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Old 02-27-2020, 12:47 PM   #41
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Just maybe a possible explanation of what happened: Do you have a spare tire stored under your motorhome? If yes, can it be the chain holding the spare tire that broke, the spare tire has fallen, bounced in the tow bar by under, broke it such that a part of the tow bar went up and hit the back of the motorhome and then the tire hit the front of the car?
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Old 02-27-2020, 08:40 PM   #42
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I know what you mean with the 20/20 hindsight. I would have picked a safe spot to check too. Too dangerous to stop on the shoulder of most freeways anymore.


I don't have anything I can flat tow, so I use a dolly.

I have about 100 miles of 2 lane crowned road before I get to a freeway when I exit the state to the east. The easternmost section has some dips. I was running out of daylight on a trip back, so I was going a little faster than I should have been over the dips, (60, should have been 50 max) so the poor car was like a sail on the back of the MH. I felt a rather hard yank, but the car was tracking properly, so I soldiered on.
When I got back to Santa Maria, I found that one of the safety chains from car to dolly had pulled through the keyhole slot, and had been dragging for probably 90 miles.
I replaced the chains with a proper larger size that won't pull through the keyhole and allow for easier hook up. I did think the chains that came with the dolly were undersized, but they still seemed to secure to the keyhole slots, so I trusted the manufacturer's setup.
Of course, now I know to find a place to pull over and inspect if I feel any hard yanks from the trailer.
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Old 02-27-2020, 08:51 PM   #43
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When I got back to Santa Maria, I found that one of the safety chains from car to dolly had pulled through the keyhole slot, and had been dragging for probably 90 miles.
Those keyhole slots always made me nervous. I use a carabiner to connect the dangling end to the chain to help keep it from popping out. I have five links dangling so it works for me. Even if it pulls through the metal the loop of chain should help.

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Old 02-28-2020, 07:44 AM   #44
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Pilot bolts

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The reason the nuts came off ... the installer (thinking he was doing good) used nylon insert locking nuts but failed to note that the nylon was not engaging the threads due to a cutaway on the bolt’s starting thread. Lesson learned, I periodically check the base plate.
Those bolts with the reduced diameter tip are called pilot bolts. Very handy to avoid cross-threading on a production line with pneumatic wrenches.
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Old 03-02-2020, 08:38 AM   #45
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Originally Posted by n1acguy View Post
I know what you mean with the 20/20 hindsight. I would have picked a safe spot to check too. Too dangerous to stop on the shoulder of most freeways anymore.


I don't have anything I can flat tow, so I use a dolly.

I have about 100 miles of 2 lane crowned road before I get to a freeway when I exit the state to the east. The easternmost section has some dips. I was running out of daylight on a trip back, so I was going a little faster than I should have been over the dips, (60, should have been 50 max) so the poor car was like a sail on the back of the MH. I felt a rather hard yank, but the car was tracking properly, so I soldiered on.
When I got back to Santa Maria, I found that one of the safety chains from car to dolly had pulled through the keyhole slot, and had been dragging for probably 90 miles.
I replaced the chains with a proper larger size that won't pull through the keyhole and allow for easier hook up. I did think the chains that came with the dolly were undersized, but they still seemed to secure to the keyhole slots, so I trusted the manufacturer's setup.
Of course, now I know to find a place to pull over and inspect if I feel any hard yanks from the trailer.


I had to use a tow dolly for a few hundred miles while waiting for my new tow bar. I was a little nervous and stops several times to check my car. Everything was okay but it just felt more cumbersome on the back of my coach.
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Old 03-02-2020, 08:41 AM   #46
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Originally Posted by RFLLambert View Post
Just maybe a possible explanation of what happened: Do you have a spare tire stored under your motorhome? If yes, can it be the chain holding the spare tire that broke, the spare tire has fallen, bounced in the tow bar by under, broke it such that a part of the tow bar went up and hit the back of the motorhome and then the tire hit the front of the car?
No spare tire under the coach. I see you have a Lexington. We had a Lexington before we bought our Georgetown. Our Georgetown is great but we really miss our Lexington.
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Old 03-02-2020, 07:30 PM   #47
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I don't tow four-down yet. Do four-down towing systems have safety chains like my dolly does?

Ray
Yes.

And a breakaway switch to stop the toad if you have one like Brake Buddy.
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Old 03-02-2020, 08:37 PM   #48
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RVi

I can’t even imagine and I’m not sure what I would do but to answer you question, I have the RVi and it is amazing. Very light, best customer service, and has a tablet that tells you everything. I test the break away every summer. It works great and the tablet throws a big warning at you.
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Old 03-02-2020, 10:14 PM   #49
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Car Breaking System Activation On Break-Away

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People could have been killed had things been a little different.

We were driving our motorhome towing our car north on I-95 just above the Georgia / Florida border when we heard a bang. Checked my side mirrors and saw nothing, glanced in the rear camera and saw damage to the front of our Saturn. Our campground was at the next exit 2 miles away. We took the exit, stopped at the stop sign and turned left towards our campground and heard another bang.

The bang we heard on I-95 was an object flying off another vehicle and hitting the back of our motorhome. The object bounced off the motorhome onto our hitch and into the front of our car.

The second bang we heard at the exit was our tow bar coming apart and the front of our Saturn coming off. We believe making the turn put enough stress on the damaged hitch to cause one arm to come apart.

Fortunately, (1) it didn't come apart on I-95, (2) one arm of the tow bar stayed intact, (3) we had an auxiliary braking system and (4) we had good insurance.

The other arm of the hitch broke and the car started to roll away when
I cut the wire that connected the auxiliary braking system to the car from the motorhome.

We were that close to losing the car on I-95 causing a devastating accident; people could have been killed. Talk about a wake up call.

Our auxiliary braking system wasn't activated because the car didn't brake away entirely. However, we now worry that we have the the right braking system.

Has anyone had a situation where the car broke away entirely and the auxiliary braking system activated?

What auxiliary braking system do you use?
If your system is like mine, I have a separate small steel cable attached from the RV hitch to the car's braking system pull-out plug. If the car breaks away, the cable should pull out the plug in the car. You can test your car's breakaway system by pulling out the plug by hand when it's hooked to the RV and the RV engine is running and is in Park. You should be able to see your car breaking actuator pushing on the break pedal. You can also put your RV in gear in a safe place and feel how much breaking your are getting from the car.
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Old 03-02-2020, 10:53 PM   #50
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This is not directed at the OP and is not intended as criticism. It is intended to be helpful for other readers are to understand how vehicle towing systems work.

A good towing setup has a three-way safety setup. The first system is the tow bars, hitch and base plate connection which are super strong as long as they are designed for the load attached. If that system fails completely and the toad separates, the safety cables should hold the vehicle, again if sized correctly to bear the load. It will certainly be quite bouncy back there until you can stop, and the car may ram the RV a few times, but hopefully the toad is still attached until you can safely stop.

If both of those systems fail, the break-away switch is automatically activated and the towed vehicle will come to a fairly quick stop. It’s not ideal because (though rare) it can happen anywhere and the parked car will just sit there. But it is still deemed to be safer than a runaway car, which could be at high speed, and also the brake lights of the toad will come on and stay on so that’s a partial help.

If this ever happens to you in a highway or a busy roadway, call police immediately (before calling for a tow) and stay well clear of the toad to avoid secondary collisions, until police are on scene to divert traffic so you can get In the toad and get it off the roadway.

There is no reason to cut a brake cable (a/k/a breakaway cable). First of all, cutting it does nothing. Secondly, the way to activate the aux brake is to yank out the cable to remove the car portion of the emergency break-away switch. Third, it’s not even designed to be used like that. If you are able to get out of the RV and get to the car, you can put the car in park and put on the manual parking brake.

You never want to disconnect a towed car without putting the RV and the toad in park and put on the parking brakes. A few owners have seen their toads start to roll away on even a slight hill. Some have caught them...always a dangerous maneuver...it’s even harder if the doors are still locked!
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Old 03-02-2020, 11:39 PM   #51
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. . . . . If both of those systems fail, the break-away switch is automatically activated and the towed vehicle will come to a fairly quick stop. It’s not ideal because (though rare) it can happen anywhere and the parked car will just sit there. But it is still deemed to be safer than a runaway car, which could be at high speed, and also the brake lights of the toad will come on and stay on so that’s a partial help. . .
While your overall toad operations description and advice are excellent, and I don't mean to pick, the statement about the toad brake lights coming on when it has broken loose and sitting on the road does not apply to all toads.

In my example, our Ford Fiesta toad's brake lights are powered by the motorhome when the car is being towed. Part of the prep for recreational vehicle towing, per the Fiesta owner's manual, is to prepare the transmission, then disconnect the car's battery. Only the auxiliary brake actuator is still powered by the toad battery via a separate connection. The car's brake lights can get no power from the car, so if the car has broken away, the brake lights will not work even if the brake actuator is activated by the breakaway switch.
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Old 03-02-2020, 11:49 PM   #52
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This is not directed at the OP and is not intended as criticism. It is intended to be helpful for other readers are to understand how vehicle towing systems work.

A good towing setup has a three-way safety setup. The first system is the tow bars, hitch and base plate connection which are super strong as long as they are designed for the load attached. If that system fails completely and the toad separates, the safety cables should hold the vehicle, again if sized correctly to bear the load. It will certainly be quite bouncy back there until you can stop, and the car may ram the RV a few times, but hopefully the toad is still attached until you can safely stop.

If both of those systems fail, the break-away switch is automatically activated and the towed vehicle will come to a fairly quick stop. It’s not ideal because (though rare) it can happen anywhere and the parked car will just sit there. But it is still deemed to be safer than a runaway car, which could be at high speed, and also the brake lights of the toad will come on and stay on so that’s a partial help.

If this ever happens to you in a highway or a busy roadway, call police immediately (before calling for a tow) and stay well clear of the toad to avoid secondary collisions, until police are on scene to divert traffic so you can get In the toad and get it off the roadway.

There is no reason to cut a brake cable (a/k/a breakaway cable). First of all, cutting it does nothing. Secondly, the way to activate the aux brake is to yank out the cable to remove the car portion of the emergency break-away switch. Third, it’s not even designed to be used like that. If you are able to get out of the RV and get to the car, you can put the car in park and put on the manual parking brake.

You never want to disconnect a towed car without putting the RV and the toad in park and put on the parking brakes. A few owners have seen their toads start to roll away on even a slight hill. Some have caught them...always a dangerous maneuver...it’s even harder if the doors are still locked!

I write this to let people know there is an extra safety system their tow systems should have.

First to clarify, I didn't detach my car, the entire system failed and the car detached by itself. I cut my stretched braking system cable not knowing the base plate was destroyed. My car was still attached to the coach by one arm of the tow bar.

Safety cables were attached from the coach to the base plate.. Those safety cables cannot keep the car attached once the base plate is destroyed.

My car now has one additional safety feature. The base plate is cabled to the frame in addition to being bolted. Every vehicle show have this added safety system.

Whatever hit the back of my coach was sufficient to destroy the tow bar and the base plate. One side of the base plate was still partially attached.

I cut the breaking system cable because it was stretched too tight to detach in the normal way. There was no way to know the other half of the base plate was destroyed.
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Old 03-02-2020, 11:59 PM   #53
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You said you cut the breakaway cable? The way to activate the braking system on my setup is when the cable pulls the plug out of the socket on the front of the towed car. This causes an incomplete circuit and activates the brakes.

I manually unplug mine occasionally just to make sure.
Unplugging to check is a great idea. Fortunately my car didn't break away entirely until after I pulled over.
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Old 03-03-2020, 04:58 AM   #54
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Poor quality

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Looking at your photo, the bangs you heard were the tow hitch connections to your car breaking, without looking closer, the welds snapped due to the welds being inferior quality, when you buy your next towing sub frame buy one that integrates into your car and uses a number of connection points so no one point of failure can cause a disconnection. Plus you need a breakaway brake system other wise use a trailer for your car .
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Old 03-03-2020, 07:07 AM   #55
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My set up not only has the safety cables but also has safety cables for the base plate to the cars frame.
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Old 03-03-2020, 07:12 AM   #56
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Thank you for posting this. We are in the process of setting up for towing our car behind our RV so this is a useful discussion!

Our enclosed cargo trailer was just rear ended two days ago on 95 near Washington, DC so I get how it sets one’s heart to racing and affects decision making.

I am glad the situation played out without hurting your family or anyone else. Best of luck!
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Old 03-03-2020, 07:31 AM   #57
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I use RV’s both sides of the Atlantic and can tell you T bar towing in most European countries is not allowed , you have to use a trailer , some countries you can get away with a two wheel dolly under the front wheels but the police can decide they will not allow so it’s always better to use a enclosed or open twin axle trailer. So think yourself lucky that the USA allow this potentially lethal type of towing a car.
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Old 03-03-2020, 07:58 AM   #58
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Originally Posted by BehindBars View Post
While your overall toad operations description and advice are excellent, and I don't mean to pick, the statement about the toad brake lights coming on when it has broken loose and sitting on the road does not apply to all toads.

In my example, our Ford Fiesta toad's brake lights are powered by the motorhome when the car is being towed. Part of the prep for recreational vehicle towing, per the Fiesta owner's manual, is to prepare the transmission, then disconnect the car's battery. Only the auxiliary brake actuator is still powered by the toad battery via a separate connection. The car's brake lights can get no power from the car, so if the car has broken away, the brake lights will not work even if the brake actuator is activated by the breakaway switch.
Thanks for this additional information. Our toad remains powered by its own battery even if the tether to RV power is disconnected. But I see that all are not set up that way and the setup you describe would have no brake lights.
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Old 03-03-2020, 08:22 AM   #59
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??

I like this statement. "You're right, I should have pulled off. Of course, hindsight is 20/20; it's easy to look back with a would of, could of, should of opinion". This is just scary the people that drive a rolling sledgehammer and don`t have a clue what they are doing.When traveling I don`t follow anybody driving a MotorHome. To many stories like this.

Watch till the end and listen to what the motorhome driver says about the situation.

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Old 03-03-2020, 09:00 AM   #60
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I like this statement. "You're right, I should have pulled off. Of course, hindsight is 20/20; it's easy to look back with a would of, could of, should of opinion". This is just scary the people that drive a rolling sledgehammer and don`t have a clue what they are doing.When traveling I don`t follow anybody driving a MotorHome. To many stories like this.

Watch till the end and listen to what the motorhome driver says about the situation.

Looks like a good towbar. Maybe he was testing to see what it would take to get the bar to fail.
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