Here is a summary of the laws:
http://www.brakebuddy.com/towing_laws.html

The unit is more for breakaway stopping as well as braking
assist. Check here for info and then let your conscience be your
guide.

http://www.brakebuddy.com/towing_laws.html#United_States_Towing_Laws

Leanne

This worried me for two reasons. One as you mentioned for getting a ticket.
The other is because while towing a canoe on a 4X8 trailer (about 200#) I
had it disconnect not once but 4X from start to finish on a trip of less
then 200 miles.

I have a tow setup for my car and seriously reconsidered ever using it with
my RV. But, after evaluating what happened and the hardware involved with
the disconnect. I rebuilt the trailer with quality locking hardware and
decided I would tow my Toyota echo (2200#) with the better hardware on the
RV.

Ed

I don't have an independent braking system.

Here's some information from Blue Ox.

For safety purposes, federal law requires RV activated taillights and safety
cables. Also, most states and Canadian provinces have laws on the books
concerning braking for trailers. Brakes are required on trailers with GVWR’s
as low as 1,000 pounds in some states. Enforcement of these laws has not
been followed most places in the United States. Interpretation of the law’s
application to cars in tow has probably been a big reason why these laws
have not been actively enforced. British Columbia province in Canada has
been actively enforcing this law, stopping people, writing tickets and
making them drive the tow car separately if they do not have the proper
equipment. The main thing to remember with auxiliary braking systems is that
they are just what they state - auxiliary brakes. They are not meant to stop
your motorhome any faster. They are designed to assist in slowing down the
towed vehicle and reduce the stopping distance that was changed due to the
addition of the towed car.

 Finished my first trip towing a car at the end of March. Dragged a '99
Malibu behind a 1989 33' Winnebago for 11,000 km. When I decided to do
this, I set up with  Demco brackets and towbar and a Brake Buddy.
After playing around a bit with the sensitivity of the BB, I found it to
be great. Only activated the brakes under hard stops and made a
noticeable difference in stopping distance. I also found it handy in
coming down out of mountains. One quick stab of the brakes reset my
descending speed quite nicely.
I did a lot of reading in different newsgroups and found many different
types of brake assistants. AND just as many opinions. If the others work
as well or better than the BB then the use of an assistant is well worth
it, laws or no laws.
mike

WOW a whole $1200 for a braking system added to the cost of your coach, new
Vue, insurance, taxes, camping equipment and everything else you're spending
on this hobby! Such an injustice. I assure you there are many people who tow
without supplemental braking and have never had a crash as a resut. Likewise
there are many people who believe that manufacturer's tow capacities are to
"protect" the manufacturer and so pull over weight vehicles/trailers. These
are people who confuse luck with good with good decisions. In response to
your comment to another response, I seriously doubt your Fleetwood manual
says you can tow anything without supplemental braking. If in fact it does
it is in direct conflict with the chassis manufacturer. Virtually every
chassis manufacturer's stated towing capacity is based on their particular
design, hardware and loaded vehicle calculations and assumes adequate
braking on the towed vehicle. I have a 1995 Cruise Master 35ft on a Chev P30
chassis (3500# nominal TC) and tow a 2000 Jeep (3380# scale weight). I use
the US Gear Unified Tow Brake which has a two-wire cable hookup and
break-away cable as the only visible elements. This cable can be combined
with the lights into a six-wire cable to make it even less obvious to the
uninformed observer. If you're looking for confirmation of your opinion move
on, but if you're really intested in actual user experience please read on.

I was southbound on US 71 (four lane restricted access like an Interstate)
south of KCMO in bumper-to-bumper afternoon rush hour traffic. I was
uncharacteristically driving nearly 70 mph to avoid impeding traffic. As we
crested a rise north of Peculiar, Mo the entire highway was stopped and I
stood on the brakes as did everyone else. I couldn't move into the left lane
because of traffic and the shoulder was already full of people trying to
avoid crashing into the car ahead. I managed to stop just 20 ft short of the
car in front of me. Brake manufacturer's tests show good supplemental
braking can shorten the stopping distance 132 ft on a coach/toad combination
virtually the same as mine. I can't begin to imagine the catastrophe that
could have happened without the toad brake. I can however imagine a jury's
response to "20,000 lb motorhome with inadequate braking crushes small car
with mom and six kids on their way to...." Even if I didn't care about
other's on the road, I'd care about the financial and possibly criminal
consequences.

CruzMastr