I agree with park ridge dave. The BH does a visual check of MH and toad lights as I operate them from the drivers seat and then watches to insure both pins on the towbar snap in to the up and locked position as I move the coach forward.
The only time I back the toad to lock the pins is when I am performing the operation without her assistance (supervision dear !! )

I read my manual (roadmaster sterling) last night and it mentioned a few things to watch for. Make sure tow bar is level, not more than 3 inches high or 4 inches low at the towed end. Make sure your safety cables/chains are long enough when turning. Some motor homes have a turning radius that is too tight for the tow bar. They recommend testing your turning with vehicle in tow in a parking lot to see what your max turn radius would be and not go beyond that when towing. They say that damage to tow bar caused by these conditions would not be covered under warranty.

Don, I'm not sure what Roadmaster would consider to be too tight a radius. I've had to turn in tight spaces with the toad attached and I took it around as tight as I could because of the surroundings. I admit that it was at a very slow speed and that may have helped. When we first started towing, I did exactly what was recommended - took the rig to an empty mall lot, had DW drive through several turns and watched what was happening to the safety cables and other connections. I put electrical cable ties loosely on one of the bars after that to help hold those connection cables up through turns. I have the light cable, an air line for the toad brake and the breakaway cable run through those loops. In 30k miles of towing since then, we've not had any problems.

Mine is a Falcon2 and I frequently inspect it and the base plate for any signs of wear, damage or looseness. The only thing that I worry about more than a blowout on the MH is a problem with the tow setup and my attention is devoted accordingly.

quote:

Originally posted by Don G:
Some motor homes have a turning radius that is too tight for the tow bar. They recommend testing your turning with vehicle in tow in a parking lot to see what your max turn radius would be and not go beyond that when towing. They say that damage to tow bar caused by these conditions would not be covered under warranty.

Maybe you could expand on this. I have never heard or read of this.

We turn our motorhome as tight as we can sometimes, and we have clearance, and there isn't any damage to the towbar.

quote:

Originally posted by Don G:
<snip> Some motor homes have a turning radius that is too tight for the tow bar. They recommend testing your turning with vehicle in tow in a parking lot to see what your max turn radius would be and not go beyond that when towing. They say that damage to tow bar caused by these conditions would not be covered under warranty.

Yeah, I just got to thinking about this advice.

How would you do this!!? If you were to test your turning radius in a parking lot to see just how much of a turning radius your tow bar could take, wouldn't you be ruining your tow bar in the process?????

quote:

If you were to test your turning radius in a parking lot to see just how much of a turning radius your tow bar could take, wouldn't you be ruining your tow bar in the process?????

IMHO, you need someone to walk along, watching the tow bar to see if it hits any built in stops to it's movement, and also to see if the toad hits the MH or the ladder.

*laughs* Once again my naivete shines through!

Ah, ok, I see what we're talking about ...thanks for clarifying that, Dirk.

Yeah, I could just see myself getting in a parking lot to test the turning radius of the coach with the toad attached and turning to the point where I'd bend the tow bar in the process and then saying to myself "yep, I can't go past THAT point when turning or I'll ruin another tow bar."

As usual, there will be no charge for the assistance.

You won't bend or ruin your towbar by "turning too far". You might hit your motorhome with your toad though!!