FORD with tow mode built in ,what # tow

[sailer]

well this is a big question as all foerds are dif wte but what do you set your tow mode at by the # ,, i hear some have no brakes but today it was sliding through stop signs then grab hard ,, i have mine at 8.5 on the tow what do you have it at john

[stiles watson]

Sailer,

I really try to avoid those emergency situations. I stay way back from the guy in front of me and anticipate the light changes. I also keep my speed down in heavy urban traffic. I am not trying to lecture. I have come to believe that avoidance is better than any brake setting.

Having said that, I set mine on 6.5 and it has served me well in the situations I have found myself. Right now we are in New York around Niagara Falls with some of that heavy urban traffic. Truck and Monty are working well together.

When you have to get on the brakes hard and the trailer wheels lock up, you may have it set too high.

[richfaa]

The trailer brakes should never lock up..mine is also set a 6.5 on the 3400.

[nailbender]

I set mine at 7.5, sometimes to 8 in the mountains. I am probably wrong about this, but I thought the truck anti-lock brakes would also control the trailer brakes from locking up. I have never had the trailer brakes lock up, so not sure if that is correct.

[rubble express]

I've thought about this alot and I can't see why you can't just set it at 10. It is not like a regular (old on/off type) controller. It applies more braking as you press harder on the pedal. In a panic situation you would want all the brake you can get, right? (on dry pavement of course) In regular situations it applies the same amount no matter what number it is set at, only the max braking is lower with lower settings. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to operate exactly the same no matter what number it is on. The brakes do not come on stronger or quicker with different settings. I actually would like a bias control to have them come on a little bit more a little sooner. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about (and I'm sure ya'll let me know), But on dry pavement I can't see why not just set it at 10.

[BB_TX]

I have mine set on 7.0 and seems to work fine. Have had some fairly quick stops, but no panic stops yet. When we got the Monty, the guy doing the PDI watched after we hooked up. He had me adjust the setting as I made several quick stops in their parking lot while he watched the action of the truck and trailer. He said by watching how the 5er and the truck interacted, he could tell if the trailer was braking properly with respect to the truck. I don't know if he was just talking or actually knew what he was talking about, but it seems to work OK.

[richfaa]

rubble express..you make a interesting point..we need to check that out.

[jretz]

Bill, The guy doing your PDI was probably watching how the trailer brakes locked up in reference to the trucks brakes. This is also how the ford manual has you adjust the setting. The reason for the setting is to adjust how much braking and how soon it is applied to the towed vehicle. If set to high you will be stopping more with the towed vehicles brakes, also the towed vehicles brakes will lock up before the trucks.

The first time I set up my brake control by the ford manual it come out to 7.5. The next time I did it it was 8.0. I now leave it at 8.0 and take it easy on the braking, leaving lots of room between me an the car in font and slow down on down hills. I hard (panic) braking it seems that the braking is even and I don't feel like the trailer is dragging the truck. Each truck will have slightly different settings due to towing configurations and weight so it is best to use the manual and follow the procedures to set your rig up. Good Luck.

[bsmeaton]

Just remember what number works for one guy may not work for the other. Kind of like a sleep number bed .

You really need to set the controller using the instructions in the manual, rather than relying on other folks numbers. The reason I say this, I ran 6.5 across the country in our 2003 Monty. However, when traveling to the Dealer to trade in the 2003 (over the Rocky Mountains), 6.5 was way too aggressive for an empty trailer and during a heavy stop I put that trailer sideways, almost into the guy next to me. Had I set the controller per directions given the new change in weight, I would have avoided the brown area in my seat. New setting for the empty trailer was 5.0.

With that - I would almost say that if you are set at 8.5, your brakes may be way out of adjustment.

[sailer]

I think when possibly i will have to get in to a dealer and pull some wheels as 3 days ago i flue through a stop and go as the trailer was pushing me through it ,, i had to let up and hit it hard to get stoped ,, at 9.0 it is toooooooooooo much i found but less than 8.5 seams not enough , now i have a 3000rk which is heavy on the hitch ,, could that make a diff

[rubble express]

I guess I'll have to think some more about this. On my '04 with a prodigy controller it was very important to have the number correct for road conditions, speed, etc. Sometimes 5 sometimes 7.5- sometimes 0 (when manhandling the thing around a tight spot). On the integrated controller I still tend to believe that in normal conditions, on dry, flat roads, with a full load you can't go wrong at 10. The brakes will not lock up (even if adjusted perfectly) and you get all the braking capacity available. I will admit that the most impotant thing obviously is to not put yourself in a situation where you need to test this theory regularly but I have had to make some pretty heavy brake applications (set at 10) and was happy with the results. Very impressed, in fact. Under normal driving you can't tell the difference between setting at 6 or 7.5 or 10. You can set it at 3 or 4 and know you're using too much TV brakes ( which cost more to replace). Somebody please convince me I'm wrong about this because it does seem odd too set it at 10 after so many years of using the old type controllers.

[bsmeaton]

quote:Originally posted by rubble express

The brakes will not lock up (even if adjusted perfectly) and you get all the braking capacity available.........Under normal driving you can't tell the difference between setting at 6 or 7.5 or 10.

Rubble,
Your 07 must be the same as my 06, and mine will lock up all four trailer tires if set too high and leave a skid a mile long. Don't let the light bar below the setting fool you, that is only showing the braking pressure from the truck, not what gets delivered to the trailer. You should be able to squeeze the manual lever and lock up the trailer into a skid at the higher settings.

[BB_TX]

As I understand it (and I am probably wrong), the light bar displays the proportional voltage being applied to the trailer brakes as you press the pedal. The harder you press, the more voltage that is applied to the trailer brakes. But the maximum applied it determined by the setting displayed in the digital readout. If it is 10, then the trailer gets 100% maximum braking voltage. If 7.5, the it gets 75% of the maximum braking voltage even though the light bar may light up all the way across.
The ability to lock the trailer brakes would be dependent on the trailer weight, the brake size, the brakes condition, tire condition, pavement type, etc. Some brakes probably are not capable of locking up for what ever reason. In that case, a setting of 10 would probably not matter. On others, they may lock up at 80% maximum voltage. Then a setting of 7.0 or 7.5 would be more appropriate.
The one thing you do not want is for the trailer brakes to lock up during a panic stop. Sliding tires have much less traction than those on the TV not sliding and the trailer will try to come around you. Ever see a tractor-trailer rig lock up all the trailer brakes? The rear of the trailer will start to the side instead of holding straight back. Especially true if the road is wet.
I would probably agree that under "normal" driving conditions you would probably notice little difference. But abnormal conditions are not something you can always anticipate and the brake should be set to safely accomodate that unexpected panic stop.

[rubble express]

I 've never tried ( at speed ) to use only the brake controller to see if the brakes would lock up. I'm not sure I want to try for obvious reasons. When I do my brake/hitch check after each hook up I cannot move the trailer from a dead stop with the brakes fully applied. I guess this means that it could lock up the wheels under less than perfect road conditions but the inertia and weight of the moving trailer would make it awfully tough. Maybe I'll try it ( by myself...DW would freek) at 15-20 mph. There's probably no good way to tell exactly what the number should be without throwing all your junk around the unit. And it would change every time with different loads/conditions so you'd really have quite a clean up each time you checked your brakes. What's a body to do? We're going on a 1500 mile round trip in a few weeks so I'll play with it some more. Maybe I'll start out on 7.5 just in case I've only been extremely lucky so far

[bsmeaton]

Rubble & BB,

I had to dust off the manual and find my glasses - and I stand corrected. The light bar does show output to the trailer.

It also has a good section on setting up the controller. 20 - 25 mph dry level pavement, full manual lever applied, gain should be just slightly below locking up the trailer. It says 6.0 is a good starting point for a heavy load. I guess I would still say that if you can't lock up the trailer brakes with the controller by doing the above, something is wrong. Either the trailer brakes are way too loose in adjustment, or they are glazed from overheat and the shoes are shot and possibly the drums.

It also says that the TBC DOES work with the ABS system, but DOES NOT provide actual antilock features to the trailer. Guess that means if ABS is activated on the tow vehicle then perhaps it lowers the gain to the trailer automatically?? I don't know.

Strangely enought, it also says it should NOT be used on electric over hydraulic disc brakes. Hmmmmm - If you have disc brakes, I wonder how you AVOID using it? You must have to install a separate controller altogether...

[rubble express]

Thanks for the input Brad. It's funny how the owners manual is simetimes the last place anyone likes to look. I'll try it their way after I set it at 10 and try it out. I just inspected and adjusted the brakes so I know they're good. It'll probably like them up. This whole thread may have saved me and a few others some real problems. Thanks to all for their input.

[sreigle]

It is very important to have the brake controller set strong enough to make the brakes work well but not so strong as to cause problems.

A few years ago we were towing with a Prodigy Controller. By the way, once we adjusted it (per the manual) we never had to touch the setting again (except as noted below). If you have to keep changing the setting, then something is wrong with the brake system other than the controller. The Prodigy should be a set and forget controller. Mine was.

Anyhow, after setting the controller per the manual I bumped it up a couple of numbers to 8.5 or 9.0. Can't remember which. After a year I had our dealer check the brakes and he told me to back off the controller. In 20,000 miles I had worn the linings to 1/2. That's the good part. The bad is that the linings had serious stress cracks from heat. From being applied too hard too often. And the magnets worn worn to nearly a 45 degree angle. When they reach that 45 degree angle, the shoes will not return when the magnets go past that point. In other words, you'll find your brakes locking up and staying that way even after stopping completely. The dealer replaced the magents and shoes/linings.

I backed the Prodigy down to 7.5. The next year, the next 20,000 miles, he told me whatever I had the controller set at was good. The brakes looked good. No problem. Nothing replaced except repacking the wheel bearings.

So, bottom line is bumping the controller higher than necessary is not a good thing.

[BB_TX]

quote:Originally posted by bsmeaton

Rubble & BB,
Strangely enought, it also says it should NOT be used on electric over hydraulic disc brakes. Hmmmmm - If you have disc brakes, I wonder how you AVOID using it? You must have to install a separate controller altogether...

I had to get my manual out and read it also. Darn I hate that. But interestingly, my '07 manual did not say it should not be used with electric over hydraulic. It said that it had not been tested with electric over hydraulic and it was the responsibility of the owner to verify it would work ok with it.