Tow Bar In or Tow Bar Out?

hohenwald48 wrote:
Where I'm sitting in this RV park just happens to be the place where everybody connects their toad on the way out. I get to watch 6-12 folks connect up every morning.

Blue Ox tow bars seem to be the most popular. However, about half the Blue Ox users latch the arms extended and half latch them compressed before they take off. Does it matter or are half the folks doing it wrong?

hohenwald48,
There is no right or wrong way. There's only the way that you feel comfortable with. You can read and or see how folks do it, then you try it in various ways and then, determine what works best for you. It's not rocket science, all you're doing is hooking up the toad. For us, it's this way.

I stand, straddling the u-joint on the tow bar with both arms of the tow bar, compressed, and the connection points sitting on the ground. The dear wife, cruises up in one or the other of our toads and, I motion her to keep coming, keep coming, keep coming, STOP! I try and have her dead center on approach but, it doesn't always happen.

I know the range of each of those arms. I stop her at a point where the arms are neither fully out, or fully in. This way I get lots of flexibility in hooking up both sides. I put the pins in and motion her to back up. She backs up and, if I'm lucky, both arms will lock simultaneously.

Usually, it doesn't happen that way. Only one will lock. No biggie. At that point, she takes care of all the inside garb and I finish the outside garb. We're done in about 30 seconds to one minute. If only one side locks, when I put the coach in gear and start to take off, I sway the coach to the opposite side that wasn't locked and that will lock it. DONE.
Scott