Review on 🔒 Enhanced Braking Performance with BrakeBuddy 39530 Stealth Braking Package by Patrick Cooney

This system works really well when you look at it. It's also very easy to hook up and ride without the traditional silos of braking systems. Your universal connector is excellent and works really well. However, it has been a long journey (over a month) to install and to the point where it safely stops the towed car. June 9th: I ordered a Brake Buddy stealth kit for my 2017 GMC Acadia V6. July 5th: I proceeded to install the kit and found that I was missing the wiring harness and umbilical cord which happened in the open box. Called Hopkins tech support and they went ahead and sent parts which was probably a bad customer scam. Hats off! July 12: Second install round. This time the installation was successful, however the ECU installed on the towed vehicle behaves as if it had burned out. I called tech support and Hopkins again sent a new controller. July 18th: Get the controller and install it. The problem appears to have been resolved. But now the brake pedal only pulls a quarter of an inch when testing lift off or trying to activate it with the test button on the controller. I called tech support again and found it was a bad head unit. I ordered a brand new set thinking I would take the good parts from a set and send the bad parts back. July 21st: A new set has arrived. Replaced the main unit and nothing has changed. Run the advanced troubleshooter. Check the voltages on the main unit under various conditions - everything is checked. Disconnect the cable from the brake pedal and make sure the thing actually moves about four inches. It turns out that the overload protection in the main unit works as expected because it takes too much effort to move the pedal. I check the vacuum pump and it works as intended. I then moved the cable attachment point to the very bottom of the brake pedal for reinforcement. It's not what the instructions showed, but I was able to get it to work and it really helped - now the brake has moved about 2 inches. I then attempted to test it idling while the vehicle is being towed (to ensure a good vacuum) and found the pedal traveled about 4 inches before the overload protection would stop it. Conclusion - not enough vacuum. I checked the car's booster line with a vacuum gauge while it was running and found it was drawing 25 inches of mercury (inhg). Checked the vacuum with the pump running (engine off) and found it entered at 10 inches. and shuts off at 15 inches. The reason the system only works when the car is running is because the included vacuum pump is not up to par and provides 10 inches less vacuum than the car needs for the booster to work properly. Then I did a little research on Dorman's vacuum pump kit. It's used in Ford trucks to create an auxiliary vacuum for things like the air conditioning controls when the vehicle is started. It really isn't intended for something as vital and important as braking. Anyway, I took it apart and found I had some play on the rocker panels. I adjusted the contacts in the vacuum switch and got it to the point where it worked at 15 inches. rt. Art. and enlarged it to about 20 inches. Reinstalled the pump and took the car out for a tow test and it worked pretty well for well distributed braking. However, the vacuum pump worked every time I applied the brake for 90-120 seconds. It wouldn't cut it for multiple braking events within a minute or two (think traffic). Also, it sounded like very hard work to make 20inghg and I suspected it wouldn't take very long. If it had failed I wouldn't tow a brake car, which isn't good as I'm taking my wife and four small children on a cross country trip next month. deficit in early August. For about a hundred dollars I could get a Volvo brake booster vacuum pump and a Multicomp vacuum switch (search for Revain). I made a mounting plate and used these two parts along with the relay to power the pump directly from the battery (picture attached). As a result I am able to hold the vacuum between 19 and 23 inches and the system is now working great. This vacuum pump is much better and only runs about ten seconds between stops. Although I'm ready to go now, the vacuum pump included in the kit is out of date and is now in my parts basket. I contacted Hopkins with all of this information and while they were responsive and helpful throughout this adventure, their engineers ultimately decided that the vacuum pump provided should do the job. That may be true for the Honda Civic, but in practice (and indeed) it was inadequate for my Acadia. In other words, if you're really technically proficient, I would consider other options.