatively easy to install, and aren’t overly expensive.

Surge brakes don’t require the controller, but the one disadvantage I’ve seen people mention is that going downhill for extended distances (steep grades in the mountains, for instance), surge brakes will be applied the whole way down instead of letting the RV engine provide braking in lower gear.

looks to me like the difference in price between surge brakes and electric brakes is roughly the cost of the controller.

What are your thoughts?
 
If you must have brakes, install a controller and get electric braking. Easy peasy to install and great controllers available. Surge brakes can be an issue when backing up although the short effective wheel base from the hitch to axle makes backing with an RV something best avoided when possible...even with a camera.
 
I have pulled my 2002 Toyota Corolla behind my 33Ft Class A. It doesn't know it is there other than about a 1/2 to 1 mpg drop in gas (not diesel) mileage.
But then I am pretty easy on my braking even without pulling anything.
Last Year I put the Corolla on a 2100# car trailer and towed it about 100 miles with the RV, I still didn't have the brakes hooked up. I could tell it was there, but even that was fine. But If was doing that frequently I would want the brakes hooked up in case I needed to do an emergency stop.

My Normal Trailer on the RV is my 1600# glider trailer with no brakes.

Like you the brakes are not hooked up on my RV, at least not yet. My dolly has a brake controller that someone added to it that is hooked up the running lights.
This doesn't work, as it tends to blow the running light fuse on my RV. So far I have just not used the Brakes on the Dolly.
What it needs is a battery on the Dolly to run the brakes. That might be enough with a diode to charge the battery off the running lights, but a resister might be prevent pulling to much current from the running lights.
My better solution is to install the brake controller on the RV.

Brian
 
Are going to be towing an f250 with a bed full of bricks?
 
Depends on the size of the RV and the weight of what you are towing as well as the laws in the states you are driving through. I flat towed a VW golf behind a Class A motorhome to Oshkosh one year with no brakes on the golf. You could not feel the difference when stopping between when the car was there and when it wasn't. For states that required brakes to be on the tow vehicle we had a device that you locked onto the drivers seat that had a arm going down to the brake pedal. It worked sort of like a surge brake in that when it sensed the motor home start to stop there was an intertial sensor in it that extended the arm and applied the brake.
 
Good: Hydraulic Surge Brakes
Better: Electric Brakes
Best: Electric-Over-Hydraulic brakes.

Any of them will probably do fine. Electric is nice because you are able to adjust the gain on the trailer brake controller for the load on the trailer or if it starts fishtailing. Electric over hydraulic is the best of both worlds: Electric trailer brake controller that feeds a hydraulic actuator for more controllable braking and longer-lasting brakes that don't corrode like electric brakes tend to do.

I would recommend a Tekonsha Prodigy P2 or P3 trailer brake controller. Wiring should be simple, but I wouldn't be surprised (depending on the year of the RV) if there is a wiring harness up behind the dash/driver's footwell area that it ready to be wired up.
 
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