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Blue Ox Tow Bar Maintenance
How often do you all have your Tow Bar “serviced” by your manufacturer to replace all bushings/seals/gaskets, etc.?
Blue Ox offers this service at many RV shows and some rally’s for $35 (great price I think). They suggest you have this service every two years. I would have had it done at the Tampa show but they had so many sign-ups the first day of the show, there were no openings during the weekend when I was there.
Just checking with others on this maintenance issue.
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19 Replies
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Jake, the trick is to find out where else thy are going to be…good luck, their web site sucks. If you find out, let us know…mine is due again. And, you’re right…it’s a good deal. Geo.
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Tim,
I just replaced the shank, bolts and spacers on my Roadmaster All Terrain, After 4 years it got a little sloppy.
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Can we buy a kit from Blue Ox and do it ourselves?
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I don’t know about Blue Ox but my Roadmaster tow bars are easily serviced and as I recall parts are inexpensive.
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I believe there is a you tube video on how to service the tow bar. Parts are usually available from sources such as etrailer.com.
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There are a couple utube videos. I did my annual lubrication yesterday since all my pivot points are tight.
I’ll check with Blue Ox to see if there is a kit you can order, but Blue Ox told me they don’t even let their dealers service their tow bar so I’m not sure they’ll sell the bushings/washers/gaskets to the public.
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The Roadmaster shank I had to replace was expensive and they have you by the short hairs. The nut that’s inside the shank holding it altogether can not be removed and takes a special tool only available at Roadmaster. You have the option of sending it back to Roadmaster or by a new one. Buying new at e-trailer for 1980 was cheaper than sending it to Roadmaster. Mine is a Blackhawk 2.
I like the towbar, but Blue Ox is probably cheaper to maintain.
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Tom, I’ve been running Roadmaster BlackHawk 1 since 2003 (80,000 miles), and iirc I bought it instead of Blueox because it didn’t need to be rebuilt. Am I missing something?
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I’m going to have to look at my Roadmasters. I have the original design 5000 pound towbar that I rebuilt because the pin that locked it extended got rounded and that was an easy fix. But I also disassembled my All-Terrain tow bar because one of the round arms was binding so I took it apart to make sure there wasn’t a problem. Turns out one of the arms had a slight bend that was binding it up, so I straightened the arm and since everything else was OK I put it back together. I cannot remember anything that was magic about either type of tow bar.
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Talked to Blue Ox today,
They informed me there is a “washer kit” for your tow bar for $13. No special tools required. No bushings to replace.
So, if your pivot points are loose, $13 is a great price for some extra piece of mind.
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Don’t know what to tell you Dan, they wear out and Roadmaster confirmed that when I talked to them. It gets loosy goosy and there’s no way to tighten it up, I tried.
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Thanks Tom, I understand. For several years from new, everything that was supposed to pivot or slide was so tight, it was a pita to work with. Now that it is finally broken in, it is much more user friendly. Everything is working as it should, so going to leave it friendly for now. Thanks again.
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I have one Roadmaster all terrain tow bar that I use most frequently. Unlike most of those I see in use this is one that mounts to the toad and drops over a coach mounted 2″ ball. I use that type because I have and still tow multiple vehicles and to keep the tow bar level I have adjustable height coach mounted hitches. The coach mounted tow bars cannot be leveled if the toad and coach mounted receivers are at different heights and the tow bar ends up being out of level.
It is the only tow bar I have that has the arm slides on a welded large diameter round tube that cannot be serviced. My other hitches all have replaceable pivot points. My commonly used tow bar has been used in excess of 250,000 miles towing a Grand Cherokee and a H2 Hummer. The Hummer is very heavy so I would expect wear but the tow bar is not even close to being worn out.
I do clean the entire assembly because the dust and grit from the highway does contribute to wear. I also put a small amount of oil at the wear points. I also put a dab of grease on the hitch ball. When we return from trips the tow bar assembly is pretty dirty and the black greasy oil at the pivot points looks pretty bad but I think the practice of adding a few drops of oil is delaying wear on non-serviceable parts of the tow bar.
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Hmmm. We may have similar genetics.
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