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Topic: Tow bar failure - just curious (Read 3 times) previous topic - next topic
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Tow bar failure - just curious
Yahoo Message Number: 50436
Having just completed installation of a tow bar configuration
 http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/lifewithalazydazerv/message/50359

and although I am quite happy with the results, the emphasis put on the Safety Chain got me to thinking:
1) just what is it that could cause a good tow bar to fail?
2) and how commonly does such a thing happen?

Anyone been through this or have info?

David
Re: Tow bar failure - just curious
Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50439
Quote
Having just completed installation of a tow bar configuration ...
2) and how commonly does such a thing happen?
Sometime in the last couple of years there was a report on this site about someone who had a toad come loose on the road.  The memory is dim it happened just after the hitch was installed on the toad, which was done improperly.  The tow bar did not fail, the car came loose from the tow plates.  This was a problem caused by the installer, not the hitch.
 However, other event keeps me focused when I tow.  I know no details but the parents of a person I went to high school with were killed in their motor home because of some mishap with a towed vehicle.  But, in general, I hear of very few problems.

When driving, I stop for a break every hour or two.  I always walk around the rig, touch all the tires to see if any are hotter than the others, bonk them (toad and coach) then look closely at the hitch to see if anything is "odd" or different.  Failures mostly do not happen suddenly. They are typically preceded by the loose bolt, the missing pin, the hot tire, etc.

Linley
Re: Tow bar failure - just curious
Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50454
Quote
Sometime in the last couple of years there was a report on this site about someone who had a toad come loose on the road.
Linley, I searched the archive but couldn't find a reference to it.
It would be nice to know who did the installation.

Quote
However, other event keeps me focused when I tow.  I know no details but the parents of a person I went to high school with were killed in their motor home because of some mishap with a towed vehicle.
I'm trying to imagine how that could happen. All kinds of scenarios come to mind... none of them pleasant.

Quote
Failures mostly do not happen suddenly. They are typically preceded by the loose bolt, the missing pin, the hot tire, etc.
Good to remember to check all the pins & bolts.
What's the "hot tire" indicative of? Loss of air pressure?

I'm sure that once all this becomes second nature (setting up & undoing), it would be easy to become lax and get sloppy with due diligence. It gives a whole new dimension to "driving defensively." I see far too many RVs on the highway careening around as if they were sportscars: accidents waiting to happen.
 So far, my only experience driving the LD with toad was the 35 minute trip from Camping World in Henderson up here to the house in Summerlin. It drove smoothly, but I can't say that I wasn't all too aware that something was slightly different from what I had become accustomed to over the past year and a half of no-toad driving.
Slightly more "play" in steering.
I'll get more of a feel for it when I drive to Albuquerque next week.

David
Re: Tow bar failure - Now Tire Failure
Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50455
Quote
What's the "hot tire" indicative of? Loss of air pressure?
Yes.  The big tire failure mechanisms apparently mostly stem from running the tire with low pressure.  For instance, low pressure causes excessive side wall flexure which, in turn, cause the tire to run hot.
Or, the other tire in the dual is low in pressure, placing excessive load on this one, causing to run hot.  In other words, hot=trouble.
 If a tire has a slow leak it must be fixed because there is something wrong with it, often a nail. Given that, with no known slow leaks, if I have checked the tire the last few days and it hasn't developed a new leak the amount of air is thus OK.  So I don't worry much about the amount of air pressure.
 Instead, I am worried about loosing what I have; that a new leak may have developed.  So I check the tires a few times each travel day with my finger tips to see if one is hotter than the rest.  And, I "bonk" them once or twice a day also.  You can spot a loss of only a few pounds of pressure that way.
 Think of this as a manual tire monitoring system; simple & reliable.

Linley
Re: Tow bar failure - Now Loss of Tire Air Pressure
Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50456
Quote
If a tire has a slow leak it must be fixed because there is something wrong with it, often a nail.
I had an interesting experience in that regard recently. One of my inner dualies consistently was losing air. Deciding that I was going to have to go into a tire store to have it removed & checked (no small thing being an inner dual), I first wisely called Chuck The Tireman in Ridgecrest, and he suggested that I check to see if it could be a slightly loose valve. I put a turn of the screw on the valve, re-pressurized the tire, and haven't had a problem since.

Would that all our problems were so easily solved!

David
Re: Tow bar failure - just curious
Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50458
Quote
Linley, I searched the archive but couldn't find a reference to it.
It would be nice to know who did the installation.
See msg #12058.

Art
Art and Barbara
Settled in Atterdag Village of Solvang
2015-2022 fulltime in a 2016 Tiffin Allegro Bus 37AP
2002-2015 2002 LD MB
Art's blog
Re: Tow bar failure - just curious. Now WOW!
Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50460
Quote
See msg #12058.

Art
That is incredible!  Thanks so much, Art, for the reference. This is a post that everyone who is contemplating a towing installation should read. Don't know if this is quite "regulation," but I am going to take the liberty of reprinting that post right here.

EVERYONE PLEASE READ.

David

-----

From:Ê fearless0726 Date:Ê FriÊAprÊ5,Ê2002Ê 10:35 am Subject:Ê April 4th pickup, and towing disaster

Thought I might share my LD pickup experience and initial towing experience which ended up in a disaster.
 April 3rd. The pickup of my LD 26.5 MB took quite a bit longer than I anticipated. There was a problem with the satellite dish raising correctly and the whole apparatus had to be swapped out. I also had a problem with the awning which was fixed very quickly. I ended up getting on the road much later than I had planned causing me to have to battle the work traffic on I-10 and 101N on my way back to Santa Barbara. The good news is that the LD was so easy to drive and handled so well that I felt like I was in a large SUV.

April 4th. I went to U-Haul who had installed the towing package on my new 2002 Honda CRV, and had them match the receiver on the LD to the tow package on the CRV. Keep in mind that I have never towed a car (or anything) before, and having read all the posts about supplemental braking systems, I was understandably nervous.

My nerves were justified. I was driving down 101 South towards Ventura on my maiden voyage when the tow plate that U-Haul installed ripped out of the car at 60 MPH causing the car to fishtail while only being held by the safety chains. I slowed down and found a place to pull off to the side. The car had lurched forward at this point and jammed into the corner of the RV bumper.

The car will require extensive work (the radiater is ruined and the front is pushed in), and the LD bumper needs some work. What a mess for my first trip. My newbie advice to all out there. Buy the best towing equipment, from the most reliable source, and get the supplementary brakes.

Fearless
Re: Tow bar failure - just curious. Now WOW!
Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50465
FWIW:
 The local U-Haul put a rear receiver hitch on my Jeep.  While I wwas wating I asked the manager a question about RV towing setups.

He replied:  "U-Haul does not do RV towing setups."
 
Re: Tow bar failure - just curious
Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 50475
Based on the lack of stories and reports, I'm of the opinion that tow bars are generally quite reliable.  But they can fail, and do sometimes.
 We spent some time travelling with a group of RVers in the northeast this summer.  In this small group of 30 or so RVers, there had been two reports of broken tow setups.
 The first happened a couple of years ago, when the RVer realized her towed pickup was missing!  She made a U-turn, and backtracked a mile or so, where she found her pickup, which had separated for the rig, coasted across two lanes of opposing roadway (in town, no opposing traffic at the time) and had plowed into an unoccupied parked car.  The investigating police officer said it was his first case of a three-car no-fault accident with only one driver!  She later remembered hearing a "bang" as she'd crossed an intersection and, seeing nothing amiss, continued on.  Safety chains -- they had snapped when the toad separated.  The toad didn't have a break-away brake system and she was lucky that the pickup did nothing worse than hit a parked car.
 Second story from this group happened while we were travelling with them. This one involved a break that occurred at slow speed (less than 10 mph just after entering or exiting a parking lot as I recall).  The safety chains did their job and there was no harm to RV, toad, or anyone else.
 I don't remember the details of either failure, but I think the first one was a tow bar failure but the second was a failure of bad welds on the RV's receiver.

My recommendation.  Regularly inspect tow components.  Use a toad braking system that includes a break-away feature (and verify that it actually works).

Hope this helps someone   /noel/