Flat towing Ford Focus

[8handicap]

Just purchased an Allegro 32SA coach and a 2014 Focus as a toad. The manual states the battery must be disconnected to tow. I plan to install a cutoff switch. Does this mean the clock and other electronics (Bluetooth, etc) will have to be re-set after each tow ?Could that circuit be direct wired to battery?
What about lights? Can the auto battery be charged by the coach?

8

[az99]

Sandy & Shirley wrote:

az99 wrote:
Sounds like you convinced yourself against the Elite. Good Luck.

We were totally leaning toward the Elite and then read some other posts about it. The posts were not glowing and also not bad. Some liked it some did not. We were disappointed that the monitor in the Motor Home was wired and only gave you a single led to say the brakes are on or off. The problem was that it was connected to the Elite and only told you if the Elite was asking for brakes, if the proper slack was not in the cable connection you might not have brakes! There was also no way to make any kind of adjustments from the RV for things like sensativity. The adjustments were made by stopping, getting out, and adjusting the cable by hand. Also, our RV dealer and car dealer had never installed a cable controlled braking system.

The unit we chose uses a two way wireless monitor and adjustment system, and the RV dealer was very familiar with the installation process.

Like I said, you convinced yourself the Elite was not for you. I got mine several years ago, adjusted the cable once and threw away the worthless warning light. I and many others on this and other RV forums would use nothing else.
Good Luck with all the expensive bells and whistles. You probably better check into a remote TPMS for the toad also. 🙂

[Sandy___Shirley]

az99 wrote:
Sounds like you convinced yourself against the Elite. Good Luck.

We were totally leaning toward the Elite and then read some other posts about it. The posts were not glowing and also not bad. Some liked it some did not. We were disappointed that the monitor in the Motor Home was wired and only gave you a single led to say the brakes are on or off. The problem was that it was connected to the Elite and only told you if the Elite was asking for brakes, if the proper slack was not in the cable connection you might not have brakes! There was also no way to make any kind of adjustments from the RV for things like sensativity. The adjustments were made by stopping, getting out, and adjusting the cable by hand. Also, our RV dealer and car dealer had never installed a cable controlled braking system.

The unit we chose uses a two way wireless monitor and adjustment system, and the RV dealer was very familiar with the installation process.

[az99]

Sounds like you convinced yourself against the Elite. Good Luck.

[Sandy___Shirley]

az99 wrote:
Take it to a Mom and Pop auto repair shop and get the Ready Brute Elite installed. $4,000 is CRAZY.

We completely looked at the Elite. The Elite was $1,200 not including the parallel $110 emergency break away kit or the installation of the cables to the brake pedal.

Your total brake controls in the motor home will be a single led on the dash that tells you the toad brakes are on or off, and that wire also has to be installed through the motor home with a hole drilled in the dash for the LED.

If the brakes do not seem to come on at the right time, you stop your motor home and go back to the hitch and adjust the length of the wire cable attached to the car.

The road master bar we are getting is only $794, and we are adding the even brake system for $1,519 and a 12 volt receptacle for $30. Yes, our parts are about $1,000 more that the Elite, but the labor to install it will be far less and we get full wireless remote control of the brakes from inside the motor home. We both have to pay for the installation of the base plate and wire harness for the tail lights.

We figure that after labor ours will cost about $700 to $800 more and I’m not sure if the Elite tow bar will fold up against the motor home for storage and if it does, how far from the back of the motor home does it sit with that extra surge brake controller.

Our original estimates on the Elite were about $3,300 to $3,500 for the total install. The Road Master is going to be about $4,000 to $4,200 per the RV dealer’s estimate depending on estimate based on maximum expected labor. It will be less if no problems occur.

What we are getting for the extra $700 does not seem crazy to us.

[Sandy___Shirley]

8handicap wrote:
WOW!

Does your tow bar have a ball joint(s) to allow for the drop? I have to use a 6" drop receiver on my Tiffin Open Road.

Ron

There is no ball joint, it is a square heavy duty 2 inch receiver and post on the RV and tow bar. The tow bar is the Road Master Falcon 2 94-9628.

[az99]

Take it to a Mom and Pop auto repair shop and get the Ready Brute Elite installed. $4,000 is CRAZY.

[8handicap]

WOW!

Does your tow bar have a ball joint(s) to allow for the drop? I have to use a 6" drop receiver on my Tiffin Open Road.

Ron

[Sandy___Shirley]

This is getting very confusing. The extra white and green wires on the actual battery negative post are a battery sensor, per the dealer’s service department, those wires do not connect the battery to ground. If a wire that small did connect to ground it would melt quickly. So, you can disconnect the black wire at the fire wall connection. But one of the lower mechanics still said no. The other four and the lead mechanic said yes!

I am having a two position battery disconnect switch added to the left of the battery just below the front window where there is space to install it. The existing black wire can feed the switch and a second wire can then be added between the switch and the existing bolt on the firewall.



Just to be safe, I’m having the dealer cut the battery monitor wire and install a simple two wire connection outside the battery box. I can now throw the disconnect to the off position and unplug the sensor. That definitely takes care of the battery’s black wire.

I found a local RV dealer who will do all of the work to convert the car to flat towable, none of this you connect the base plate and you connect the wire harness. The RV dealer is going to use a wire harness that uses diodes to insure that current and ground from the motor home does not feed back to the car’s power system and he is also going to install a second power outlet (cigarette lighter) under the dash near the brake pedal. That way we can use a standard braking system and it will have its own power outlet direct to the motor home. The cost is not nice, a little over $4,000 including all parts and labor, but we are getting the best parts available, including a tow bar that does not require a drop hitch. I can just see us going over a driveway or incline that dips the rear end close to the ground and breaking the drop hitch, we no longer have to worry about that.

[Sandy___Shirley]

You guys are having an interesting conversation and I plan to take it to my dealer today. My problem with merely disconnecting the negative lead at the firewall is what do you do with the lead after? If it is merely disconnected what stops it from bouncing back to firewall stub or other ground connection while you are driving down a bumpy road? That is why I am leading toward installing a real disconnect switch on the firewall bolt with a turn key that you physically remove and put in the glove box.

[hilldude]

8handicap wrote:
Hilldude,
Not trying to be smart just confused. If the negative cable is disconnected, how can these two extra positive wires cause a problem? I do not see the two extra wires. Are they bound to the positive cable?

Ron

Don't know why but there are two small wires connected at neg bat terminal on my 2013 focus.Couple years back some one on another forum complained about fried transmissions on focus.He was disconnecting neg cable at fire wall.Ford says disconnect neg terminal.

[8handicap]

Hilldude,
Not trying to be smart just confused. If the negative cable is disconnected, how can these two extra positive wires cause a problem? I do not see the two extra wires. Are they bound to the positive cable?

Ron

[hilldude]

Make sure the disconnection is at the battery not the firewall.Disconnecting at firewall leaves two wires connected and may lead to a ruined transmission.

[8handicap]

Sandy and Shirley,

I saw that unit being installed at Marlin Ingram RV in Montgomery, AL. I did not stay around to see if they got it working. In AL you do not need toad brakes if your vehicle is under 3,000 # so I have not installed. Frankly, towing the Focus is like there is nothing back there. Hopefully other states will reciprocate. We did have quite a time getting all the lights to work.

I had Ingram install the battery cutoff to the right of the battery on the negative cable. Works just fine. You are right on the electronics except my Bluetooth and clock maintain their settings. The biggest problem is that it seems to lose all the computer driving instruction. You then will have those annoying double clutch jerks until it resets.

All in all I am very happy with this toad. It is fun to drive and has a lot of room inside (once I stuff my large frame into the seat!).

Ron

[Sandy___Shirley]

That is correct, the Ford 6 speed auto transmission acts like the 6 speed manual transmission. It is all controlled by a “computer” that senses the road speed and engine speed to determine what gear you should be in. You can flat tow as is at max 35 mph for 50 miles, big deal! There are steps in the manual that tell you how to insure that the transmission is in neutral, you then disconnect the battery, the computer, so it can’t shift out of neutral, now you can tow 70 mph unlimited distance.
The catch is that a lot of the braking systems are dependent on the car battery, there is no other source for emergency break away situations.

I just posted this on the forest river forum because we just bought a Georgetown motor home and plan to tow a 2014 Ford Focus SE.

We found one tow bar that can handle this at readybrake.com, their ReadyBrute Elite which has a built in surge brake. The brake is not electric, it works with a steel cable connected to the brake pedal.

Our RV dealer does not want to install this tow bar since you have to drill separate holes in the firewall for wire cables for the normal braking and the tear away brakes. The cables are then connected to your brake pedal. Our Ford dealer says he will do the job, but it will be the first time they have ever done it.

The solution we are now trying to work out is to have the RV dealer install the Base Plate, ready brake has a variety of adapters to fit just about every base plate out there. We will pre-buy the the tow bar so he can also install the dash mounted brake indicator LED and drop bar so we are towing about level, but no brakes or lights! We will then take the car and motor home to our Ford dealer so he can install the necessary brake cables through the firewall and insure that the tail lights are run completely from the motor home.

The Focus is a nice FWD car that can be flat towed, but they sure do not make it easy to have it set up.

PS: Camping World, not the one close by, the one about 100 miles from us, will do the complete job for just under $3,500. We can get it done way cheaper by two local dealers.

The Ford dealer said that you can disconnect either side on the battery and he recommended that we use the hot side. The negative lead is basically under the firewall extension so you have to disconnect it where it attaches to the frame. He is not sure of what will happen if the disconnected wire bounces around as you drive. The hot side can be done with a simple two part connector at the battery. The disconnected part can easily be held back from the post and it doesn’t matter is it touched the frame while driving.

I highly recommend that you visit readybrake.com and look at the videos they provide. They are not one of the big names in the flat tow world, but they are the only one I was able to find that had a built in surge brake that works without electricity.

As for the lights, there are a variety of cables that runs from motor home 4 or 7 pin outlet to the towed car. The cable will run to the trunk of the car and they drill separate holes in your rear lights for braking and turn signals, LOL, no need for the back up lights! The lights then run completely from the motor home battery.

Yes you do lose bluetooth, clock and radio stations.