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Old 03-16-2023, 06:24 AM   #1
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How many here have....

personally experienced (not just heard story's of) a break away while flat towing? I will be flat towing for the first time this season and am curious how often it happens. Thanks
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Old 03-16-2023, 09:46 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by sandrooney View Post
personally experienced (not just heard story's of) a break away while flat towing? I will be flat towing for the first time this season and am curious how often it happens. Thanks
I have seen it with my own eyes twice, not pictures, I saw it five minutes after it happened in one case.
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Old 03-16-2023, 10:03 AM   #3
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Of course it can happen.....hence the reason/laws for break away systems (emergency braking/chains etc)

Human error probably accounts for majority of incidents.

Wrong size ball, worn out coupling, lack of attention

When properly connected (coupler to ball), chains attached, umbilical cord connected.........drive away and enjoy the trip
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Old 03-16-2023, 10:12 AM   #4
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It's very rare, but it can happen.

Here's a personal story on a sister forum.
https://www.rvforum.net/threads/towe...e-away.127477/

And another one here on iRV2.
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f85/loose-toad-490332.html
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Old 03-16-2023, 10:16 AM   #5
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I had a near breakaway. Ford C-Max with the ‘death wobble’. Th breakaway switch would have stayed with the baseplate and bumper, which would have remained attached to he coach. The breakaway switch should be attached independent from the baseplate. One of these days I need to do that. Meanwhile I check the soundness of the baseplate before each trip.

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Old 03-16-2023, 02:43 PM   #6
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We pull a Cmax with the same set up. We have had a hand full of death wobble occurrences but they have all been at extremely slow speeds. Did this happen during a wobble and how fast were you going?
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Old 03-16-2023, 02:53 PM   #7
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Just like everything. Bad things happen and get put on the internet. When nothing happens no one talks about it. The vast majority of the time nothing happens. Worry about these things just enough to double check all connections every time but not enough to lose sleep over it.
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Old 03-16-2023, 03:16 PM   #8
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Partial breakaway here twice. Using a Curt bumper type tow bar and fabricated attachment points on an older Ford Ranger.

First time I test drove the toad behind the motor home I forgot to disengage the steering wheel - so it was locked. Made a hard left turn returning home and I am pretty sure this stress cracked the frame cross piece I had attached the bumper connections to. Did not realize it until the frame cross piece broke on the second day of our first trip. Did not actually break away, but it was close. Saw the toad tracking oddly in the backup camera and stopped before major damage. Had a local machine shop make a replacement cross piece for between the frame rails and we bolted it all together and were on our way the next day. Subsequently I had it welded in place as a safety measure and it is still in place 8 years later.

Second close call was the pin attaching one of the two arms to the toad worked its way out. These tow bars come with attachment pins with a spring loaded metal arch that was supposed to keep the pin from coming out - pretty standard for these pins. I have the same kind of thing holding my generator slide in on the current coach. Not sure exactly why but one pin worked its way out and dropped out completely. Saw the toad in the rear view mirror tracking off to the side of the coach. Managed to slow everything down and pull over with only a minor bruise to the RV back bumper. Replaced the stock pins that came with the tow bar with ones that have a cotter pin and have not had any issues since.

Take away from these experiences is to keep an eye on your toad in the rear view mirror, have a checklist when attaching the toad and double check everything. I also walk back and check the tow bar and connections every time we stop.

An additional toad story:

I have my partner drive the toad and I guide her up to the back of the RV when attaching the toad. The one time I didn't double check that she had it out of gear and steering wheel unlocked she accidently left it in 1st gear (which had never happened before in all the times I had double checked everything!). Thankfully it was 1st gear and after many years of towing this particular vehicle I knew right away something was not right so only drove 20 or 30 feet before stopping. Probably would not have noticed if it had been a higher gear and would have toasted the engine pretty quickly!
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Old 03-16-2023, 03:30 PM   #9
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Locking pins

Who uses locking pins on the base plate and what kind? Some of the reviews on the Blue Ox mention they are difficult to install. The Demco https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...ils=.questions looks like it might be easier> Is anyone using either?
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Old 03-16-2023, 03:36 PM   #10
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“ Wrong size ball, worn out coupling, lack of attention”

This brings up a question. How many breakaways are ball hitch? Regardless, it’s always good to check equipment, and have really good insurance.
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Old 03-16-2023, 03:57 PM   #11
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Thanks all. I have the Ready Brute. I have not installed the ready brake cable or the break away cable on my Jeep yet. I will be doing that next week. My understanding is that the breakaway should be set up to only activate if the Jeep completely breaks away. I can't imagine that ever happening but you never know. Thanks again.
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Old 03-16-2023, 04:20 PM   #12
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I've never had a tow bar or baseplates fail but from everything everybody told me when I first started towing a toad was that even in the event that the tow bar or base plate failure, you have the safety cables that will hold it for awhile until you can get it off the road. You can see the tow bar area (or at least I could) on the camera so if something did fail, I was pretty confident that I could catch it. I didn't worry about it that much but it definitely is a scary thought should everything fail ...tow bar/baseplate, safety cables, and breakaway stop.

And as others have said, if the safety cables fail, the breakaway will stop the toad from an uncontrolled situation where it crosses the center line and causes a head on accident, etc. as it should come to a complete stop in a rather short period of time, hopefully before it veers off the roadway ..hopefully.
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Old 03-16-2023, 04:37 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigb56 View Post
Who uses locking pins on the base plate and what kind? Some of the reviews on the Blue Ox mention they are difficult to install. The Demco https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...ils=.questions looks like it might be easier> Is anyone using either?
I used to use locking pins, but I experienced frozen locks on two occasions. Seems moisture carrying very find grit got into one causing the problem.
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Old 03-16-2023, 05:33 PM   #14
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We pull a Cmax with the same set up. We have had a hand full of death wobble occurrences but they have all been at extremely slow speeds. Did this happen during a wobble and how fast were you going?
We have had several death wobble experiences. Most occurred under 30 mph, usually while braking and turning. That particular day we had driven 20 miles on a washboard dirt road (in preparation for paving). I don’t remember if we had the wobble right before the failure, but I happened to look at the rear camera and noticed the car didn’t look right. Luckily I spotted it before a disaster.

We were getting a LOT of incidents on our current trip, and I wondered if there was something in the steering loosening up. We bought new tires and had the car aligned and have had no incidents in the past couple runs.

Walt
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