Dexter Stability Control
Submitted: Thursday, Oct 15, 2015 at 13:12
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Member - garytee
Has anyone chosen the Dexter system over the Al-ko ESC system? It receives very positive reviews but would love to hear from others who have experience with it as I need to let the manufacturer of our new van know by next week.
Thank you.
Reply By: mongrel a - Thursday, Oct 15, 2015 at 14:54
Thursday, Oct 15, 2015 at 14:54
Thanks for raising the subject I would be interested in any feed back as I to have been looking into purchasing a Dexter system for my Lotus Trooper
Cheers
Mongrel
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Reply By: Witi Repartee - Thursday, Oct 15, 2015 at 21:17
Thursday, Oct 15, 2015 at 21:17
There is a review of both in the November
Caravan World magazine. Issue 543.
Not a lot between them
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591636
Reply By: Bonz (Vic) - Friday, Oct 16, 2015 at 17:30
Friday, Oct 16, 2015 at 17:30
I have the Dexter system on my new van, I honestly cant work out what its supposed to do, and when it DOES do something I dont want to be there ......
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Reply By: Member - Andrew - Thursday, Oct 22, 2015 at 07:31
Thursday, Oct 22, 2015 at 07:31
If what I have read about the way the systems work is accurate, then they appear to act in different ways.
I am assuming the trailer wheels have grip for either of these systems to work properly.
The Alko system appears to be equivalent to actuating your over ride function on the brake controller. That is brakes on all trailer/caravan wheels at once. This slows the trailer without you having applied the tow vehicle brakes. It seems that helps the tow vehicle to remain stable while slowing everything down.
The Dexter system appears to work like the stability control on your car. The brakes are applied one side at a time. The side with the greatest vertical tyre load and therefore grip is the one that is braked.
The Alko system should causes the trailer/caravan to pull back through the tow-hitch which would cause a straightening force to try and align the car and trailer. The force would act through the centre line of the trailer/caravan to the tow hitch.
The Dexter system would also pull back through the tow-hitch but because the pivot point is through one side of the trailer axle the force would act from the braked wheel. That would try and pivot the trailer/caravan around the braked wheel. There are now two forces acting, one slowing the vehicle and the other pushing sideways against the tow-hitch trying to align the car and trailer/caravan.
The Dexter system is therefore more sophisticated.
On cars the sytems work in conjunction with ABS and that seems to be the missing link on trailer/caravans.
Which is better in the real world? I guess we won’t know the answer to that until they have been out there for a long time.
Regards
A
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