Having a supplemental braking system is a legal requirement in the US and Canada - but it's also so much more than that.
A braking system is a critical piece of safety equipment that you need while on the road.
But how exactly does an RVi braking system keep you safe? By using a three step process during a braking event:
Detect - Every RVibrake has a computer chip called an accelerometer built-in to its circuit board. This chip measures things like how fast you're moving, how fast you're slowing down, and where you are in space. Using this accelerometer, your brake can assess whether or not a braking even is occurring without the need for input from the motorhome's brake pedal or an external monitor.
Activate - If the accelerometer detects a braking event, we then assess whether or not the brake needs to activate based on that data. Not every braking is the same, and there are many gentler stops where your brake doesn't need to activate (if it did, it could cause undue wear on your brake pads - we don't want that). If, however, the inertial force is enough to trigger a braking, your RVibrake reacts, and reacts quickly using its air-driven actuation system. This is a critical feature that sets RVibrakes apart. See, most braking systems use some kind of electric motor to actuate their arm/cylinder/etc. - but this leads to a remarkably slow response time of between 2-3 seconds. When you take into account the fact that most panic stops only last a total of about 3 seconds, you can see the issue with that. With an air-driven system (such as an RVibrake), the response time is under half a second.
Alert - When a braking occurs, your RVibrake will always alert your external RVi monitoring system. Now, since the brake uses its internal accelerometer for braking (as we mentioned above), having this monitor isn't critical to the brake's operation, but being able to see what your brake is doing in realtime provides an incredible peace-of-mind. Additionally, if your brake ever needs to alert you to an error or failure of the unit, your RVi monitor is how you'll receive those notifications.
These 3 steps are happening at a speed that feels simultaneous to you and allows you to tow with the utmost confidence that your RVi braking system is keeping you safe.
It's all part of our mission here at RVi: To allow you to focus on making memories instead of worrying about making it to a destination in one piece. Begin your happy RVing journey today!
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