Here's the deal. Bought an 07 Journey from a local dealer last June. Had minor items that I wanted fixed. Dealer did horrible job at repairs. I complained to Winnebago and they pointed me to a great dealer in PA (Tom Schaeffer's) who has made the repairs and is going to do a "re-delivery" orientation since the first one I received was horrible. Very nice people there.
I gave the nice dealer some business and had them install some add-ons including a Tow-Bar and U.S. Gear set-up.
What should I pay attention to when hooking up the TOAD? I've pulled cargo trailers with a pickup, but that is the extent of my towing expertise. What should I do to ensure that I don't ruin a vacation (and my 08 Wrangler TOAD)?
Make sure the steering is unlocked, diffential in neutral and transmission in park if automatic, or follow owners manual. Jeeps make great toads. Make sure key is just turned enough to unlock steering and not to the "On" position to save batteries. DW usually watches as I pull out to make sure wheels go roundy roundy and I watch front wheels in mirror when I make first turn. With someone watching they can also watch the arms extend on the tow bar. Don't forget light check and if you have a break away set up watch the brake applied light in MH and make sure it releases.
Tom, Cheryl & Maverick (Black Lab.-Great Dane Rescue)
2005 Winnebago Journey 36G w/Cat. C-7 350 hp on Freightliner XC
1994 Jeep Cherokee Sport Toad w/ SMI brakes
Roadmaster tow bar
FMCA 397030
WIT 129107
Pesident San Juanderers
Maveric got it ALMOST right. The new jeeps no longer have an unlock position. You must disconnect the batt. OR better yet jeep was kind enough to put something called an "IOD fuse" that has an easy pull disconnector. You can find a picture of it somewhere in this thread...
Don't back up! (Never pull in anywhere before figuring out an exit strategy)
Watch your tail swing when turning (the toad will first try to track to the outside of the turn, and will then track to the inside.)
Avoid tight S curves. (If you don't straigten out first, the tail swing will try to pull the front tires sideways.)
Do some practiing in an empty mall parking lot to get a feel for how it tracks. Pretend the painted lines are curbs, and see if you can maneuver without the toad hitting any lines. I spent an hour or two doing this before my first pull, and it helped a lot.
If you are lucky enough to find a dry parking lot with some large standing water puddles, drive through them, take a tight turn, and then get out and look at the tire tracks. You'll be able to see exactly where each MH and toad tire tracks.
2007 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40PDQ 400 ISL Cummins/Allison
2002 Chevy Avalanche toad
Inside: Him, Her, and a pack of little furballs...
2 and 3 are good advise. I'm not sure why you're recommending that he NEVER back up. Back up very carefully watching the steering wheel the whole time, but we've backed up for as much as a mile before and otherwise backup frequently. If it's Jeep related, I wouldn't know, but, Saturn's CAN be backed up. (at least the Vue and the SL2 can be) Just go slow and carefully so the tires don't go one way or the other. Those two actually track backwards pretty well as long as there are no hard turns.
Let me add, "Make sure the emergency brake is released."
2 and 3 are good advise. I'm not sure why you're recommending that he NEVER back up.
I didn't say NEVER back up, I just said don't do it. There are folks who have been able to back up under specific situations, and many who haven't. I figured it was better to tell a beginner not to do it, rather than complicate it by going into all the details. I did try backing up once (in that mall parking lot - carefully and slowly) and my toad tires very quickly started to swing around. If I had kept going, I'm sure they would've tried to swing 180 degrees like a shopping cart caster wheel.
My "never" comment was part of the "exit strategy" parenthetical comment: Never go anywhere where you don't know how to get out. Before you pull into a parking lot, side road, campsite, etc, make sure you can get out. (In other words, know if you can simply pull through, backup, disconnect, etc.) Even if you can back up with your setup, I'm pretty sure you won't be able to do a three point turn to turn around with your toad attached! )
A note on tail swing...for every three feet of rv behind the rear axle, the tail will swing out one foot. Watch those right turns from the right turning lane when the light turns green at an intersection of a busy four lane road.
"we are not stopping 'til they come to take us away!"
1995 Gulfstream 40'Tourmaster Spartan,400hp Cummins turbo,Allison 6spd, towing 2001 chrysler conv. all 4 kids grown, healthy and ...gone
Oh yeah, and another important point: make sure that you can take tight turns without the toad hitting the back of the MH! For the first few turns in the mall parking lot, I had my DW walk alongside with her cell phone, while I had my cell sitting next to me on speaker phone. As I slowly moved along and cranked the wheel tighter and tighter, she walked alongside and told me how it was going, and was ready to shout stop if it got too close.
When checking clearance, make sure you have more than a fraction of an inch. As you are pulling into a parking lot, you will often have a sloped driveway to contend with. The slope might change the angles enough that a near miss on level ground is a painful crunch when the MH is on one slope, and the toad is on another.
Also make sure that the hot exhaust pipe doesn't exit where it is very close to any plastic parts of the toad on a tight turn. You don't have to make contact for the hot exhaust gasses to melt something.
BLUE MARBLE wrote: A note on tail swing...for every three feet of rv behind the rear axle, the tail will swing out one foot.
Sounds like a good rule of thumb, but wouldn't that also depend on the wheelbase? I would think that a short wheelbase MH with a certain rear overhang will have a wider tail swing than a long wheelbase MH with the same rear overhang.
For a toad, you also have to take the hitch length and tow bar length before the pivot into account. In my case, the hitch receiver extends almost a foot past the lower corners of the end cap. Add in the distance from the receiver to tow bar pivot, and it's getting close to two feet of additional length that needs to be considered as part of the rear overhang.
We've noticed that with a tow bar, the TOAD will track in the foot prints of the rear wheels. Thats a good thing, if the rear wheels make the turn, the toad will follow.
Enjoy
John and Debra Spear 1999 Holiday Rambler Imperial 40PBS 2006 Saturn VUEtoadReady Brake A Closed Mouth Gathers No Foot
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!!!! Rallys and LOTS of FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are folks who have been able to back up under specific situations, and many who haven't. I figured it was better to tell a beginner not to do it, rather than complicate it by going into all the details. I did try backing up once (in that mall parking lot - carefully and slowly) and my toad tires very quickly started to swing around. If I had kept going, I'm sure they would've tried to swing 180 degrees like a shopping cart caster wheel.
)
Ready Brake
