etrailer | Install: Brake Buddy Select 3 Portable Flat Tow Brake System on a 2020 Jeep Gladiator

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-b...
Hey everyone, Ryan here at Etrailer. Today on our 2020 Jeep Gladiator, we're gonna be showing you how to install the Brake Buddy Select 3, portable style supplemental braking system. Before we do that though, let's just take a minute, check this out and make sure it's gonna be right for you. So whenever you're flat towing a vehicle, what a supplemental braking system is gonna do is apply the brakes in your Jeep whenever you hit the brakes in your motorhome, helping to bring you to a more predictable and complete stop. And as of late, you know, the majority of the states are going to require these by law as well. So a setup like this will keep you safe and legal.

There are gonna be a couple of different types of braking systems. Some are more portable like our Brake Buddy, and some are more permanent, ones that are gonna be mounted to the vehicle, and that'll stay with the vehicle if you will. So what one is gonna be best for you really just depends on your situation. With the portable style system, you know the convenient part is you take it out, and if you happen to have another vehicle that you flat tow, you can pop it in there. Or let's say maybe if you change vehicles every year or two, and you don't want to have to bother with taking a permanent style system out, and going through all that, that's where something like this would come into play.

Now the downside is, you are gonna have to set this up every time you wanna flat tow. Not really a huge deal. Once you do it once and kind of get it dialed in, essentially you'll just set this in the floorboard and clamp the arm there to your brake pedal, plug it in and that's really all there is to it. So not really a huge deal once you get it all set up. But, if you're looking for something that's more simple, you know, not have to keep track of a unit like this, the permanent type ones might be a better option for you.

With that said, the Select 3 is gonna work with motorhomes that have regular hydraulic brakes, as well as the larger coaches that have air brakes. So regardless what you got there on that end, you'll be in good shape. But the permanent style systems that I'm a fan of, are the, they're made by Demco. One of them is Stay-IN-Play DUO, and the other one is an Air Force One. Air Force One is for the big coaches with air brakes, and the DUO you want to use with regular hydraulic brakes.

So if that's something that you think would work for you a little bit better, those would definitely be worth checking out. This is what the unit can look like whenever you have it set up in your Gladiator. And overall it's a decent fit. You know, it kinda looks funny how it's angled here, it's just kind of the nature of the floorboard in the Jeep, and you don't have a ton of room, so everything is kind of tight. But, you know, it doesn't really matter, so to speak. The most important thing is, you want this to have a good push on that brake pedal, and everything work properly. And as far as that goes, it does a pretty good job. So I'll just kind of cycle it here to show you how it's gonna push the brake pedal down whenever you hit the brakes in your motorhome. So it has that good straight shot, and it doesn't move around a whole lot. And as far as portable braking systems go, that's kind of what you want to see there. There are a couple of settings you can adjust to kind of fine tune your particular application. One of them is going to be an adjustment here, which changes essentially the amount of force or pressure that the unit's gonna push the Jeep's brake pedal down with. So, on a vehicle like this, you'd want to go probably from 35 to 65, somewhere in there, just depending on your whole setup and and your braking preference. So that's real straightforward. You can just push plus or minus to change that. And then you have your braking sensitivity, which you can dial in. So the more sensitive you make it, the unit is going to operate, you know, quicker if you will. So, and that's reliant on how hard you're actually gonna push your brakes in the motorhome. It'll pick up on that and apply it. So, you know, that's just something you'll have to, kind of, dial in yourself. I usually start it somewhere in the middle there, kind of go from there. And then you're gonna have your braking mode, which you have proportional and full. I would recommend just use proportional. Because, what that means, the unit is gonna apply the brakes in the same fashion that you're hitting the brakes in the motorhome. So if you're halfway on the brake in the motorhome, kind of, just slowly coming