Ready Brute. What do you do with the tow bar when not towing

[RedJeep]

Hi. I'm looking to buy a Ready Brute tow bar. For those with same setup when you are not towing (like running around in the toad on errands) do you leave the tow bar on the toad or on motorhome.

I have a Land Rover Discovery (confirmed ok to four down tow). To me, it looks like it would be easiest to attach/detach the toad by leaving the tow bar attached to the toad and just flipping the whole contraption up like I did with my old CJ Jeep long ago. Is there any benefit to detaching the tow bar from the toad and leaving it hanging off of the hitch on the back of the motorhome when we need to run errands?

[avan]

Late to the party. Leave it on the MH.

[Snowman9000]

Ready Brute if you already have another braking system. Otherwise Ready Brake.

[RedJeep]

Everyone, Thanks! I truly appreciate the info. I'm now of the mind that leading the tow bar on the front of my Land Rover is not a good idea.

Now I need to decide between Ready Brute and Ready Brake. Time to search the forum.

[rockhillmanor]

Leave it on the MH with a locking pin hitch. My blueox folds up and to the side and the cover goes on it. It hasn't come off my MH in 7 years! :B

Many do not use locking hitch pins on the tow bars just those clips so it would take all of 2 seconds to steal your tow bar. Don't know about you but I paid a substantial amount for my tow bar don't want no stupid thug stealing it. Pull 2 pins, 2 wires and its done.

And if by chance you hit a car in front of you even at a 30 mph roll that thing will go right thru your radiator and expensive front end and my guess is the insurance company is going to give you a hard time of giving you the money to replace that tow bar too if not argue that the tow bar 'caused' the extensive damage!

The reason they came up with this style tow bar WAS to eliminate that whole issue of having to leave a tow bar on the front end of the toad!!!!!!

[Big_Katuna]

It is not easy to put the tow bar into the receiver by itself, let alone trying to roll a 4000 pound car too.

The arms slide so you dont have to move the toad when reconnecting.

Much easier to disconnect at the toad.

[mowermech]

When I used a simple, inexpensive, Reese fixed arm adjustable width towbar on my Jeeps, I always left it on the Jeep. It took me just a few seconds to secure it firmly in the upright position.
Then I was advised that in CA it was illegal to do that. Therefore, when in CA I took it off and padlocked it to something.
Now, I have a
Roadmaster Stowmaster 6K capacity towbar to tow the truck. It stays folded on the front of the truck when not in use. I have never tried to leave it on the motorhome, it is too easy to just take it off the ball hitch and fold it on the front of the truck!
Yes, of course, the bottom line is, it is YOUR rig, do it YOUR way!
However, it might be a good idea to read the instructions provided by the manufacturer and see what THEY recommend! Then follow the instructions.

[dahkota]

You need to do one pin to detach it from the MH. You need to do two pins to detach it from the toad. Not that much more work, though there is more difficulty in detaching the single pin and moving the bars than there is in detaching the two pins and moving the bars. So, one fewer connection.

I am 5'6" and weigh 120 lbs. I can have the jeep detached in less time than it takes DH to register us in the campground - 3 minutes from pulling the brake to unhooking to driving away. And I do it alone. If I unhooked the hitch end, I may not be able to do it alone. That end is really heavy.

I'm not sure why you want it attached to the jeep and I'm not sure how you would accomplish it with out having a time consuming rigging to secure it. It just isn't worth the waste of time when it can be done quickly and easily another way. However, it is your jeep and your Ready Brute. Do it the other way if you wish.

[Bumpyroad]

the only tow bar I would leave on the car would be one using a ball instead of the preferred one that goes in the receiver and stays on the motorhome. I get sort of amused when I see somebody driving around with the old solid V type of bars and having to look thru the V while driving.
bumpy

[BozemanTrail]

RedJeep wrote:
I still don't understand why the consensus is that the tow bar stays attached to the motorhome. It seems to me that it might be easiest (fewer connections to mess with) if one were to disconnect the safety chains, pull the receiver pin, slide the whole thing out of the receiver and just fold it up. I could understand the aesthetics given that you would have a big tow bar to view through the toad windshield when driving around, but that still seems easier than leaving it on the motorhome.

Weighs too much, too many moving parts, cables, etc. to leave on TOAD. I've had the ReadyBrute since 2011. Works great, definitely would never want to drive the TOAD around with it just attached to the TOAD.

Pretty darn positive it wasn't designed to be done that way -- as others have said, NSA sells a cover that covers the arms while the rest is attached to the MH.

http://www.readybrake.com/store/p6/RV_Tow_Bar_Cover.html

[MARKW8]

Mine stays on the truck. I don't think it takes 2 minutes to unhook or hook the Jeep back up. I think the Ready Brute has too many ways to move to leave on the toad.

Mark

[RedJeep]

I still don't understand why the consensus is that the tow bar stays attached to the motorhome. It seems to me that it might be easiest (fewer connections to mess with) if one were to disconnect the safety chains, pull the receiver pin, slide the whole thing out of the receiver and just fold it up. I could understand the aesthetics given that you would have a big tow bar to view through the toad windshield when driving around, but that still seems easier than leaving it on the motorhome.

[Dutch_12078]

Stays on the motorhome locked to the hitch receiver and folded to the side. For stays of more than a day or two, it gets covered with the optional NSA cover.

[BozemanTrail]

Definitely stays on the MH.

[ronfisherman]

I leave it on MH. It has a bracket that allows tow bar to be folded to one side or other when hot hooked to toad.