How To Detach Your Flat Tow Vehicle In Our Case A Jeep Wrangler TJ

We do this together, same as attaching the Jeep, but can be done by one person.  I usually handle everything outside of the vehicle while Ash handles everything inside the Jeep. 

For Outside the vehicle (Kevin’s Responsibility)

Step 1: Find a safe, level and out of way location to detach your tow vehicle.

• If we are pulling into the a campsite or a RV resort we like to detach after we check in. Usually, the check in office has spots where RV can park temporarily. We detach here because the road to the campsites are often narrow and tight. Our objective is get into our site as efficiently and quickly as possible. We can usually detach the Jeep in less than five minutes.

Use work gloves for protection.  

Step 2: Unplug the power cords and the breakaway teether from the RV side and the tow vehicle side.

• We store the cables inside one of the compartments to keep it out of the way from the weather.​

Step 3: Remove one side of the tow bars and safety cable

• Remove the linch pin and then take out the base pin. If the base pin is hard to remove, pull up on the release handle. If the base pin is still stuck, then move the vehicle closer to release the tension. Do this by putting the vehicle into drive and let it coast forward a bit. You do not need to step on the accelerator.  This should ease the tension and allow the base pin to be pulled free. After the base pin is removed, then take the safety cable out. ​

Step 4: Remove the other side.

• Repeat step 3 for the other side. ​

Step 5: Secure tow bars and tow cables and cover tow bars.

• Bring the arms together and hold them in a vertical horizontal position and push the release latch and secure the arms to the latch. Now bring arms down to one side. I put it towards the right side of the RV because the exhaust for the generator is on the left side. Next, take both tow cable hooks and attach near the high-low hitch. If you don’t do this, the cables will drag on the ground when you drive. Once we are on site, I use a dry bag to keep the bars out of the elements. You can certainly purchase a bag that is specially made for the tow bars but this bag works great and I already had it. ​​

Step 6: Make sure Base pins and Linch pins are secured and ready to travel on the Jeep.

• I made the mistake once of not linching the base pin and lost it on the next drive. Good thing we travel with spare base pins.

For Inside The Tow Vehicle (Ashley’s Responsibilities)

Step 1: Put the parking brake on for tow vehicle

Step 2:  Remove the braking system and tuck-away the brake away cable

• Unplug the RVibrake3 Auxiliary Braking System​ from the cigarette lighter, remove the claw from the brake pedal, unplug the brake-away cable and tuck it away from being stepped on while driving. We store the RVi braking system in one of the RV compartments for safe keeping.

​Step 3: Shifting the transfer case back from neutral to _____.

• The ignition of the car should still be in the ON position
• Put your foot on brake
• Shift the transmission into neutral
• Shift the transfer case from neutral to 2H
• Shift the transmission back into park

Step 4: Start the vehicle 

By: Kevin Quiambao

Disclaimer: These are specific steps to detach our 2001 Jeep Wrangler with RoadMaster  All-Terrain Falcon Tow Bars and a RVibrake3 Auxiliary Braking System. Use this as a guideline as your parts may vary. Consult your manuals for specific directions.

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