FLAT TOW A 200??? ARE YOU CRAZY??? I AM!

[linuxgod]

Not to be anti but just putting it on a trailer would solve everything. Sure no brain twisting hand wringing and towing is towing. Life is challenging enough without creating issues at least for me. Trailer equals no brake or lights issue and you could even get it home if you broke while wheeling. Just an old geezer's thoughts.

I think it was mentioned earlier but the idea was that if you have an RV which is already pretty long putting a 20' trailer on the back would make it very difficult to maneuver in a lot of campgrounds. However if you tow a vehicle 4 down you can simply detach it when you get there.

 

[jkilcullen]

I think it was mentioned earlier but the idea was that if you have an RV which is already pretty long putting a 20' trailer on the back would make it very difficult to maneuver in a lot of campgrounds. However if you tow a vehicle 4 down you can simply detach it when you get there.

Has nothing to do with length in fact we tow a 24 foot enclosed with our 40 foot pusher and with tongue were at 70' and it's a dream. The issue becomes frequent loading unloading when traveling and the inability to store said trailer in many destinations. Flat tow is preferred method of real RVers for a reason.

 

[RyanR]

Not to be anti but just putting it on a trailer would solve everything. Sure no brain twisting hand wringing and towing is towing. Life is challenging enough without creating issues at least for me. Trailer equals no brake or lights issue and you could even get it home if you broke while wheeling. Just an old geezer's thoughts.

This has been covered multiple times in this thread. A trailer is not practical for this application.

 

[RyanR]

I think it was mentioned earlier but the idea was that if you have an RV which is already pretty long putting a 20' trailer on the back would make it very difficult to maneuver in a lot of campgrounds. However if you tow a vehicle 4 down you can simply detach it when you get there.

It's not so much a maneuverability issue, I could buy a flat bed or enclosed trailer that is only inches or a foot longer than just flat towing the vehicle.

It is an issue of not having anywhere to put the trailer and the whole process. You may have a spot to put the trailer, but it is usually not near where you are parking the RV and possibly impossible to get the trailer parked with the 40+ ft RV. So it becomes, unload the vehicle. Drop the trailer from RV. Hitch trailer to vehicle. Park trailer. Unhitch vehicle from trailer. Park RV. Move vehicle behind RV. That might not sound like a big deal unless you are doing it constantly.

Vs

Pull up and park. Disconnect vehicle. Done in 60 seconds.

We are going to be boondocking as much as possible so honestly a trailer won't be a huge deal most of the time but with 2 little kids in tow, anything that makes life simpler and saves time is key.

I just got the tow bar yesterday and should have the adapter plate in later this week so I'll have some real world testing soon.

 

[RET2]

I think it was mentioned earlier but the idea was that if you have an RV which is already pretty long putting a 20' trailer on the back would make it very difficult to maneuver in a lot of campgrounds. However if you tow a vehicle 4 down you can simply detach it when you get there.

Very good point, my reading comprehension obviously sucks. First world problems eh?

 

[linuxgod]

Very good point, my reading comprehension obviously sucks. First world problems eh?

It's all one of numerous reasons we just pull a TT with the LC, rather than tow the LC (or another vehicle) with an RV.

 

[RET2]

It's all one of numerous reasons we just pull a TT with the LC, rather than tow the LC (or another vehicle) with an RV.

This is another shining example of more than 1 way to skin a cat.

 

[RyanR]

Well it took 3 tries but I finally have the correct Blue Ox BX3772 tow plate (actually two separate plates for each side) and began the install tonight. Pretty straight forward, bolt plates to existing tow hook locations then have to drill a couple new holes in frame rails. You then line up bolts with nut plates that have a 10” wire welded onto them inside the frame rails. You feed them into an access hole just in front of the two new holes to be drilled. It appears it you take some time and pre-bend the feeder rods to get the right angle it shouldn’t be too bad. The plate is heavy as hell and once bolted to the toe hook spots, it partially blocks the access hole enough that you can’t get the nit plate it. Meaning if you don’t get the wire bent at the right angle to hot your bolts you have to drop the tow plate again to pull them out and adjust. Not a big deal, just 2 bolts, but cumbersome doing it solo. Didn’t get to the drilling before kids went to bed so I’ll finish up in the A.M.

 

[RyanR]

The LX is a full time Toad as of today. About 230 miles in tow today usually around 55-65MPH. Shifted straight in 4H no issues, shifted back into 4L, no signs of problems, warning lights temp issues etc. Tracks beautifully, can’t even tell it’s back there other than seeing it on the screen.

 

[PDoyle]

PICS?

 

[RET2]

The LX is a full time Toad as of today. About 230 miles in tow today usually around 55-65MPH. Shifted straight in 4H no issues, shifted back into 4L, no signs of problems, warning lights temp issues etc. Tracks beautifully, can’t even tell it’s back there other than seeing it on the screen.

Congrats!

 

[jkilcullen]

The LX is a full time Toad as of today. About 230 miles in tow today usually around 55-65MPH. Shifted straight in 4H no issues, shifted back into 4L, no signs of problems, warning lights temp issues etc. Tracks beautifully, can’t even tell it’s back there other than seeing it on the screen.
[/QUOTE

Your my hero, if you don't mind when you have a minute post parts list of what worked for you. Did you ever get the lights sorted?

 

[RyanR]

PICS?

I’ll post some pics soon. Did about 300 miles in tow today then drove the LX around town this evening. No issues, so far so good. Was extremely windy today so average speed was only about 50MPH.

Love the Ready Brute Tow Bar / Blue Ox combo. Takes about 2 minutes to hook up and 30 seconds to detach.

 

[RyanR]

Still need something better for lights. The ready brute setup actuates the towed vehicles brake pedal and I am leaving the LX on, but not running, so I have brake lights. Do not have turn signals at this point though so need to figure that out soon. The RV has indicators down low and up near the roof line so it’s still very visible but want to get the LX lights fully functional ASAP.

Here is my setup so far:
BX3772 Blue Ox Base Plate

NSA RV Products RB-9050 Ready Brute Elite Tow Bar

NSA RV Products Adapter Clevis Kit for Blue Ox Tow Bars

NSA RV Products Ready Brake Emergency Brake Harness Kit

 

[RyanR]

First test run. You'll notice the ready brake cable is missing, this was installed before departure.

Ready brake cable on the LX side. Decided to use the license plate for a mount. It doesn't really bear any load and there is a clamp and bracket behind my license plate as well that stabilize the cable. The zip ties are just to snug up the plate so it does not vibrate.

What the system looks like inside the cabin. It's super simple. Just a surge brake that yanks on an aircraft cable inside an aluminum sleeve and pulls the brake pedal. The spot I drilled pops out just inside the drivers side fender well. I have it routed along the top of the fender well then it arcs down in front of the front body mount and curves up into the bumper and out the license plate.

The install was super easy. This part took about an hour taking my time and making sure everything worked properly. I sat in the LX while the RV was towed across a parking lot to ensure the brake was engaging properly and not dragging when not braking. There is also an LED with a very long harness that comes with the kit that you can mount on the dash of the towing vehicle (RV). This seems a bit useless to me as it's just actuate by the surge brake lever on the tow bar. It's not telling me anything about whether I am adjusted properly and actuating the brakes in the toad. And if I lose brake in the toad... well it's still going to light up and tell me I am braking. I kept it for now but left it uninstalled. I am guessing this is perhaps more of an inspection requirement for some areas vs something of actual use?

At just over 1,000 miles towed 4 down now. Drove the LX about 40 miles today and even hit a little trail and crawled around in low range. Still no issues. I am disconnected the LX and driving it around in High and Low range at every stop. So far the longest leg it has gone without being driven under its own power is about 400 miles.

I am in no way advocating that this is safe to do and you won't hurt your vehicle, just trying to share my findings. Maybe in a year when I have tens of thousands of miles towed I'll preach that the LX570 is a fantastic flat tow vehicle but until then I'd watch this thread. I'll post more as I go.

Next stop I am working on the lights. Due to the nature of the ready brake system I have brake lights without any electrical work, which is great. But no turn signals on the LX when in tow. I am going to first attempt to power the 7Pin connector on the LX directly and see if it lights up the indicator lamps as that would be dead simple. If that does not work I am going to just drill into the housings and add an extra bulb on each side that will be wired up to the front and plugged into the 7Pin on the RV when it tow. Either way will be pretty easy. The Blue Ox tow plate came with a nice bracket to mount a plug on the front.

 

[grinchy]

ut no turn signals on the LX when in tow. I am going to first attempt to power the 7Pin connector on the LX directly and see if it lights up the indicator lamps as that would be dead simple. If that does not work I am going to just drill into the housing

I can’t decide if this is likely or not. I know the signal can Be split downstream, but I haven’t tried to run it back up hill. It seems a trailer connector in the front, a 7 conductor wire under the chassis to the rear, and a set of those magnetic tow lights would be the ticket.

 

[linuxgod]

Next stop I am working on the lights. Due to the nature of the ready brake system I have brake lights without any electrical work, which is great. But no turn signals on the LX when in tow. I am going to first attempt to power the 7Pin connector on the LX directly and see if it lights up the indicator lamps as that would be dead simple. If that does not work I am going to just drill into the housings and add an extra bulb on each side that will be wired up to the front and plugged into the 7Pin on the RV when it tow. Either way will be pretty easy. The Blue Ox tow plate came with a nice bracket to mount a plug on the front.

If you end up needing to add a bulb, I suggest modifying the reflector housing that is in the rear bumper and adding bulbs to that. IIRC @bjowett did this to add rear fog lights, so there are part numbers available in another thread for the bulb sockets. Wouldn't trigger your factory turn signals of course but it would give you a functional turn signal without hacking up the factory housing.

 

[Ali FJ80]

One thing to keep in mind if you plan to push power back into the 7 pin is it does not spit the turn signals from the brake. The brake signal comes trough both of the turn signals wires. I learned this when wiring up my arb rear bumper lights to the 7 pin and realized the brake lights would also flash with the indicators and the indicators would light up solid with the brakes. I had to use 2 to 3 wire converter to isolate brakes and turn signals for things to work normally. Am guessing there is a module in the vehicle that is making this conversion to work with most simpler trailer lights. If you can intercept the wires prior to the module which does this in the vehicle you could probably push power backwards there to just the signals but if you push power up the 7 pin for the signals you may get nothing as not sure if this module would work both ways or you could get brake lights flashing along with the signals.

 

[RyanR]

If you end up needing to add a bulb, I suggest modifying the reflector housing that is in the rear bumper and adding bulbs to that. IIRC @bjowett did this to add rear fog lights, so there are part numbers available in another thread for the bulb sockets. Wouldn't trigger your factory turn signals of course but it would give you a functional turn signal without hacking up the factory housing.

Hey! That is a fantastic suggestion! A set of magnetic indicator lamps is a great idea too, but it's one more thing to stow and setup/pack away at every stop. So far we have been only staying in a spot for a day and moving on. In Durango, CO now and plan to hang out here for a while so hopefully I can knock out the electrical project. Having bulbs and wiring permanently installed on the truck so it's simply a matter of plugging in a front 7 pin connector and roll would be ideal.

Appreciate all the constructive feedback and help getting this dialed in!

 

[grinchy]

I was curious so I went and looked.
Amazon product ASIN B07S9HRH6M