OK, I am looking for some honest opinions. Is it worth the 2,500 dollars to get the electric breaks? It is a big expense .

General rule is approx 40 to 50% braking improvement. Only you can make the decision as it's your dollar, for me I'll never have any type of towable without Disc Brakes.

They made enough of a difference that the DW noticed from the passenger seat. If you travel a lot of miles they are the very best option you could do, we typically travel 10-15k per year & until this year I never realized how bad the electric brakes were, you can actually feel the trailer stopping the truck. The simple answer is "Hell yea!". Also Rons installers, John & John, did a very neat job.

This is great help, thanks guys

Whole rig stops just as well as truck alone, if not better.
As all above said, would NEVER pull a trailer with electric drums again.

Dave originally asked about if it was worth the $2500 for electric breaks. I think he meant to ask about disc brakes. I know plenty on the forum who have had the disc brakes will never do without them again, almost no comparison.

Chris

2012 36RL

I completed the disc brake conversion on our RW a year ago. The difference was dramatic! I would never again pull a large fifth wheel without disc brakes.

Bob

Why in the world would RW not install these breaks on all their 5th wheels?. Redwood is supposed to be an upper end coach at least I thought......

Totally agree. These big rigs need disc brakes, period.

Why in the world would RW not install these breaks on all their 5th wheels?. Redwood is supposed to be an upper end coach at least I thought......

The disk brakes have always been on the options list if you ordered your Redwood from the factory. But, I agree, they should have been standard.

The Redwood president commented on that during his Friday address, and no surprise, cost was his reason. He stated I think that only about 20% of ordered coaches had the disc option ticked. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. They worry about pricing themselves out of the market with expensive options as standard. Likewise they reverted to full body paint as mandatory, it is an option now. I think about half of the coaches in various stages of construction during the factory tour had the standard decals.

x

I agree with all.... my wife was NOT sold on the cost until our first trip with them...

A woman pulled out of a parking lot right in front of us and stopped. I stood on the brakes figuring I would deal with it after... no bang... she turned to me and just smiled... at that point I knew

We had the factory installed electric drum brakes for 3 years, completing about 25,000 miles, many of which were through the Rockies. Other than the grease blowing through the seals, which RW fixed under warranty, we had no issues.

The EOH Disc brakes were installed at the 2016 rally and they are a definite improvement over the original brakes. You can expect a slight delay, depending on which system you install. Based on my research I believe Ron's system has one of the fastest response times. However, once they activate, the coach will now stop the truck.

Value for money - although we had no problems with the original brakes, I still consider the cost of disc brakes to be excellent value, as the new brakes significantly reduce our risk factors.

The Redwood president commented on that during his Friday address, and no surprise, cost was his reason. He stated I think that only about 20% of ordered coaches had the disc option ticked. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. They worry about pricing themselves out of the market with expensive options as standard. Likewise they reverted to full body paint as mandatory, it is an option now. I think about half of the coaches in various stages of construction during the factory tour had the standard decals.

I got the same answer from Tim Cress when I asked him why the discs weren't standard, and I think that 20% is a high percentage. I wonder how Redwood's price for discs compares to Ron's cost to refit the discs.