New cars with adaptive cruise control

Well, now that we have closed up the house and are loaded in the coach ready to head out in a couple of days, I can breath.  However it has been a whirlwind last 7 days.

My dear husband had been talking about replacing the little car that we tow behind the coach; so at the last minute decides he really does want a new car. My little stick shift Hyundai worked just fine, but I have a "techy" husband who wanted more bells and whistles.  There are not a lot of choices for tow cars.  We ran through the list and ended up buying a GMC Terrain Denali.  However before the actual purchase, I did tons of research on "Adaptive Cruise" control.  With many of the new cars having "Collision Alerts" on the front of the car, adaptive cruise is often embedded in that system, meaning you sometimes can't have one without the other.  When you have cruise control on and the collision warning system determines that you are coming up on a car in front of you too quickly, adaptive cruise will start slowing you down without your involvement. 

We have a Roadmaster tow system that I love.  When I researched getting the new base plate to put on the new car, Roadmaster warned that they could not be installed on a car with the adaptive cruise.  The baseplate interferes with the warning system, giving alerts and causing the cruise to not work effectively.  Also, all tow base plates for both the Chevy Equinox and the GMC Terrain were back ordered for several months; along with the Ford Edge.  ( I think Roadmaster is redesigning the base plates so they will work with the collision system.  The Chevy Equinox is becoming a popular tow car)

I then called Blue Ox and their base plates do not interfere with the Adaptive Cruise Control as they are placed lower on the car-- not in front of the sensors.  So, caching...caching...we had to buy a new tow system.  Oh joy. 

When I talked to Roadmaster, I did ask the question could I just turn the collision alert system off, and they could not answer my question.

So if you are looking at new cars, do your homework. 

Marsha~

Marsha,

Roadmaster does not require installation of that front "cross bar" on full size SUVs and trucks, because they have a "frame". Even if it was required, you could have removed it for driving the toad solo, thereby not having anything to interfere with the sensors.

We'll continue the story/discussion around the campfire (if we get out of here some time soon!)

You can use a Blue Base Plate and with adapters sold by Roadmaster use you Roadmaster Tow Bar.
Simple solution with little extra cost.

ken

Since the cross bar would only interfere if you left it on the vehicle while driving it...I don't see a problem with it as a toad. Just remove it to drive around. We have a C-Max with front sensors. If I leave the crossbar on the car...I either have to listen to it "squeal" at me...or just turn it off. It's just as easy to remove the cross arms and mounting brackets.

I think some of the confusion here is that car we picked can not accommodate the front tow bar riding in front of the bumper area.  It seems most baseplates/crossbars now go behind the bumper/grill and the bumper/grill/front end needs to be removed for the baseplate/crossbars to be installed.  And remember, I couldn't get the Roadmaster baseplates for the car, anyway.  So we were stuck.

Tom, I'm pretty confident the base plate/towbar is attached to the frame of the Terrain.

Ken, I should have looked deeper, I could not find adapters to use with the Blue Ox.  We are able to use our "Tow Defender" from Roadmaster.

... I couldn't get the Roadmaster baseplates for the car, anyway.

Click to expand...

A good reason not to use a Roadmaster baseplate.

I'm pretty confident the base plate/towbar is attached to the frame of the Terrain.

Click to expand...

Me too, which is the reason a cross-bar isn't needed. With a non-SUV, there's no frame per se, and the cross-bar is needed to prevent the chassis of the car from twisting. When I bought the Roadmast towing setup for our Suburban, good old Camping World forgot to tell me about this distinction, and sold me the kit with the cross-bar and long protrusions at the front of the Burb. When I later learned of the different kits, I bought shorter protrusions and quit using the cross-bar. Explained a little better in this illustrated article in our forum library (scroll down to item 4).

I'll be interested to see how your new Blue Ox is installed.

With a non-SUV, there's no frame per se, and the cross-bar is needed to prevent the chassis of the car from twisting.

Click to expand...

Caution: Nitpicking follows...
That description is a bit too broad, I think. Not all SUvs are body-on-frame construction like the Tahoe/Suburban and fullsize trucks. Many SUVs these days, including some large ones, are "crossovers", with a unit body (unibody) and little in the way of an actual front "frame". The Terrain is one of those, as is the Equinox, the Edge, and the Acadia/Enclave/Traverse. However, they still may have an adequately stiff front end assembly to manage without the big cross-bar. Blue Ox apparently works hard to do that, but Roadmaster seems content to fall back on their old crossbar style for some (many?) models.

I see that GMC describes the Terrain as a "small SUV", whereas I'd assumed it was a full size SUV with a frame. If it's a unibody construction, I'd want to use a the cross-bar rather than risk twisting the chassis.

Hopefully, I'll get to see the Blue Ox on Marsha/Tim's Terrain up close and in person pretty soon.

Marsha

We use the Blue Ox base plate with the Roadmaster tow bar on our Cadillac SRX with adaptive cruise and it works fine.