Taking Apart Roadmaster Falcon 2 Tow Bar

HIKERDOGS: See my PM to you.

jerseyjim wrote:
Why do you want to take it apart? What is the problem? Couple years ago, my Roadmaster, one of the telescopic arms would not telescope. Made hitching up a bit of a challenge, but we did it....3 times....due to back-in-only cg sites while on the road.
Roadmaster has a "lifetime warranty". All you gotta do is call them, get a return number and send it to them. While the rebuild is free....UPS cost me $94 to pack and ship it. Returned completely rebuilt within 2 weeks.

Where did you get the information that Roadmaster tow bars have a lifetime warranty? As far as I can tell they all have a 1 year warranty which can be extended to 2 years if you send in the registration card within 30 days of purchase.

Here's a quote from the Sterling All Terrain owners manual.

"Your tow bar has a one-year limited warranty. To qualify for your warranty, register online at www.roadmasterinc.com/
wreg, or fill out and return the enclosed product registration card. As a bonus, we'll extend your warranty to a total
of two years at no additional cost, if we receive your registration (either online or mailed) within 30 days of purchase."

Here's a quote from the Blackhawk All Terrain 2 owners manual.

"Your tow bar has a one-year limited warranty. To qualify for your warranty, register online at www.roadmasterinc.com/
wreg, or fill out and return the enclosed product registration card within 30 days of purchase. As a bonus, we’ll extend
your warranty to a total of two years at no additional cost, if we receive your registration (either online or mailed)
within 30 days of purchase."

Here's a quote from the Falcon 2 owners manual

"Your tow bar has a one-year limited warranty. To qualify for your warranty, register online at www.roadmasterinc.com/
wreg, or fill out and return the enclosed product registration card within 30 days of purchase. As a bonus, we’ll extend
your warranty to a total of two years at no additional cost, if we receive your registration (either online or mailed)
within 30 days of purchase."

It appears they have the exact same verbiage in the owners manuals for all 3 tow bars.

Even our older (2005) Sterling (not the All Terrain version) only had a standard 1 year warranty that could be extended to 2 years.

After every use I spray the telescoping arms with silicone. Once every year I spray the inside with WD-40 (as instructed to by Roadmaster)putting the spray into the small "drain?" holes, removing the rubber caps at the end...and watching all the (liquid) dirt come out.

I have no idea why the one telescoping arm refused to telescope "in"...but there it was and they fixed it....free. Telling me I had a "lifetime" warranty. Guess that's changed. Will find out IF i have another major problem. Hope not.....

SeaDog/BRR wrote:
I also have the falcon 2 so please tell us what went wrong my bar is 10 years old not allot of miles on it

Call it preventive maintenance.

I also have the falcon 2 so please tell us what went wrong my bar is 10 years old not allot of miles on it

Laman wrote:
Well the serial number would most likely give them the age of the unit. I am curious as I have a Falcon 2 tow bar that I don't know the age of but I have used for 15,000 miles and it performs just fine, I like it. What are you guys seeing that needs re-working or adjustment? I inspect mine before every hook-up and its looks like the day I bought it.

Took mine apart for a good cleaning and a new paint job and while I have it apart got a repair kit to put it back together.

I had to use pipe wrenches to take it apart, it's not easy and it did score the nuts but nothing else would work. The score marks are OK since I would rather have a rebuilt tow bar in lieu of not rebuilding it. Mine is 10 yrs old w/60K mi of towing!

Well the serial number would most likely give them the age of the unit. I am curious as I have a Falcon 2 tow bar that I don't know the age of but I have used for 15,000 miles and it performs just fine, I like it. What are you guys seeing that needs re-working or adjustment? I inspect mine before every hook-up and its looks like the day I bought it.

Just for an argument: how would they know it's "over 10 years old....70,000 miles"?
Unless you told them....but even so, when I called about 3-4 years ago for a rebuild, they told me "lifetime warranty"..just get it here. Person I spoke to never asked the age of the bar or anything else. Apparently the "lifetime" is no longer?

First I would try holding the round bar with a strap wrench. If it slips when trying to remove the nut, then wrap the round bar with some tape, like Gorilla tape with enough thicknesses to keep the pipe wrench teeth from going through the tape to damage the round bar. You may find that once you can hold the round bar from turning, you may still need to use an impact tool, either a manual one hit with a hammer or a pneumatic or electric one.

As a last resort, I keep a nut spliter tool, in my tool chest. You do have to replace the nut with a new one, but the old one, will come off, usually without damaging the threads on the bolt.