Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: Gixxerkid3 on January 19, 2022, 11:03:06 pm
-
Hi all,
Today I hooked up the Jeep to the PC (she’s not all polished up this year yet) for the first time to “test” fit and see how she looked. This year will be the first time it will be pulled behind the PC. I found that I need a 4” riser so I will order the Roadmaster 048-4 tomorrow. I also noted that the coiled safety cables were a smidge snug (extended) when attached.
What’s the word on adding a 12”-24” cable extension to each cable as long as it is secured to the other cable and vehicle so they won’t separate?
Your thoughts and experience are much appreciated. I’m sure I know the answer though. LOL.
-
Hi Gixxerkid3,
Been there, done that. Get 12" longer safety cables rather than extending your existing ones. You won't regret it. But read through all of my reply before ordering them.
We first towed a small car that did not require a riser. When we switched to our Jeep Liberty, a tall riser was needed to make it work right and of coarse longer safety cables were needed. I also highly recommend buying two Quiet Hitch thingies (or equivalent) to eliminate "cumulative play" introduced with the riser. There are a few designs available. I recall another design that came out after buying our Quiet Hitch brand that was interesting. If buying replacements, I might consider that one. There are a few different available sizes so be mindful that you need the 2" size.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/2885/9398957260_f31c2c27f1_c.jpg)
Our first trip we towed without the riser. This was a VERY BAD idea. Don't be tempted to tow this way because of having shorter safety cables. The "bucking" was very irritating.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/5541/9398970458_9cdb11b392_c.jpg)
Having the riser is a good idea in another way. It moved our Liberty farther from our PC, increasing the gap between the two vehicles when in a sharp turn. Once setup, I strongly advise to tow into a parking lot, and do a very sharp turn (a donut) while having a spotter. You want to make sure the side-tip-end of your Wrangler bumper will NOT contact your Phoenix bumper. It gets uncomfortably close with our Liberty with riser alone, but they do NOT touch so I am okay. But I wonder about the Wrangler. If the two bumpers make contact, you will have to add an extender and another Quiet Hitch. Of coarse, then your safety cables need to be even longer.
You don't want to increase the distance between vehicles any more than necessary because there is a drawback to the extra distance. When making sharp turns, our Liberty initially turns in the opposite direction of our PC, then has to quickly turn in the proper direction to follow. The extra distance makes this phenomena worse which is very hard on the inside of our Liberty's front tires. It's so bad that I actually have two set of tires for our Liberty. One set is for towing, the other set I put on when we are back home. The wear also makes a terrible road noise that drives my wife Irene crazy. We tolerate it on trips, but she doesn't want that when back home. Needless to say, every 3 to 4 years, our "home tires" are repurposed as "trip tires" as the old "trip tires" are cycled out of service prematurely.
Everything has it's trade-offs. (WH)
-
Thanks for the tips Ron. I would never tow in current condition.I know the repercussions. I will look at longer cables for sure as the riser will most certainly extend it even further, and thanks for the reminder of a spotter. Good idea.
Cheers,
Steve
-
Thanks for the tips Ron. I would never tow in current condition. I know the repercussions. I will look at longer cables for sure as the riser will most certainly extend it even further, and thanks for the reminder of a spotter. Good idea.
Cheers, Steve
2o2
After you are all setup, I would like to know the details on your working solution. I would also like to know your test results of doing sharp-U-turns in a large parking lot, specifically concerning your bumper-to-bumper clearance. The Wrangler is a very popular tow vehicle. Other Wrangler owners would be very interested in what you've learned.
The next time we are on a trip towing our Liberty, I should take a few pictures of the bumper-to-bumper clearance when doing sharp-U-turns. I should also make a short video on the "going right to go left" phenomena that is ruining our Liberty's front tires on the inside edges.
I imagine the length of the tow bar is also influential, the various models of Road-Master, Blue-Ox, other brands.
-
Sure thing. I ordered the riser today but it will not be here until Jan 31st. So shortly after that, and weather permitting I should have something.
-
Thanks for the tips Ron. I would never tow in current condition.I know the repercussions. I will look at longer cables for sure as the riser will most certainly extend it even further, and thanks for the reminder of a spotter. Good idea.
Cheers,
Steve
Steve,
Let me offer one consideration based on personal experience: Pay attention to the safety cable length you select. Obviously they must be long enough to allow for turns and maneuvers, but based on my experience, they shouldn't be any longer than that. I may be one of the few folks on this forum that has had to depend on my safety cable to prevent a serious accident--take a look at this link for an earlier post that talked about the issue: https://forum.phoenixusarv.com/index.php?topic=3987.msg34629#msg34629. In fact, I would recommend you read that entire string of posts for more information--there is some discussion of safety cable length. In any case, in my situation, when one of my tow bar pins failed and dropped one side of the bar (at 65 mph), my Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk instantly moved to the right outside the plane of my RV as far as the safety cable would allow. It ended up running about six inches from the bridge railing on the bridge I happened to be traveling on. If the safety cable would have been six inches longer--it could have got into the railing. Same issue if the opposite side had failed and the Jeep had moved to the drivers side (into traffic)--the longer the cable, the further it can move. This is obviously a very uncommon issue--but it happened to me so it is possible. I would advise that you keep the safety cables as short as possible while allowing full turning radius.
Mike
-
That was a great read. Thank you for the link. It really makes you think twice about everything that could go wrong. I made my decision to get new cables should I need them and not use extensions. I think in the back of my head I already knew that though. I can’t imagine towing without safety cables even though you do have a supplemental braking system. That just seems irresponsible to me. It was interesting though that you experienced one of the tow bar pins coming off and your Jeep off to the side. I never thought of that as an even a possibility, but now that I think about it, everything has a breaking point doesn’t it. I want thank each and everyone of you guys on this site for the information you’ve given me. I have towed many things behind my diesel trucks including my former 26’ travel trailer; however, I have zero towing experience with an RV. This is all great information. I will probably be out doing some test runs locally in early February once I get all the hitch riser. I’ll follow up on this link with some information
-
If you find that you ordered your safety cables a little too long, just wind them around the tow bar another revolution, maybe two. That should pick up the excess slack.
-
I am going to wait to order those until I get the riser so I can hook it up. On that note. It was supposed to be delivered on Jan 31st, but UPS says this Saturday. WAHOO
-
Ok all the items came today. Pic shows all attached. No road test yet.
-
Hi Steve,
It "appears" your blue safety cables are long enough, but a test drive in a parking lot will determine much.
I am surely no expert, but I would feel a lot better if you wrapped your safety cables around the tow bar at least one time, maybe more like I do here, and "hook" the yellow umbilical cord creating a strain relief like I do. The blue and yellow cables hanging from end-to-end may develop into a problem during a trip. Also having two Quiet-Hitch type devises will eliminate the irritating "clanking" noise.
Ron
(https://live.staticflickr.com/2885/9398957260_f31c2c27f1_c.jpg)
During our trips, when the Jeep is detached, the tow bar, the riser, and the two Quiet-Hitch devises always stay assembled to the motorhome. Sometimes out of laziness, I even leave the blue two cables attached as shown. I always detach the tow bar at the Jeep such that the cross bar stays with the motorhome as seen in this picture. I find it much easier to detach this way by removing the two top pins (mine are padlocks) and lift the tow bar vertically off the Jeep.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/2624/3744784614_6afef096ea_z.jpg)
The two remaining steel pieces of hardware on the Jeep, I pivot, pull, and store. The two very short 8" blue tow cables on the Jeep stay attached, hanging down during excursions. It works very well for us.
-
Don, you have a good eye sir, I just put the cables there to ensure the length was good and I was just showing my wife that you wrapped yours around the tow bar one time which we will do. Thanks for the quick reply . I think we’re going to go run around the block just to see how it looks and how it feels. The quiet hitch tighteners (attached pic) will be installed soon too.
-
Initial testing around the block with as sharp as possible turns no issues
-
Don't forget....you cannot back up. You might be able to back up straight back for about 15 feet, but only if you start out and stay perfectly straight. Once you feel what seems like the brakes are applied, you are done.
I really like your Quiet Hitch equivalents.
I am glad your two bumpers don't make contact during tight U-turns.
-
The photo and your report both look good Steve! The riser leveled everything out just fine, and the cables look to be a good length.
Since your test run produced "no issues", once you get the hitch clamps installed you should be ready to roll!
Mike
-
Can’t wait. Thanks again to all for the knowledge and we are ooking forward to using it and going to Mount Rushmore in June. I will have a few trips before that for sure to ensure we have all the bugs worked out if any.
My wife took a great video from the bathroom looking at the Jeep but no way to upload. I think she has Facebook on the cruiser site but not sure. I will post a link if she has access.
-
Just around the block.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/322506454518168/permalink/4261762263925881/
-
Well good morning all. It was a beautiful Saturday morning in the PNW so I took the PC and hooked up the Jeep and the breaking system (first time ever) and went for a proper drive. After a quick adjustment of the even brake system we got the freeway. 60MPH was no problem and the Jeep pulled like a dream.
-
2o2
Watching your video reminds me of another PC couple who towed a current-generation Jeep Wrangler with their Sprinter PC-2350. They stopped by to say hello. I seen their rear window shattered, the outer glass of their thermal pane. They said, it was the second time this happened. Their Wrangler's aggressive front tires grabbed a rock off the street and threw it forward ricocheting off the front bumper, shattering the glass.
I share this in case one day you hear a crash and find your rear window broken.....you'll know what happened. What to do about it? How to be proactive? Obviously some creativity would be required.
-
Ron,
Wow, I must say I would have had some trouble figuring that one out for sure . Thanks for the tip. I am not sure what I could do about that; however, I see some sort of project in the future. It was such a great day here I ended up taking the upper doors off the Jeep and went for a leisurely cruise today listening to some good tunes. Can’t wait for summer. Lol.
Thanks again for the tip.