Jerkiness while towing

[golferdhm]

I towed my Jeep Liberty (4200 lbs) for the first time with our new Born Free 27RB last week and noticed some jerkiness while driving down the road if the road surface was at all uneven. It was not bad, but noticable. I checked my Blue Ox tow bar and base plate connections, and all were tight. Is this something others experience? I've been towing this car for years with a large diesel Class A motor home and, of course, couldn't feel anything. Is this just something that is a result of there being (relatively) so little difference between the weight of the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle?

[jobrien]

Don;

I was experiencing a "thud" when starting out, when accelarating from a stop light, etc. but only at times. I think it was when I was I was facing downhill (just a slope). Everything seemed tight and locked. That was with my Grand Cherokee.

This year I bought a 4" drop for the receiver and I am towing a Wrangler. So far I have not had the "thud". The drop receiver is actually pressed tightly against the Born Free bumper. I had to grind a slight amount off the drop receiver in order to get it to fit into the receiver.

I'm thinking that maybe, the difference in height between the Grand Cherokee and the BF hitch was a little too much and it allowed a little lift in the tow bar from the Jeep rolling forward a little bit after I stopped. When I started out again, the "thud" may have been the Jeep catching up to the tow bar again.

Going uphill and stopping kept pressure on the tow bar and it was fine.

This is just an assumption on my part, since I could not prove it.

John

[Mel Wilbur]

Keeping the tow bar as level as possible may help. Blue Ox recommends a maximum of 4' high at the coach and never any lower at the coach.

[golferdhm]

Mel and John

Thanks for your replies. I did measure the distance from the ground to my tow connections on the Born Free and the Jeep this morning and found that the Jeep's was almost two inches higher that the Born Free's. I then reread John's post about the drop receiver, went to the Blue Ox site, and learned about drop reveivers, which, clearly can be used as "raise" receivers as well as "drop" receivers. I guess I will order a two inch drop receiver, install it, and see if it fixes the problem.

[jobrien]

Don;

I am suprised that the jeep measures higher than the Born Free hitch receiver. I wonder if it has to do with the design of the new rear bumper design on the Born Free.

On mine, my Jeep is 16 1/2" from the ground to the center of the Blue Ox mounting tab. The middle of the hitch receiver on the BF is 21 1/2". So with my 4" drop I'm just about level.

Would be interested in what your measurements are. Yes, the drop down receiver can be installed upside down, if needed to raise the height of the receiver.

John

[golferdhm]

John

The center of my receiver on the BF is only 15 1/2 inches above the road. I'm not sure how they redesigned it, but is an awfully low bumper.

[jobrien]

Don;

Interesting. Just make sure there is room above the receiver for the adapter, that it won't hit the bumper. As I said, I had to grind a small amount of the weld off the adapter to get mine to fit. It was that, or cut into the fiberglass on the bumper. On mine, the receiver is actually in the middle of the bumper cover. Not familiar with the new design, but I guess the receiver is below the bumper cover, which may cause a problem with using the adapter. The adapter is not cheap, so make sure it fits.

John

[Robert D. Grant]

Don,

If your tow bar and tow vehicle brackets were installed by a professional, you should go back to them. If not, this is an example of the pitfalls of "do it yourself" work. In our travels we have seen many tow bar set-ups that looked like they were done by amateurs to save a few dollars and many of these were downright dangerous.

Bob

[Robert D. Grant]

Duplicate post of above as deleted by the bfadmin. The typical cause for most duplicate posts is that the submitter clicked the Submit button more than once!

[Mel Wilbur]

Bob,

As an avid "do it yourself" person I can tell you I have seen quite a few jobs completed by "proffesionals" that left something to be desired. In Don's case, with the well engineered base plates offered by manufacturers such as Blue Ox, there is no way height of the connections can vary. Any adjustment must be made at the coach connection such as recommended by John O'Brien.

[golferdhm]

My toad base plate was put on 4 years ago by professionals and worked fine when I was towing it behind my Class A, on which the RV receiver was probably 1 or 2 inches higher than the receiver on my Jeep. It was when I switched to the BF that I noticed the problem.

I priced the drop receivers at around $90, so I'm hoping I can find someone that has one around here so I can check it's fit before I buy. This is a problem that BF should probably warn its customers about for the new 2008's if those customers want to tow four wheel, high clearance vehicles. I suspect that if I should change to a two wheel car, that there would not be a problem.

[bcope01]

This is a problem that BF should probably warn its customers about for the new 2008's if those customers want to tow four wheel, high clearance vehicles.

Don, is this really a problem with all of the drop/rise receivers readily available? No matter what I've towed with or what I've towed, I've had to use a drop receiver of some dimension. Just seems normal to me.

[whemme]

My opinion is that it is best if the tow bar is as close to level as possible and that you definitely don't want the tow bar attachment to your toad to be higher than the receiver throat at the rear of your Born Free. In my case, I use a Blue Ox motorhome mounted tow bar system with a 4" drop receiver so that my tow bar is level with the base plate attach points on my 2005 Chevrolet Malibu toad.

[Dave&JanPotter]

My opinion is that it is best if the tow bar is as close to level as possible ......

With respect to Bills' experience, not all tow bars are designed to be towed level. You should check with your tow bar manufacturer before buying a drop ball hitch. Most manufacturers post their instruction books online. I use the Blue Ox Acclaim and it is designed to have a 7" drop from the center of the tow ball to the center of the mounting points. It is probably not the typical setup as we use the ball type trailer hitch so that we can get in and out the rear door on our BFT by removing the hitch from the receiver at the campsite. I also installed it myself using the excellent directions from Blue Ox and there is no adjustment in height possible when the baseplates are installed according to Blue Ox's directions. They are mounted solid and only fit in one position vertically, at least on my toad. I did the work myself to avoid the hit or miss workmanship which one often finds in todays workforce. Not all paid installers are "professionals". JMHO.

[Robert D. Grant]

What I meant by a "professional" was a technician at an authorized Blue Ox Dealer. I have dealt with one in Michigan and another in Maine and they were both extremely competent. But it is always a good idea to at least read the manual that you receive when you purchase a product.