This sleek tow bar can handle your large vehicle, no problem. Heavy-duty but not heavy: arms support their weight while you hook up and swing easily to either side for storage. Integrated safety cables keep your setup organized. Built-in rise/drop.
Features:
Specs:
Note: If you add a hitch extender to your setup, you may need safety cable extensions (sold separately) to reach your tow vehicle's hitch.
If you already have a Reese or Valley base plate or are planning on getting one, this kit includes the needed brackets to make this tow bar compatible. Simply unbolt the old brackets and bolt on the new ones in their place. All the hardware is included.
The etrailer XHD has a lot of smart features that give you the flexibility to hook up your toad (towed vehicle) to your RV, without the need for your vehicle to be perfectly level or in the exact right spot.
First of all, the arms are self-supporting, meaning that they hold themselves up without your help and won't fall to the ground when you let them go. They also move independently of each other, so you can focus on getting just one arm connected at a time. You'll never be stuck wrestling with a heavy tow bar.
Just slide the tow bar into your hitch and pin it in place. The telescoping arms will extend, pivot, and tilt to the needed length and angle to reach the tabs on your base plate. You can get hooked up and on with your adventure.
Once the tow bar's connected, slowly pull forward and the self-aligning arms will fully extend and lock into the towing position. Double check that the arms are properly latched and you'll be ready to hit the road!
Important: The arms need to be set up so that the storage rod is on the outside of the arm. Otherwise, the tow bar could be damaged when taking turns.
The XHD's arms are longer than average, giving you an above-average turning radius. You're going to be able to get around obstacles and make sharp turns with no worry of clipping the corner of your RV. Maneuver through gas stations and the campsite no problem.
It's important that your tow bar is as level as possible while you're flat towing, with no more than a 3" difference between where the tow bar sits in the hitch receiver and where the arms meet the base plate. It's fairly common for the hitch on an RV to sit too high in comparison to the toad, making it necessary to buy a high-low adapter.
With etrailer tow bars, the rise/drop is built right in, so it's less likely that you'll need an extra adapter. The head joint is also able to tilt up and down so you can make the tow bar level for your particular setup.
Uneven ground and sharp angles can put the arms of the tow bar in a bind and make them stiff and immoveable. Once you get to your destination, the last thing you need is to spend several minutes wrestling, yanking, and kicking at them to get your car disconnected.
Instead, get out of a bind in one easy step. Simply give the trigger on the arm of the XHD a squeeze to disengage the internal latch. This releases the pent-up pressure so you can unhook and get on with your adventure.
Each trigger release latch is positioned on the side of the tow bar arm. This allows for a comfortable yet firm grip, unlike latches that are positioned on the tops of tow bar arms, which can be difficult to grab. This out-of-the-way placement also creates a clean look for the tow bar.
Two straight, vinyl-coated safety cables are integrated right into this tow bar, keeping them from dragging on the ground and getting damaged. They won't get lost or tangled either; your whole setup will be streamlined and organized.
These cables, required by law, will keep your toad behind your RV if there's ever an accidental disconnect while you're towing. The steel S-hooks on each end of the cables connect to the toad's base plate and the RV's trailer hitch, with spring-loaded latches to ensure that they stay connected.
The etrailer safety cables are rated at 14,000 lbs, regardless of the rating of the tow bar. While it's not necessary to have such a high rating, it's nice to know that in the event of an emergency disconnect, these heavy-duty cables will be more than capable of catching your vehicle. If all else fails, these safety cables won't.
The tow bar also offers a convenient storage rod for securing your coiled electrical cord (sold separately). The rod holds your power cord neatly out of the way and up off the ground.
The etrailer XHD is incredibly easy to store on the back of your RV. Most RV-mounted tow bars require you to lift the heavy arms all the way up; they have to be fully vertical before you can secure them in the stowed position. With etrailer tow bars, all you have to do is raise them an inch or two - which you probably would do anyway while unhooking - and swing the arms to either side. When you lower them down again, the locking pin will automatically slide into the built-in tab. They can store to the left, right, or with one arm each way, however is convenient for you.
At etrailer, we're committed to the products we sell, and to helping our neighbors journey. We don't just sell it; we've installed it, we've wired it, and we've towed with it, so you're getting your answers straight from the experts. Our etrailer technicians perform flat tow installations on a daily basis, so they know all about your tow bar firsthand. For the life of your tow bar, our experienced and knowledgeable staff are available via phone, email, and chat to help you with any questions or concerns.
Flat towing can be a much more convenient way to take your car RVing with you than using a trailer or a tow dolly. It'll save you storage space both at home and at the campsite, and it takes less time and hassle to hook up.
To flat tow your vehicle, there are 5 basic components you're going to need: a tow bar, a base plate kit, a safety cable set, tow bar wiring, and a flat tow braking system.
| For the RV | Between the RV and Towed Car | For the Towed Car |
|---|---|---|
| Hitch | Tow bar | Base plate |
| Wiring plug | Safety cables | Braking system |
| Wiring adapter cord | Wiring kit/diodes |
The custom-fit base plate installs on the frame of your toad so you can connect the car to your RV with a tow bar. Hook up safety cables between the vehicles to ensure that the toad does not separate from the motorhome if the tow bar becomes detached. Tow bar wiring syncs your vehicle's signal lights with your motorhome's tail lights, as required by law in most states. Finally, the flat tow braking system - also required in most states - activates the brakes in the toad when you hit the brakes in the RV, making for smoother, safer braking, and preventing wear on your motorhome.
California residents: click here
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi there, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna take a quick look at our XHD non-binding tow bar. This is going to slide into your 2 inch by 2 inch trailer hitch receiver on your RV. That will then allow you to hook up to the base plate on your tow vehicle so that you can safely and securely tow your vehicle behind your motor home. Now, this is not going to require a ball mount, so if you do have a ball mount on your trailer already, you'll need to take that out so that you can get this slid into your hitch receiver. This does feature these telescoping arms.
That's gonna make it fast and easy to get hooked up to your vehicle. The arms are self supporting, so as you're moving them around to get hooked up, you're not gonna have to worry about them falling on the ground. They are gonna support themselves so it's gonna give you a little bit more support as you're getting hooked up. They are going to fully articulate, so it is going to allow for unlimited spread so that you can fit your application. As you can see on the ends of these arms we are gonna have these tabs that are going to work with your Reese and Valley Industries base plates.
So if you have a Reese or Valley base plate on your vehicle, very easy to get these just put in place and then slide your pin and clip through. This tow bar does have a 10,500 pound weight capacity, so you wanna make sure that that works for your vehicle. If you have the 10,000 up to 10,500 pound vehicle with the Reese or Valley Industries base plates, this will work really well for you. The arms allow for a self-aligning design, so even if your vehicle isn't straight behind your RV, if it's at a little bit of an angle, the arms will accommodate that. So just get them hooked up and then once you start driving forward, it will both lock out and give you that nice locked in, tow-ready position so that you can get everything secure as you're towing it behind.
When we have our arms retracted like this, we're looking at right about 39 1/4 inch when retracted. when we have it fully extended we're out to to 51 3/4 inch, so gonna give us plenty of room there to get adjusted. And the non-binding design of this tow bar comes in with our trigger release here. So zoom in a little bit, you can see we just push in on that trigger and that's going to allow us to pull those arms in so even if we're on unlevel surfaces, there's a lot of pressure being put on the arm, it could be difficult for us to push that in and pull it out. But especially when it's already locked, just push in on that trigger there and that's going to allow it to come in.
We're not gonna have to worry about it binding up for us. Now, these arms can be folded in several different configurations. We can have them up or out to the sides either to the left or to the right. So different ways of storing them. The tow bar itself does weigh about 46 pounds, so it's not unreasonable to take off, if that's the way you prefer to do it, but you can leave it attached to your RV and just fold those arms either up or to the sides there. So couple different ways to securely store it alongside your motor home. We do have these integrated safety cable clips here that will keep our safety cables up off the ground so we don't have to worry about them dragging. The included safety cables are a vinyl-coated cable with the steel S-hooks and these spring-loaded latches here. It's gonna make sure that we have a nice secure connection. It's always nice when you're getting hooked up so you don't have to worry about one coming loose and falling off and that sort of thing so these will do a good job keeping those cables up off the ground. We also have this built-in storage rod here that's going to keep your electrical cords in place. Those electrical cords are sold separately. Is gonna depend on your different kinds of connections, but that will slide right into this here and that will help to keep that up off the ground as well. One of the other nice features of this is that you're not gonna need a high-low adapter for most setups because our shank does have a built-in 1 1/2 inch rise or drop for adjustability. We're also going to have this adjustable head that's gonna tilt up or down 3 inches to help keep your tow bar parallel with the road during travel. Overall, this is gonna be a really nice tow bar for you. It's made here in the USA. It's got this e-coat finish, provide corrosion resistance, and it comes with the lifetime limited warranty and lifetime technical support from our experts here at etrailer.com. So if you're new to flat towing, a tow bar system is just one of the components that you're gonna need. You'll also need a supplemental braking system, some sort of lights to send that signal back from your RV back to the end of your vehicle. This is going to give you both your tow bar and your safety cables here, but of course, you also need a base plate on the front of your vehicle to get this connected to. So just one of the, or two of the components that you're gonna need to flat tow your vehicle, but it is gonna do a good job for you if you have that Reese and/or Valley Industry's base plate already on your vehicle this will be very easy to get hooked up for you. So that completes our look for today. Again, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching.
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