Very Scary Tow Car Breakaway
A dear friend sent me this photo of his Jeep Cherokee which recently became detached while driving on I-95. The story goes that they were driving down I-95 when a motorist drove up beside them madl...
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pnordan wrote:
We had a breakaway of our G/C of a different nature. In almost 50 years of towing stuff I have never had. Returning from the SC coast to western NC, after 265 miles we were almost to our exit on I26. Starting up a slight hill I felt a 'bump' and thought the transmission had downshifted hard. I looked in my left mirror and saw about 6 inches of the jeep outside the coach. The 'bump' was when the toad hit the end of the safety cables. Now we were starting down the other side of the hill and the jeep caught up with the coach when I started braking.
I came to a stop and found the tow bar had pulled out of the receiver! Some way the safety pin had come out allowing the pin to come out of the receiver. I hook the safety cables from the bottom up so maybe the ends of the cable hook hit the pin, popping it out. We did stop at a rest area about 30 miles back but I don't want to think someone removed the pin on purpose!
The tow system is Blue Ox and everything worked as it should. The safety cables did not let the car move away enough to activate the break away brakes.
I felt very lucky that it worked out as well as it did. No one was hurt and minor damage($1500) to the rear of the coach. I went back and rechecked the base plate attach bolts and everything was good.
My tow bar is held in the receiver with a locking type pin. Keeps it from falling out or malicious removal. It also keeps it from being stolen.
Hmmm, come to think of it I wonder where the key is. It's been on there 10 years now. How does time go by so fast?
