Why we use and recommend the Redarc Tow Pro Elite Electric Brake Controller
Hi guys. Briohny here from Accelerate Auto Electrics and Air Conditioning. Today, we’re going to run you through the reasons we use and recommend the Redarc Tow Pro Elite Electric Brake Controller.
The first reason, the Redarc Tow Pro Elite is what we call a remote head brake controller. The base unit goes behind the dashboard and you’ll never see this at all. All you see on the dash is a little remote head here, which is used to control the unit. Most other brands have a big box similar to something like this. It sits under your steering column or somewhere on the dash. Quite often, you knock your knees on it and in an emergency when you need to apply the brakes, you couldn’t locate it and use the switch.
The second reason is you don’t have to change between electric and electric hydraulics. If you have caravans or trailers with different braking systems, as long as they’re compatible, it will automatically detect and adjust for you.
The third reason is it’s Australian-designed, developed and manufactured.
The fourth reason, it can go on 12 or 24-volt vehicles.
The fifth reason and the main feature that I love it are the two types of braking modes, automatic mode for highway conditions and user control mode for off-road.
Here’s REDARC’s Stuart Peddle to explain to you the two different types of braking modes.
Stuart Peddle:
Tow-Pro works in automatic mode while sensing how hard the vehicle is braking. Automatic mode is indicated by the LED being blue in the back of the knob there. I have a brake pedal here, I can simulate applying the brakes in the car where when I brake with the vehicle, the vehicle brakes and generates inertia. The Tow-Pro senses here how hard that vehicle’s braking and applies a proportional amount of braking to the trailer to suit that application at the time.
We can also dial down or dial up less or more braking force depending on the weight of our trailer. But essentially, if you brake hard and fast, so does the Tow-Pro and so does the trailer. If you brake soft and slow, so does the Tow-Pro and so does the trailer meaning that the whole vehicle and trailer system all brakes as one and you get a nice, smooth progressive braking.
The user control mode is really great for off-road applications where inertia isn’t necessarily the best way to detect braking force. To end user controlled mode, we stop the vehicle, we set the controller to zero, we put our foot on the brake and double tap. The LED is now green. User controlled or manual mode is purely triggered by the brake lights. As soon as the brake lights come on, the trailer brakes come on to the set level that you have set on the control knob and it does not consider how hard the vehicle is braking.
If we look at soft beach sand top driving situation, if we brake hard on soft sand, the vehicle bites into the sand. What we don’t want to happen is the trailer to bite into the sand as well or else we’ll be anchored there. What we can do is we can have a very light amount of trail braking force applied so you can brake as hard or as soft you want on the vehicle and the trailer just glides to a stop on the top of the sand.
Likewise, if you’ve got a steep rocky descent that you want to do and you’re going to be using low range first gear with the vehicle, the engine’s going to be doing most of the braking. We don’t want to have to brake hard in order to brake the trailer hard. So, we can dial the Tow-Pro right up, just touch the brakes on the vehicle to bring the brake lights on and you can set more or less trailer braking force with that steep descent.
Another feature is that you can actually push the knob itself in order to brake the trailer independent of the vehicle and also bring on the vehicle and trailer brake lights.
In user controlled mode, it comes on to the level that you have set. In manual mode, if we return to it by setting to zero, put on the brake, double tap, the override goes onto a level that equates a soft braking on the trailer and the Tow-Pro actually feels how hard the trailer’s braking and regulates the amount of pressure to make sure the trailer is pulled straight behind the car if it gets a bit of sway say if you’re going past a semi-trailer or something like that on the highway.
Briohny de Vere:
If you’d like any more information about electric brake controllers or the REDARC Tow-Pro Elite, give us a bell on 1300-227-353 or head to our website www.amae.net.au.
