New Hyrdraulic Disc Brakes!

[Stephen/Kerri]

We just picked up our 5er this morning after a local shop installed new HydroStar hydraulic disc brakes for us. Couple of questions regarding the truck's trailer brake control system. I was told that there would be a delayed response from the new disc brakes as opposed to the electric brakes. I did find this to be the case on the way home. It's not bad, just took a little getting used to. The response on the electric brakes is instantaneous. My question regards the "aggressive" (For lack of a better term) setting within my tow vehicle. This isn't the "Gain" control. We have a 2020 F350. I had it set to "Medium" for the electric brakes. I left it at medium on the new disc brakes. Because of the delay of response, should I move it to "High"? Your experience & input are welcome. TIA!
I went out & took a picture of the screen on my F350. It's called "Trailer Brake Effort". Can anyone tell me how that is different from the "Gain" control?

 

[SolarPoweredRV]

We just picked up our 5er this morning after a local shop installed new HydroStar hydraulic disc brakes for us. Couple of questions regarding the truck's trailer brake control system. I was told that there would be a delayed response from the new disc brakes as opposed to the electric brakes. I did find this to be the case on the way home. It's not bad, just took a little getting used to. The response on the electric brakes is instantaneous. My question regards the "aggressive" (For lack of a better term) setting within my tow vehicle. This isn't the "Gain" control. We have a 2020 F350. I had it set to "Medium" for the electric brakes. I left it at medium on the new disc brakes. Because of the delay of response, should I move it to "High"? Your experience & input are welcome. TIA!

We have a 2019 F350, in the settings for the brakes (might be under the trailer tab) is an option to change from Electric brakes to Electric Over Hydraulic brakes. This setting tells the truck's computer that you have Hydraulic disc brakes and changes the way your brake controller responds when you apply the brakes. Beyond that, my truck has a gain setting that is in numbers and tenths, for example: my Brake Controller is set to 5.5.

I have not heard of Ford changing the gain setting to "low/medium/high". Perhaps the low/medium/high refers to a different aspect of the brakes and not to the actual gain setting. It has been my experience that the ability to set the gain to a set value, and tenth value, is invaluable because each trailer acts differently and the gain setting may need to be adjusted as the brakes wear or you are in different weather conditions.

I have had the Disc brakes for a few years now and I have not noticed the "Delay" in activation that I was warned about, perhaps, changing the setting to Electric Over Hydraulic allows the truck to compensate for the inherent delay caused by the Electric brakes.

Hopefully, somebody with a 2020 Ford will be able to provide more information on the low/medium/high setting.

 

[Stephen/Kerri]

Thank you Dave for your input. Very helpful.

 

[Stephen/Kerri]

I went out & took a picture of the screen on my F350. It's called "Trailer Brake Effort". Dave, do you know the difference between the "Gain" & "Trailer Brake Effort?

 

[SolarPoweredRV]

I went out & took a picture of the screen on my F350. It's called "Trailer Brake Effort". Dave, do you know the difference between the "Gain" & "Trailer Brake Effort?

I checked the F350 Owner's Manual and the explanation for setting your Brake controller begins on page 306.

You need to go into your truck's settings and select "Electric Over Hydraulic" brakes for your trailer. Note: Ford allows you to store the settings for several trailers so you need to select the trailer number/name you will use for the camper and save the brake settings for the camper.

Once you set the Electric Over Hydraulic, you should then be able to set your "Gain" for the camper and save it with the trailer settings.

Ford has also added a "Low/Medium/High" setting that controls the initial voltage sent to the brakes. So, what you have is: the L/M/H setting that controls the initial braking and then the "Gain" that controls the "actual" braking. My guess is that the "High" setting would be used with very heavy trailers to avoid the feeling of being pushed by the trailer when braking.

To set the "Gain"for your brakes, you simply use the + and - buttons next to the dashboard brake controller. I would suggest an initial Gain setting of 5.5 and then testing the braking action. You want to feel as though the camper and truck are stopping in unison and not that the truck is being pushed by the camper (set the gain to 0 if you don't know what that feels like). Similarly, you don't want to feel like the camper is doing most of the stopping by pulling the truck back when you are only using slight pressure on the brake pedal (like when you are slowing down for a stoplight). Again, to test if the camper is doing most of the stopping increase the gain a little bit at a time (I don't recommend setting to 10 because things could break [no pun intended]), you will eventually feel that the camper is braking too aggressively and you can back down the Gain from there.

To determine the best H/M/L setting you will also need to road test your rig like above.

I would suggest starting your road test with the L/M/H set to low and the gain set to 5.5. Perform your road test when traffic is light and on a lightly traveled road or large parking lot.

For your convenience, I have included a link to your F350 Owner's manual below:

2020-Ford-F250-F350-F450-F550-F600-Owners-Manual-version-1._om_EN_10_2019.pdf

Again, the brake controller information starts on page 306.

Good luck and let us know how the road test goes.

 

[brandtb1919]

I went out & took a picture of the screen on my F350. It's called "Trailer Brake Effort". Dave, do you know the difference between the "Gain" & "Trailer Brake Effort?

I've noticed that the Ford manual really glosses past what the "Effort" setting is for. I have played with mine in the past, and I sort think of it as a "range" selector, low, medium, and high. The gain seems to be a fine tuning within each range. That's my take on it FWIW. But I do know on the newer SDs you have to select electric over hydraulic for the Discs.

I'm having IS and Disc put on in the fall and can't wait to see how much better the braking feels, as well as the ride.

 

[SolarPoweredRV]

I've noticed that the Ford manual really glosses past what the "Effort" setting is for. I have played with mine in the past, and I sort think of it as a "range" selector, low, medium, and high. The gain seems to be a fine tuning within each range. That's my take on it FWIW. But I do know on the newer SDs you have to select electric over hydraulic for the Discs.

I'm having IS and Disc put on in the fall and can't wait to see how much better the braking feels, as well as the ride.

On the first trip out, after installing the Disc brakes, I had a Full On Emergency Stop on the highway. I truly believe that I could not have stopped any faster if I had only been driving the truck by itself. That stop was memorable, and my wife and I were both amazed at how quick that truck stopped. I fully credit the Disc Brakes with being able to stop us that fast.

 

[Stephen/Kerri]

Thank you kindly for the reply & information. I'll get on this homework asap. So far I like the feel of these hydraulic disc brakes on just a 20 mile ride home today. We'll report back later.

 

[Stephen/Kerri]

Good information thank you. We rode home from the shop today(about 20 miles) and had it set on medium. Our trailer fully loaded up is around 13k or so. I suspect I may move it to High and see what that does. Good luck with the IS. I'm jealous !

 

[traveldawg]

The Effort setting is the aggressiveness of the initial voltage to your brakes (or the pump in the case of hydraulic). So if you set it to High you get a higher initial voltage thus more aggressive application of the brakes than if set to Low.

 

[Stephen/Kerri]

Travel Dawg, you were right on with your assessment of the trailer brake effort. I had reached out to several Ford dealerships locally and nobody could give me an answer. Mostly I just got jibberish from them. Finally I got ahold of a guy who admitted he didn't know but he would find out from the Ford folks and email me with the response. I wasn't holding out hope to ever hear from him again. Imagine my surprise when I got the following email from him. After reading this, I may move the trailer brake effort to high so I can lose that 1/2 second delay...just a thought.


Hello Stephen,

Roger from Corwin Ford here. Ok, I dug into this and from what I can gather the Trailer Brake Controller Gain/Effort entails this:

Trailer Gain is the amount of power applied to the trailer brakes. The higher the number, the greater the braking power. (Light load begins at 2, go up as load gets heavier.)

Trailer Brake Effort is how aggressively the trailer brakes engage. The speed in which the Brakes respond. Brakes respond faster in Med/High setting.

I hope this helps you out! I know I learned a few things about the Trailer Brake Controller as I researched this. If you have other questions please let me know. After doing this for 4 years, I still am learning things about all of these features.

 

[traveldawg]

Travel Dawg, you were right on with your assessment of the trailer brake effort. I had reached out to several Ford dealerships locally and nobody could give me an answer. Mostly I just got jibberish from them. Finally I got ahold of a guy who admitted he didn't know but he would find out from the Ford folks and email me with the response. I wasn't holding out hope to ever hear from him again. Imagine my surprise when I got the following email from him. After reading this, I may move the trailer brake effort to high so I can lose that 1/2 second delay...just a thought.

Hello Stephen,

Roger from Corwin Ford here. Ok, I dug into this and from what I can gather the Trailer Brake Controller Gain/Effort entails this:

Trailer Gain is the amount of power applied to the trailer brakes. The higher the number, the greater the braking power. (Light load begins at 2, go up as load gets heavier.)

Trailer Brake Effort is how aggressively the trailer brakes engage. The speed in which the Brakes respond. Brakes respond faster in Med/High setting.

I hope this helps you out! I know I learned a few things about the Trailer Brake Controller as I researched this. If you have other questions please let me know. After doing this for 4 years, I still am learning things about all of these features.

I'm not convinced the brakes get applied any sooner. It still takes x amount of time for the pump to start and it won't change with the voltage applied. But the brakes will grab more with the "Effort" setting set higher.

When you apply the brakes, a signal is sent to the pump, the pump starts, fluid is sent to the brake calipers. None of that can be sped up. But with a higher Effort setting that initial voltage sent to the pump is greater so the pump pumps faster and more fluid (or higher initial pressure fluid?) is passed to the calipers making the brakes grab with more initial grip.

After years of having disc brakes I pretty much don't feel the lag; or at least I don't sense it. Maybe I am just use to it.

One other thing about Ford braking. You have to dig in the owners manual to find this: at around 11 mph the brake effort to the brakes (either drum or disc I think) the truck stops apply force to the trailer brakes. Ford claims this gives you a better slow speed control stopping the truck and trailer. I can feel that often; especially when pulling out of campground on a downhill exit to a highway - to me is seems to take a lot more brake effort to slow down an a short grade like that - I always feel (and anticipate) that.

 

[Stephen/Kerri]

That's great information to have Larry. Thank you. I talked to HydroStar this morning. I think I need to just try the medium & high setting on the effort setting. HyrdroStar told me it wouldn't hurt anything. I'm curious to see what the difference in response is. Hey quick question, I see you have a F350 longbed. We have a F350 SB Lariat and we have around 3500lbs in carrying capacity. I'm curious what your your carrying capacity is for the LB? We're thinking of moving to a LB in another year or so. Appreciate your help & time!

 

[traveldawg]

That's great information to have Larry. Thank you. I talked to HydroStar this morning. I think I need to just try the medium & high setting on the effort setting. HyrdroStar told me it wouldn't hurt anything. I'm curious to see what the difference in response is. Hey quick question, I see you have a F350 longbed. We have a F350 SB Lariat and we have around 3500lbs in carrying capacity. I'm curious what your your carrying capacity is for the LB? We're thinking of moving to a LB in another year or so. Appreciate your help & time!

@Steph/Kerri
My sticker cargo weight is 3939. My previous 2018 Lariat SB was around 3400 to 3500 so I figured I picked up 500 lbs. I was near or at my cargo limit so I went to the LB and got rid of the 5th wheel hitch (330 lbs) in favor of a Reese Gooseneck; so I picked up another 200 or so pounds. My pin weight is about 3350 lbs.

 

[Stephen/Kerri]

Thanks Larry. Appreciate the info. I guess I was thinking the LB would give another 1k in cargo capacity....but 500lbs is better than nothing. Safe travels.

 

[DocRob804]

With my system I took the trailer to a smooth dry area of road and at about 30 mph applied the trailer brakes full on.
Do this with the gain on low and then adjusted the gain up until you can just barely lock up the trailer wheels. Changing the gain doesn't effect the speed of the application only how aggressive they are applied. Good Luck and I think you will love the disks
Rob