Tow bar storage

When parked for an extended time I put it in a basement compartment. Just to keep it out of the weather.

I leave the tow bar on the coach most of the time. I remove it altogether once a year to clean the stinger and apply fresh grease. Several years ago I had not removed the towbar for a few years and when I needed to for clearance issues I couldn't! It had frozen in place. It took an hour at an RV service center with two guys and cutting tools to remove it from the coach. They were able to preserve the receiver but nothing else survived. They had to start by cutting off the hitch pin lock. I guess when I get set up for a lengthy stop in two days it will be time to go through the exercise.

My lights are add on bulbs in the original light fittings.I use a 7 pin trailer pigtail with only six live wires. They include lights, brake and charging line. For short stops - a day or two I leave it all in place on the coach. For longer stops I stow the pigtail in the coach basement. usually leave the safety cables and breakaway just hanging there.

I leave the tow bar on at all times and I also leave the safety cables attached. I simply zip tied them to the tow bars so they don't dangle needlessly.

I cover the whole thing with this:

When on a trip, the tow bar stays on the coach and I cover it when not in use. The umbilical cable is always removed from the coach and toad (while on a trip) and stuffed in a bag until needed. With the Air Force One system, you need to cap the air lines and install the electric break away key to drive the toad.

When I get home, I don't like leaving the equipment on the toad or coach. I remove the tow bar and the equipment from the front of the toad. I have caps that cover the holes on the front of the toad to make it look nicer (Roadmaster caps).

I made a rack for my tow equipment so it's easy to roll into storage when at home. It's made from a cut down Harbor Freight dolly.

My tow bar stays on all the time except when I change it to a ball hitch to pull a trailer. As for the wiring, the tow bar harness stays plugged in. I installed additional bulb sockets inside the tail light housing with 1157 bulbs and a 6 pin socket under the front bumper so the coach plugs right in. I only use 4 of the 6 pins because I don't amber turn signals.

Mikeborny wrote:
Just had my Avail towbar and Airforce one brake system installed. How does everyone store the equipment when not towing? Do you remove the safety connects and wiring inside tow vehicle or keep under towbar cover? I had a custom made brake light system attached to hitch on my jeep so I did not have to mess with wiring to the brake lights. Has anyone had issues with not using the toads brake lights?

Well,
In all the reading of this forum, and all sections of it, I'm pretty sure I've never, ever read of anyone's tow bar, stolen off of the back of their coach, ESPECIALLY IF IT WAS LOCKED ON!!! So, if you feel the absolute need to go through the hassle of removing it, carrying it to where ever and, hiding it, only to have to reverse all of this to re-install it, prior to hooking up the toad, feel free to do so.

We've been in many, many campgrounds and RV parks and, some good, some great and, some not so good. But, I've never worried about that tow bar. It's got lock on the pin that would be seriously hard to cut or remove, without a ton of noise and or commotion.

As for your lights. Well, that's up to you. Toad lights have been discussed oh, probably around a thousand times or so on RV.net and, lots of folks have their preferences. I'm not a fan of adding sockets and bulbs, magnetic lights, or, light bars in trailer hitches in toads. I have wired all of my 12 different toads, the exact same way and that was to tie into the factory wiring. I've also used the cheap, Radio Shack diodes in place of those high-dollar ones from RV supply outfits.

I've never had an issue with any portion of the wiring or lighting on all 12 toads. They've always worked flawlessly. What I really like about using the toads stock tail lights is, from a following drivers perspective, those lights are acting the same exact way when towing it, as they do when it's being driven. And that includes amber turn signals and, third brake lights.

It's never been hard to do it this way but, it all depends on ones perspective. This kind of stuff is easy for me but, I've been doing it for a long time.

So, if you're happy with your light setup, then by all means, use it. Good luck.
Scott

I keep my tow bar on the MH when on a trip as long as the park looks safe. I do have the locking hitch pin, but that could be cut if someone really wanted it. If I am boondocking and away from the MH, I just take if off and lock it into one of the basement compartments - out of site out of mind.

My tow bar stays on the MH all the time. We do fulltime so if we didn't I suppose I'd remove it when not in use.
As for the lights? I just added an additional dual element bulb to the existing tail lights of my toad and wired directly to that. So my installation is completely separate from the toads electrical system. Much the same as your installation of separate tail lights to the rear of the toad.