Securing tow bar on motor home

[stargirl96]

Any suggestions on the best ways to keep a tow bar secure from those who would vandalize or steal?

[robatthelake]

It's fine to use Padlocks in place of Pins ....But those cheap Locks that We All buy have very little to zero Shearing strength ,so be careful where You use them!

[down_home]

A locking pin like others say.

We bought one at CW but auto stores and others some times have them.
It goes through the receiver and hitch and has a keyed lock on the end.
Our has been on there 9 years. I may have to drill it to get it off.
Would take someone a while. difficult place and angle for someone to try to pick it or use tools on it.

[dalerussel]

We have two locking pins (keyed the same) that connect our drop hitch to the rv and the drop to the tow bar.

[tenbear]

Just in case you haven't figured out what a locking hitch pin is like, here are a few examples.

[mowermech]

Come to think of it, when I had the adjustable width fixed arm towbar, I used to wrap the safety chains around a tree and put a padlock on them. It must have worked, because the towbar never moved.
Now that I have a Roadmaster Stowmaster 5000 towbar that folds up on the front of the truck, I don't worry about it. I, too, have never heard of a towbar being stolen.

[j-d]

^^^Congratulations on that Bar^^^ All in all probably the best setup out there.

Locking bar to hitch receiver is more secure than a flimsy compartment door. Even worse if the door is keyed with the same key just about every RV is built with. Only advantage is it's out of sight.

[stargirl96]

We bought a ReadyBrute Elite tow bar and like it so far. The place where we store our motor home has had a few thefts in the past year which is why we need to keep things secure. Never have had any problems, but some folks we know had a propane tank stolen from their trailer a few months ago.

[j-d]

Locks in all the pin areas are a good idea. And not for theft. For some perverse reason, there are those folk who consider it fun to pull pins and watch to see what happens. Drawback of course is that the lock slows YOU down in event of some kind of emergency.

Stargirl - What tow bar did you finally get?

[jwmII]

Pad locks. Put one every place you have a Pin securing the tow bar.

[lryrob9301]

I've been RVing for over 10 years, all over this country, and never had anyone touch the tow bar on the coach. I have never heard of anyone having one stolen, it's not like you can just pick it up and put it in your pocket, but then I don't stay in some of the questionable places you folks must stay.

[jsmart]

Locks will only keep the honest folks honest. If you really are concerned about losing the tow bar, remove it and lock it in a compartment or in the MH or the toad. We have a blue ox tow bar that is locked to the MH, fortunately for us, we've only camped around honest people so far.

[mowermech]

BTPO1 wrote:

Trackrig wrote:
If it's one of those that fold up against the back of the MH, use a locking pin in the receiver like you would a hitch on a truck receiver.

Bill

Or remove it and store it out of sight if you are worried about someone taking it. JMO

Exactly. Just remove it and lock it in a basement bin.
"Out of sight, out of mind!"

[WyoTraveler]

If it is Blue OX they sell a set of 3 locking pins keyed the same. 2 of the locking pins connecting the toad are smaller diameter so nice to have the set.

[BTPO1]

Trackrig wrote:
If it's one of those that fold up against the back of the MH, use a locking pin in the receiver like you would a hitch on a truck receiver.

Bill

Or remove it and store it out of sight if you are worried about someone taking it. JMO