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Friedt's avatar
Friedt
Explorer
Jul 07, 2020

Tow bar and Braking Assembly

Recently purchased 2020 Thor Fourwinds 33' Class C RV. Want to tow our Ford Ranger, and looking for information on most effective tow bar and braking assembly
  • I have an SMI stay-N-Play unit for my auxiliary braking system. There is nothing to remove. You only have to turn on a switch to activate, turn off switch to drive toad.
    I have used Roadmaster tow bar and brackets on my toads over nearly last twenty years. I have a Stowmaster bar.
    I would do search on ebay or the like for bar. you may even luck out and find brackets.
  • Make sure you can tow your Ranger 4-down before you buy anything. Check for recreational towing in the owners' manual.
  • I also have the stay in play and am very pleased with it. I use a Blue Ox tow bar, base plate and light wiring harness. These were all professionally installed.
  • Add me to the SMI Stay n Play braking system, had worked perfectly for 5 years so far.
  • I use a Blue OX tow bar because that's the base plate that fit my car at the time.

    A ran a separate charge line to keep the toad battery charged while the ignition is 'ON' while towing.

    I skipped the harness for the lighting and drilled two holes in each tail light housing installing an 1157 bulb in each. That keeps me legal for running rear lights, brake lights and directional. If I need more lighting in fog or night time driving, I just put the parking lights on in the toad because the charge line will be doing its job keeping the battery full. I ran those 1157 wires along with the charge wire to the rv 7 way plug.

    I use a Brake Buddy 2 on the floor on the toad, that way I swap it to my next toad.
  • I used a NSA Ready Brute Elite to tow my Malibu Maxx and Chevy Captiva. Worked well for many years. Sold to new owners of my MH.
    Used it with Demco base plate on Malibu and Blue OX on Captiva. Install them myself.