Why Jeep Liberty?

I could not help but observe the thredaing of safety cables in a posted  picture that was not correct...the last wrap around the tow bar (according to Roadmaster) should be to the inside not the outside so the towed vehicle  tracks appropriately in and emergency situation. 

I don't know about cables, but Ron, I have never in my life seen a Roadmaster Falcon stored with the cross bar left on the tow bar instead of on the toad.  My previous motorhome had a Roadmaster and I distinctly remember the instruction manual showing unhooking the ends on the bar rods, not by unhooking the crossbar from the toad.  I realize it's six of one and half dozen of the other, but it means when you store it as shown  it obstructs getting into the rear compartment on the PC.  I now have a Blue Ox setup which I like a little better than the Roadmaster, largely because it has rubber dust covers over the stainless steel bars.  For some reason Blue Ox seems to be the most common bar in dealers here in Arkansas.  I also looked briefly at the price of a Blue Ox bar and a Demco and the base plates and they were within a few bucks of each other online, so it really seems to be a case of whatever feels good to the individual owner.  I've never talked to anyone who had a towbar fail while in use, but I'm sure it must happen or they wouldn't sell safety chains.

Jerry

I don't know about cables, but Ron, I have never in my life seen a Roadmaster Falcon stored with the cross bar left on the tow bar instead of on the toad.  My previous motorhome had a Roadmaster and I distinctly remember the instruction manual showing unhooking the ends on the bar rods, not by unhooking the crossbar from the toad.  I realize it's six of one and half dozen of the other, but it means when you store it as shown  it obstructs getting into the rear compartment on the PC.  I now have a Blue Ox setup which I like a little better than the Roadmaster, largely because it has rubber dust covers over the stainless steel bars.  For some reason Blue Ox seems to be the most common bar in dealers here in Arkansas.  I also looked briefly at the price of a Blue Ox bar and a Demco and the base plates and they were within a few bucks of each other online, so it really seems to be a case of whatever feels good to the individual owner.  I've never talked to anyone who had a towbar fail while in use, but I'm sure it must happen or they wouldn't sell safety chains.

Jerry

Talk to me, I had the connector on the toad fail on one side by taking an "ess" turn too tightly in Branson, broke a weld, everything came to a halt on the safety chains.  I did not feel it but saw it in the rearview camera when the truck started moving a couple of feet side to side.

Now I've heard of someone actually needing those safety chains.  Reading your account and seeing some of the adaptor ends for tow bars in earlier posts made me think of one thing that could be a problem under certain conditions.  Roadmaster uses a spreader bar on the tow bar to take lateral forces off the baseplate attachment points.  Blue Ox uses a built in spreader bar as part of the base plate.  If a person had a Blue Ox towbar with Roadmaster adaptor ends to tow a car with Roadmaster base plates, it seems to me that there is the possibility of a lot of lateral force being generated, particularly on tight turns.  Any comments from anybody on this?  I briefly had a Roadmaster bar adapted to tow a car with Blue Ox bases, but in that case, the base plate was a built in spread bar that made up for the loss of the Roadmaster spreader bar.

Jerry

Ron, I have never in my life seen a Roadmaster Falcon stored with the cross bar left on the tow bar instead of on the toad.  My previous motorhome had a Roadmaster and I distinctly remember the instruction manual showing unhooking the ends on the bar rods, not by unhooking the crossbar from the toad.  I realize it's six of one and half dozen of the other, but it means when you store it as shown  it obstructs getting into the rear compartment on the PC. Jerry

Jerry, you are correct in stating that I unhook the Jeep differently than what is considered normal.  You are also correct in stating the tow bar triangle interferes when opening the rear hatch.

But......

It is extremely fast and easy to hookup and unhook the two vehicles that way.  To get into the rear storage compartment, I pivot the hitch to the left, then drop it to the ground in the same direction which then clears the rear door.  That takes but a few seconds.

I would assume Roadmaster does not instruct people to do as I do for fear that they would drive the motor home with the hitch as shown in my picture.  That would be very dangerous because the latch to lock it vertically, could easily let go on the first big bump.  I do drive with it that way, but only very slow at camp sites when manuevering the motor home after unhooking.

I never unhook the two vehicles the official way.  It's just too much work and hassle.

BTW, after I unhook the triangle, I quickly twist and pull out the remaining tow brackets (Roadmaster calls Front Arms) to the Jeep, because they would fall out by themselves when driving the Jeep.

To everyone else, this is the triangle being discussed.


This is the twist and pull bracket called EZ, by Roadmaster.

Now I've heard of someone actually needing those safety chains.  Reading your account and seeing some of the adaptor ends for tow bars in earlier posts made me think of one thing that could be a problem under certain conditions.  Roadmaster uses a spreader bar on the tow bar to take lateral forces off the baseplate attachment points.  Blue Ox uses a built in spreader bar as part of the base plate.  If a person had a Blue Ox towbar with Roadmaster adaptor ends to tow a car with Roadmaster base plates, it seems to me that there is the possibility of a lot of lateral force being generated, particularly on tight turns.  Any comments from anybody on this?  I briefly had a Roadmaster bar adapted to tow a car with Blue Ox bases, but in that case, the base plate was a built in spread bar that made up for the loss of the Roadmaster spreader bar.

Jerry

The Blue Ox is the one I had that broke.  HR Ambassador pulling a 4x4 Mazda PU.  The tow bar was PU mounted (and removable) with NO spreader bar.  I no longer have it. 

The current one is a Roadmaster Falcon 5250 MH mounted with the spreader bar mounted on the removable car brackets.  As mentioned I run the cables so that the last wrap is inside the triangle and CROSSED under the the mount to catch the tow bar if something breaks and to lessen the amount of free play that would allow the tow bar to hit, drag or pole vault if something broke or if something came unhooked.  I can swing the tow bar unhooked from the car to make sure I have turn clearance in the cables; surprisingly it takes very little to be able to turn.  Cables are upgraded to 10K lbs.  I pretty much do like Ron does so that I don't have all the tow pieces on the front of the car when unhooked.  I do remove some pins and replace with padlocks to slow the mount parts from growing legs in the campground.  I do not trust the locks in place of the pins going down the road.  FYI I used a locking pin on the MH mount and drilled another hole for a 5/8" bolt and that took the slop out of my stinger. The towbar stinger already had a second hole so all I had to do was drill the receiver to match.

Reading through this, I am a bit confused about the Blue Ox.  Does it have a cross bar between tow vehicle mounting points as I show here with my previous tow vehicle, a 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder, the same with my 2006 Jeep Liberty?


If you don't have a cross bar to distribute lateral stress equally across the two mounting points on the tow vehicle, that would be very concerning to me with my Liberty, but not my previous MR2 Spyder.  I say this because my Spyder had a hidden single cross bar bracket that was permanently bolted to the vehicle.  My Liberty has just two wimpy individual brackets, each bolting independantly to the vehicle.  Under severe lateral stress, it all goes to just one bracket.  My saving grace is the cross bar on the Falcon-II tow bar.

2000 MR2 Spyder CLICK HERE To See It mounting bracket distributes lateral stress from "S" turns.
2006 Liberty CLICK HERE To See Them 2 independant mounting brackets relies completely on the Falcon-II cross bar to distribute lateral stress.

I also hack sawed enough off of the stinger to get rid of the overhang and hopefully at the time (I thought) to change the moment arm enough to lessen the tailwagging effect some. 
That made for a long afternoon, 2" chunk of steel is a lot to hack saw through.  Now the stinger is long enough to "just" allow it to be folded and pin inserted without it hitting any part of the MH.

Ron, the Blue Ox does not have a spreader bar you can see because the base plates on the car go all the way accross the front (out of site) acting as lateral support.  The Roadmaster uses a spreader on the attachments points of the tow bar because, as you say, the base plates are two separate units.  Both work similarly.  My only concern is that kits are available as shown in earlier posts to put Blue Ox ends on Roadmaster bars and vicea versa.  If you put Roadmaster ends on a Blue Ox bar which doesn't have a spreader, you could put a lot of side force on the Roadmaster base plates when you accelerated or braked the camper.  I don't recall ever seeing anything about this in print, but it would worry me.
Jerry