Tow Tower

[AllegroD]

Anyone heard of this?
Tow Tower

[Ivylog]

A few comments but click on “How I tow” below first. The biggest con of towing 4 down is you can’t backup very far...actually you can but it has to be straight back but that’s for another thread. I have three receivers so that spreads the 1800 lbs I’m picking up to closer to 600 lbs each...once up and the safety bars installed. Fortunately the original receiver is a H structure, not a T so lifting a static 1800 lbs is not a problem.


During the winter in Fla I prefer to have my Prius but I could not find enough structure under the front of it to fasten even a Y hitch to lift the front tires off the ground. Same problem I see with the Tow Tower SO I decided to build a wheel lift like what tow trucks use. Since the Prius is driveable designing a lift that raises and lowers was not necessary...hence the wooden ramps that lets me drive it up.



With that much stuff out the back of the DP, I had to make it where it folded up.



Yes a fair amount of work but once you have the luxury of being able to backup it’s worth the effort.

[rgatijnet1]

Decades ago a similar hitch type carrier was on the market for motorcycles. It allowed even an automobile to tow a motorcycle behind by rolling the front wheel in to the carrier and then lifting it off of the ground. I used one and it was a great idea for a motorcycle.
I think the concept is OK to tow a car but I also feel that there are very few coaches that this would actually be practical to use. I'll pass.

[dougrainer]

The Video is a year old. Makes you wonder why you have not seen more info/press.
In an accident it is supposed to shear away?????????????????????????? Great, you have a 4000 lb hunk of steel rolling down the road after it shears away. OR flipping and all over the place once the locked front drive train hits the ground. Not my cup of tea. Doug

[ArchHoagland]

I did a Google map on their address. Looks like a two bedroom house in a housing development.

7339 Autumn Crossing Way
Brentwood, TN 37027

I'm curious if they have sold any of these systems.

[ferndaleflyer]

Piece of junk. Period. Have to be pretty uninformed to even consider this thing.

[Rick_Jay]

So, just out of curiosity, what is the typical maximum tongue weight a tag axle DP can handle? If it's rated to tow 20,000 lbs., is it 10% or 2,000 lbs.?

I like the concept, but I just don't see it as possible, practical, convenient or economical for most. I think the marketing people will have their work cut out for them. 🙂

On Edit: Oops...sorry didn't read way2roll's posts. I agree with his comments and think he is underestimating the weight placed on the device by lifting his car.

~Rick

[way2roll]

wa8yxm wrote:
I have heard of it. Now .. SOME Rigs.. notibally a Diesel Pusher. may be able to pick up the front end of a car or pick up truck.. MINE (A Gasser) can not. I can only put around 500 pounds TOPS on the hitch and with torque like that sucker would apply.. Make it closer to 50 pounds on the lift.

I would say most manufactured DP's aren't rated for that either. Anyone know what the tongue weight on a Foretravel or Prevost hitch is?

I found this - says standard is 1000# tongue, can be upgraded to 2000#. might be fine for static, but real world bouncing, turning etc I think would impose much greater than 2000. Again I am no engineer. But Even a Prevost seems like it's still too close with an upgraded hitch.

Prevost tongue weight rating

[wa8yxm]

I have heard of it. Now .. SOME Rigs.. notibally a Diesel Pusher. may be able to pick up the front end of a car or pick up truck.. MINE (A Gasser) can not. I can only put around 500 pounds TOPS on the hitch and with torque like that sucker would apply.. Make it closer to 50 pounds on the lift.

[dodge_guy]

Turning radius is too small. And I highly doubt that the front of that car where the engine and trans are only weighs 1600lbs.

Anyone else find it funny that the MH they were connecting it too had handicap plates on it? With what it takes to connect it no handicap person would be able to connect it!

Much easier to connect a 4down toad!

[77rollalong]

It still looks like a PITA to line up the ring to the pintle plus adding tongue weight to the back of the RV where as the tow bars line up easy, and no tongue weight added... Cost you can get a good tow dolly for that money too...

[rgatijnet1]

Most new vehicles do not have a heavy steel frame. This hitch must be attached to the vehicle's unibody, which is basically sheet metal.

[way2roll]

Gjac wrote:
This just looks all wrong for most RV's. The higher you lift the front of the vehicle off the ground the more weight you can take of the hitch. So theoretically if the 4000 lb car is completely vertical the hitch would be unloaded. I can't see lifting the front wheels 12-18 in off the ground reducing the tongue by more than half. Secondly I can't imagine the stress put on the attach points on the car.The video does not show the attach points underneath the car or how this is load is spread out. Most unibody cars are are just stamped steel. When I installed my base plate on my tow car the steel was about 1/8 in thick. The dynamic loads from potholes etc are much more than the static loads. May be there is something we are not seeing or understanding from the video, if not maybe as Wolfe said it was designed just for large tag axle MH's.

In the video he said it attached to the underside of the car with 4 shear bolts - I hope it's in the frame. He goes on to say that in a crash they are designed to shear off. Thinking to myself, the forces imposed on this unit with potholes, starting, hard stops etc, could replicate the forces of a crash. Maybe I'm wrong - I am no engineer - but it doesn't seem very safe. And to re-state the obvious point - I think he is dramatically understating the amount of stress on the hitch. He claims his 4k# car only imposes 1600# on the hitch. I don't believe that but if it's true, that can't be max, that has to be on a flat surface resting. And when it's flat on the ground and you start the lifting process, aren't you lifting at least 50% of the vehicle weight - if not more due to the engine - to get it off the ground? Never mind the unit looks to be 100-200# itself. That's almost 2000#. He said it himself, there are really no regulations governing towing consumer cars. So there doesn't have to be any extensive testing. I think the risk, plus cost, plus the various other cheaper and safer alternatives makes this a no-go. But that's my opinion.

[Gjac]

This just looks all wrong for most RV's. The higher you lift the front of the vehicle off the ground the more weight you can take of the hitch. So theoretically if the 4000 lb car is completely vertical the hitch would be unloaded. I can't see lifting the front wheels 12-18 in off the ground reducing the tongue by more than half. Secondly I can't imagine the stress put on the attach points on the car.The video does not show the attach points underneath the car or how this is load is spread out. Most unibody cars are are just stamped steel. When I installed my base plate on my tow car the steel was about 1/8 in thick. The dynamic loads from potholes etc are much more than the static loads. May be there is something we are not seeing or understanding from the video, if not maybe as Wolfe said it was designed just for large tag axle MH's.

[Alfred622]

Probably won't handle all wheel drive cars. Only front wheel drive with free rear wheels would work.