Setting up the Vibe as a "Toad".

[Mr. October]

I spent a good deal of the weekend completing the transition of my Vibe to be towed behind our little motorhome. (This is known as a Toad in Motorhome-speak). To do this, I acquired the following components:1. Towbar - Roadmaster Stowmaster. I got it used on eBay about half of what a new one costs.2. Baseplate - Roadmaster 3130-1 XL. I got this from KC Trailer Supply using their eBay store. It was dropped shipped from Roadmaster and arrived at my house in two days. The price was VERY good. The XL is not only required to use with the Stowmaster, but very nice overall because the pieces that protrude from the grill are removable when not towing. Very unobtrusive.3. Blue Ox Apollo Supplemental Brake controller. Used on eBay.4. Blue Ox Breakaway switch. This is basically an emergency pin connected to the MH by a cable. If the toad comes loose, the pin pulls and the brake activates. 5. Blue Ox remote brake indicator. This is a wireless transmitter you tap into the cold brake wire and it indicates when the Apollo presses the brake pedal. This way you are not riding down the road dragging your car with the brakes locked up. (That would be bad). 6. Magnetic inidicator lights. This is in lieu of wiring the car lights with the motorhome lights. The magnetic lights are just run by the motorhome. Installations were, overall, fairly easy. For the baseplate, simply follow Roadmaster's excellent intstructions. They are to-the-letter-and-picture perfect. This is definitely not worth paying someone to do. If you have basic mechanical ability and are nimble enough to change your own oil you can do this. A good sharp 1/2" drill bit at least 8" long is required. The Roadmaster manual says 12" but that is actually too long. You need to drill 2 holes through the frame. BTW . . . it's a little scary how easy THAT is. Other then that, follow Roadmasters instructions. I'll take pictures of my mount of the breakaway switch. That was easier then I expected too. I mounted it in the center of the frame just on the passenger side of the center support bar for the Roadmaster Baseplate. (It would be just on the passenger side of the center tow hook if it was still there). I then routed the wire in front of the engine, up by the washer fluid fill, and then along the main wiring harness back to the firewall. I tapped a separate hole through the firewall just below where all the other wires go through. It was too tight to try to get another wire through there. I'll take pictures of this and post later. What should be the easiest part turned out to be the most difficult. This was there remote brake indicator. Basically, it is a transmitter that goes in the car and a receiver that goes in the motorhome. Both are the size of a pager and plug into a 12-volt outlet. The transmitter has one other wire that taps into the cold brake wire via a Scotch lock clip. The cold brake wire is the one that that only has power when the brake pedal is depressed. If you look under the dash there is a little plastic button that is release when the brake pedal is pushed. There is a wiring harness with about 3 or 4 wires going into it. The green & white one is the cold brake wire. Simple enough . . . right? Except without dismantling the dash, you need to do this upside down, and one handed. My first attempt failed but then I discovered I had an extra wire caught in the clip and the blade never tapped into both wires. A quick squeeze with a pair of pliers and I was set. Now it took some doing to verify the green & white wire. This is especially challenging since there are no good ground points near the brake lights and no exposed wire ends near the brake pedal. I only blew one fuse though. (Note: the 15amp fuse for the inverter . . . which I stole for the brake lights . . . also powers the headlight indicator, and some of the dash lighting). The Apollo brake itself is a no-brainer. It actually just sits on the floor between the drivers seat and pedal and has an arm you hook to the brake pedal. It then uses a 12 volt air compressor to push the brake pedal. It uses an internal surge/momentum detector to pickup hard braking and that is when it applies the brake. I'll try to take a bunch of pictures tonight and post them.

[Mr. October]

So I never got around to the pictures. I'll try to do that soon. After the initial towing experience I have changed things up a bit. 1. I added a battery-direct 12-volt kit for the Apollo. This was highly necessary since the compressor kept blowing the fuse in the 12-volt adapter. I towed home from Cape May without the brake actually working. 2. As part of that I wound up putting the wire for the 12-volt direct kit through the hole I originally drilled through the firewall for the breakaway switch. I then used a stiff wire to coerce the breakaway wiring through the existing wiring sleeve amazingly without breaking or cutting any of the other wires in there. The little Vibe is a great Toad . . . we zipped all around the Poconos with it this past weekend.

[WD0AFQ]

Glad to see that I am not the only guy towing a Vibe. We have towed it for about 3 years now and have 15,000 miles or more behind the coach. When my wife walked out and saw the frontend off of her new GT lying in the grass she nearly had a cow. The hideaway bracket from Roadmaster is the only way to go. U can't see it is on the black vibe when I pull the bars out. Got the same system on my Jeep Cherokee. Hate seeing those brackets protrude out there. The Vibe is a good toad for us and is why we bought it. Nice little hotrod.Dan

[KNINE]

How did you attach the tow bar? With ribbits?

[Mr. October]

Finally . . the promised pictures . . . First is a view of the installed baseplate/tow brackets from the front. This is in their normal State without the towbar adapters on them. Very unobtrusive. Note that I cut out either end of the grill. I could have removed it altogether but decided that look dumb. Next is a pic of the breakaway switch and the middle baseplate support. This pic suffers from the bragging fisherman syndrom. The switch looks like it is about 9"x6" weighing about 10 lbs. In reality it is about 3"x2" and wieghs a couple of ounces. Next is the final product inside. The yellow wire on the left is where I hook the remote braking indicator. It is basically a two-way transmitter that activates (picture keying the mic) when the brake pedal is pressed and sending current to the tail lights. The same current also activates the braking indicator. The ends of the breakaway switch that plug into the Blue Ox Apollo brake and the excess 12-volt direct wire are tucked back into the doghouse housing under the radio console. Next shows part of how I routed the breakaway cable up from underneath, around the engine compartment and back through the firewall. I basically brought it up by the windshield washer reservoir and then followed a wiring conduit back to the main channel through the firewall. This is where both the breakaway and the 12-volt batter direct wiring goes through the firewall. If you look below the sagging red wire of the breakaway and right above the big hose you can see the 7/16" hole and rubber grommet where the grey 12-volt battery direct wire passes through. The hole was drilled from inside the car into the engine compartment. The 12-volt wire runs straight back from the battery along the drivers side of the engine compartment. Finally, here is the battery direct connection. I used the Brakebuddy 12-volt connection. It was all inclusive. Wiring, fuse connector, 12-volt plug, mounting bracket w/ screws and rubber grommet. Next time I set it up with the towbar attached and the brake in place I'll take a couple more pictures.

[Mr.D]

Great write-up! I'm going to be installing the Roadmaster XL bracket kit tomorrow on our '04 Vibe. I'll be towing the Vibe with a Roadmaster Sterling tow bar that I'm buying from a neighbor. How have the magnetic lights worked for you?

[Mr.D]

Got the brackets installed today, all went pretty well. I had to get a 6 inch drop hitch to match up the receiver height and the Vibe's bracket's height. The Vibe's brackets are 14.5" and the RV was 22", but with a 6 inch drop it's now a nearly perfect 16" We're pretty excited to try it all out in a couple of weeks. I bought magnetic lights at the local Harbor Freight, and plan to have a round four wire plug on the XL bracket and then run wires through the undercarriage to the spare tire area. There I'll have a flat 4 plug for the Mag lights to plug into and run the wires out the hatch to the roof. I think it'll work well...

[Mr.D]

Finally towed the Vibe this week, it towed like a dream, hardly felt it back there. I'm really surprised that we don't see more Vibes being towed behind RVs with all the positives that we're all so aware of here at genvibe!