Blue Ox 10,000 tow bar turning concerns

[Rick g]

I?m just changing from a tow dolly to flat towing.  I?ll be towing a 2021 Cherokee behind a 32? gasser. I?m curious as to if anyone doing this has trouble on tight turns, such as the two vehicles touching. Is it a problem with the Toad turning on tight turns or do the wheels ?scuff??  any thoughts will be appreciated. BTW. we did a 8k mile trip last year with the tow dolly and all went well, but my son in law is half owner of a Jeep dealer and had the right car at the right price, otherwise I would have stayed with the dolly.

 

[Kevin Means]

Hi Rick. Some scuffing may occur on sharper turns, just as our tag axle scuffs slightly on sharp turns, but it's insignificant. (Keep in mind that this is from the guy who towed his Jeep 250 miles and forgot to unlock the steering column.) I'll bet there was some serious scuffing going on then. Fortunately, nothing was damaged.

Our Blue Ox tow bar is pretty Iong and I've never had any bumper to bumper contact on sharp turns.

Kev

 

[thumped]

I have not flat towed in years, but.
When your going supper slow there are times the toad steering is not able to keep up and you can drag the front tires. When your backing up it might be possible for them to touch, but I think you be close to jackknifing and it depends on the way everything is set up.
I gave up on flat towing due to having a lot of front end maintenance to the toad and switched to the smallest car trailer I could find. 

 

[camperAL]

Hi Rick g,

I have a 32' 8" Coachmen gaser with a Blue Ox tow bar, towing a Kia Soul. I've made some pretty tight turns and never had them touch. I suspect it would depend on the two vehicles. The instructions say not to back up while towing but I have moved a few feet back when I've had problems (like 4 to 6 feet) trying to negotiate getting out of places. Think you can damage or bend things if you are not careful. I've also unhooked in a few cases but usually try not to get into those situations.

 

[Bobtop46]

I would venture to guess that any "sharp turn" that your RV is capable of making isn't sharp enough for your toad to hit the back of your RV.  Rv's don't exactly turn on a dime.

All bets are off backing, which you should never do.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I would not say that either of those things (touching, scuffing) is impossible, but they are relatively rare exceptions rather than common problems.  That assumes proper towing set-up, of course. We've flat-towed 3 different vehicles for over 100k miles and never experienced either problem.

 

[AStravelers]

What usually happens quickly when trying to back up with a toad attached, is that the toad's front wheels move to full turn direction either right or left.  That means the toad is really stressing the tow bar to one side if you keep going backward.  Putting a side load on the tow bar it was never designed for.

It MAY be possible for someone to get in the toad and attempt to hold the steering wheel straight while you back up 2-4 feet.  The person holding the steering wheel needs to be careful to be able to get their hands out of the way if the steering wheel suddenly snaps to full lock on one side or the other. 

 

[AStravelers]

I totally agree with others that I don't believe you can, when towing, turn a motorhome sharp enough to get the corners to touch. 

Backing up and having the toad jackknife, that is a different story. 

 

[thumped]

This issue of not backing up is part of why I moved to a trailer.

You have to think about the overhang with turning as were talking about the trailer.  The front end might not turn tight, but you have to think about how the back end acts.  The inside (of the turn) rear tire acts like the pivot point on a turn.  the pivot point to the hitch is much shorter than the pivot point to the front end where you look at the turning radius. 

Slow tight turns is hard on the toad steering.  The steering system needs a lot more forward movement than you think for wheels to turn left to right when toweing.  The way the caster and toe on the front tiers is set up makes the system not work right in reverse and also affects how it tracts.

 

[John From Detroit]

One of the things on my rig is I had to use a drop hitch adapter. This added to the distance between the RV and the Towed and enabled much sharper turns.

As for backing up.. I've done like 3 or 4 feet. But very very carefully.

 

[Old_Crow]

I have a 37' gas coach and I flat tow a Jeep Wrangler.  I have 14' of overhang behind the axle, so, a lot of tail swing to deal with.
If I can at gas stations I try to use this to my advantage by picking pumps I can exit to the left(gas filler is on back of RV, driver's side).  This lets the tail and the Jeep swing out away from the pumps and more importantly, the bollards at the end of the island. 
I have also taken the coach out on a big flat area and turned it in circles with the steering at full lock either way.  After a 180 turn at full lock, the Jeep will not contact the RV. 
Haven't tried to back up, I know better.

 

[Lou Schneider]

Find a large parking lot and start driving in circles while someone watches the motorhome to toad clearance. That will answer your question about sharp turn clearance.

About backing with a toad, not being able to back up more than a few feet is due to the toad's front end geometry. Going forward, caster drags the wheels behind the pivot point, applying a centering force to keep the wheels going straight ahead. Going backwards, the wheels are ahead of the pivot, making them want to go anywhere but straight. Having someone hold the steering wheel while backing (or locking the steering column) won't help, as the forces quickly become too large to oppose.

For a quick example of caster, next time you're in a supermarket try pulling a shopping cart backwards while keeping the front wheels facing forward. That's the same principle affecting the toad's front wheels when you back up.

 

[missnmountains]

I totally agree with others that I don't believe you can, when towing, turn a motorhome sharp enough to get the corners to touch. 

Backing up and having the toad jackknife, that is a different story.

Actually you can and i did when we received bad directions from a campground. We had to turn around on the road as tight as we could. We caused scuffing to the left rear of the Rv. Blue Ox 10000 pound towbar towing a Jeep Liberty.

Ken

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Actually you can and i did when we received bad directions from a campground. We had to turn around on the road as tight as we could. We caused scuffing to the left rear of the Rv. Blue Ox 10000 pound towbar towing a Jeep Liberty.

Yeap, there are enough variables in tow bar position/length, coach wheel cut, toad steering response, coach rear overhang, etc. to make most anything a possibility.  Never say never about anything in an RV!

 

[Rick g]

Update to my original post. After a trial run and finding a place for tight circles. I found that I dont even come close to having the two vehicles touch. My next trial run will be with bike rack installed on the MH. (Another good reason for a day trip!). ?

 

[John Stephens]

Rick, I have a Blue Ox 10,000 tow bar that I use with my 2018 Equinox and have never had a problem with the vehicles touching in a tight turn. I did have an occasion when using a tow dolly of the toad touching the rear corner of the coach, so it seems the tow bar is better in that regard.