To explore local areas, get groceries, etc, we drive our 2016 Chevy Colorado pickup truck. But driving that as well as the coach isn’t ideal, so we got a tow bar installed on the coach, plus modifications to the truck, to enable the coach to tow the truck. When the truck is towed by the coach, it is colloquially called a “toad”, for obvious reasons.

We lucked out in that the truck we already had is one of the few models that can be towed “four down” aka “dingy towed”, i.e. with all four wheels rolling on the ground, instead of having to put it on a trailer or dolly. Four-down towing is much easier than dealing with a trailer.

Here’s the tow bar on our coach during installation:

It has several components, including (left-to-right) an electrical cable for lights, a safety brake cable (to apply the brakes on the truck if it becomes disconnected), two safety cables, the bar itself (with a drop hitch to make it more level), and an air hose for the brake controller:

The air hose is interesting; the coach has air brakes, and the air hose lets the coach braking be shared with the truck (see below):

On the truck side, two tow bar mount points were installed, with a bar connection and a safety cable on each side:

Under the truck license plate was installed the safety brake connection (that will stop the truck if the pin is pulled out), the electrical connection (for the lights), and the air hose connection (for the brakes):

Here’s the whole tow bar setup. The Roadmaster tow bar is top-of-the-line, with non-binding arms, and LED lights on the side, for safety:

Inside the truck is a button to disconnect the battery, which is one of the steps required to be towed (it also needs to change the transfer case to neutral, and other steps).

Actually, here’s the relevant page of the truck manual, detailing the steps to flat tow:

Also inside is an air-powered brake controller that presses the brake pedal exactly like if someone were sitting in the truck, proportional to the pedal in the coach being pressed:

That brake controller is quickly disconnected when the truck isn’t being towed.

And when the tow bar isn’t in use while camping, it can be covered tidily: