RV towed vehicle with brakes dragging!

[slo town]

This is a sad story.

My good friend was towing his Honda CR-V behind his big diesel pusher RV. Unfortunately he did not attach the steering wheel/brake lock properly on the CR-V. This caused the brakes to drag on the Honda, but the massive RV pulled like nothing was wrong.

Well, he stopped 100 miles later and when he got out he noticed all four wheels on the Honda were BLACK, and all the rotors scored and BLUE. Upon further examination he found that the brakes got so hot, it actually melted the outer CV joint axle boots!!! Given that, the calipers are surely toast, as are the wheel bearings. No pun intended.

What a bummer. He's a car guy too and can't believed this happened. I suppose it's why there are erasers on pencils.

Can you imagine!?

Scott

 

[exranger06]

There's a guy on another forum who just bought a used Fiat 500 to tow behind an RV. He took it to a shop to have the tow bar and stuff installed, then he went to tow it home with the RV. He accidentally left the manual transmission in 1st gear, got it up to 40 mph, and realized something was wrong. He snapped the timing belt, valves smacked the pistons, did major damage to the engine including cylinder walls. He had to pay a few thousand to have the engine replaced.

 

[Nick1994]

My dad just ruined the front differential in his FJ Cruiser last week pulling it with his RV. I think he left the transfer case in gear, but it's possible the pinion seal just happened to die and it blew out all its oil.

 

[slo town]

I'll pass this on. My friend is still slapping himself!

Scott

 

[Chris142]

Not as bad as my boss. He pulls his jeep behind his diesel pusher. He left the stickshift jeep in 1st gear and drove off. About 60 mph parts started flying out of the jeeps engine. Turned that 258 jeep about 4x its redline. Threw every rod through the oil pan and block,push rods out the valve cover etc.

 

[pkunk]

Almost all TPMS give a display of temperature as well as the tire pressure. No excuse to tow without a TPMS on the toad.

 

[Omahaug]

FYI: It may not necessarily be his fault. There are lots of people who have had problems with toad brakes and in some instances it may have been caused by a design defect with the toad brakes they used.

https://community.fmca.com/topic/1860-honda-crv-brake-lockup/

 

[Andrew1972]

Bummer in the RV life.

 

[PiperOne]

Smart enough to have the money to afford a diesel pusher RV........guess tow vehicles are expendable.

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted by Chris142
Not as bad as my boss. He pulls his jeep behind his diesel pusher. He left the stickshift jeep in 1st gear and drove off. About 60 mph parts started flying out of the jeeps engine. Turned that 258 jeep about 4x its redline. Threw every rod through the oil pan and block,push rods out the valve cover etc.
That was a memorable thread!

 

[CR94]

When a friend moved from Richmond, Va., to Columbia, S.C., she towed her ~'94 Protege behind the rented moving truck, with the front on a towing dolly. Being cautious, she applied the parking brake after driving up on the dolly. Upon arrival in Columbia, no brakes. The rear brakes had become so hot they melted the seals out of the cylinders, dumping the fluid, including the contents of the master cylinder reservoir.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Sorry to hear of the bad luck. In some instances you would think that other drivers would flag the driver to alert him of a problem. I know a guy who had an RV and a carrier behind it with a motorcycle attached. The motorcycle was dragged for several miles before he noticed it had fallen off the hitch. The bike was fastened by tie downs but was dragged for a long time. It was an older Honda street bike therefore no big loss but still not good.

 

[RedOakRanch]

I know guy who flat towed a vw diesel truck, left it in first gear. When he pulled over for fuel it looked like the engine spun around, tearing up everything under the hood!

 

[nthach]

I thought a "tow-ready" car had provisions to spin the tranny's oil pump while the car is in neutral(if it's an automatic) and the brakes on the car needed to be activated by some external means?

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted by Chris142
Not as bad as my boss. He pulls his jeep behind his diesel pusher. He left the stickshift jeep in 1st gear and drove off. About 60 mph parts started flying out of the jeeps engine. Turned that 258 jeep about 4x its redline. Threw every rod through the oil pan and block,push rods out the valve cover etc.


This is something I would love to see the Mythbusters investigate!

 

[Colt45ws]

All these problems from flat towing would make sense to just get a trailer and do it that way.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by Colt45ws
All these problems from flat towing would make sense to just get a trailer and do it that way.

Seems like that adds more weight and perhaps more length. And once at a campground, it's one more thing in the campsite. Or do you mean one of the tow dollys? Still, seems like this is just a few bad experiences. I see lots and lots of toads in the summer season.

 

[slo town]

Originally Posted by joekingcorvette
Sorry to hear of the bad luck. In some instances you would think that other drivers would flag the driver to alert him of a problem. I know a guy who had an RV and a carrier behind it with a motorcycle attached. The motorcycle was dragged for several miles before he noticed it had fallen off the hitch. The bike was fastened by tie downs but was dragged for a long time. It was an older Honda street bike therefore no big loss but still not good.

This is exactly what my friend said. His CR-V had to have been smoking like a WWII battleship! Why didn't anyone flag him down? He could have started a forest fire! He was in the Lake Tahoe area.

Scott

 

[JTK]

Oh man. That's an expensive mistake. It seems like the expenses never stop with big RV ownership.

 

[DuckRyder]

Originally Posted by SLO_Town
Originally Posted by joekingcorvette
Sorry to hear of the bad luck. In some instances you would think that other drivers would flag the driver to alert him of a problem. I know a guy who had an RV and a carrier behind it with a motorcycle attached. The motorcycle was dragged for several miles before he noticed it had fallen off the hitch. The bike was fastened by tie downs but was dragged for a long time. It was an older Honda street bike therefore no big loss but still not good.

This is exactly what my friend said. His CR-V had to have been smoking like a WWII battleship! Why didn't anyone flag him down? He could have started a forest fire! He was in the Lake Tahoe area.

Scott


I would not bet someone didn't try. People are oblivious. I've actually tried to get several people's attention for various reasons (flat tires, towed load issues and so forth) and they ignore you or you can't get their attention probably at least 50% of the time. How someone can fail to hear a horn right next to them is beyond me, but...