If you are the kind of person that replaces his tow vehicle every 3 to 7 years, it's hard to justify a tow brake system that is permanently installed for easy plug-and-play convenience. But if you own your vehicles for 10+ years like we do, then the extra investment in such a system makes more money sense.
Our permanently installed tow brake system is called a
UNIFIED, made by U.S.Gear that I installed myself. I like it for it's seamless effort during towing setup, and also because it maintains the vacuum in the power brake booster. So when the tow brakes are applied, it's always "power brake action" that works exceptionally well. The brakes have only one level of braking pressure which I have grown to appreciate. The system offers an adjustment for the sensitivity as to "when" they are activated. This is managed via an adjustable centrifugal force switch located on our PC center cup holder. That little controller also has a means to activate the tow brakes independently which is nice for testing purposes. An LED readout displays the amount of inertia during braking.
Our tow brake setup reduces braking distance compared to not towing. Our Liberty's brakes help slow down the motorhome which I greatly appreciate. That was one of it's selling features.
We bought our 2006 Jeep Liberty tow vehicle used in 2009 with 29,000 miles, and have no plan to replace it in the foreseeable future. Our Liberty turned 15 years this years with 87000 miles logged on the odometer now and is still serves us well. There are 30,000+ rolling/towing miles not reflected on the odometer.
Though I appreciate our 12 year old tow brake system, new systems and upgraded older systems are available. If shopping today for a tow brake, I would do my research all over again. Doing a quick search, I am not certain the Unified tow brake system is still available.