rmayer1701

I used Blue Ox products exclusively. The base plate has two stand-offs made of all thread to mount accessories such as the 6 way connector. My SMI Airforce One brake away switch came with a mounting bracket and the install tech mounted it to one of the stand-offs with a couple of jam nuts to hold it in place and allow clearance at the back for the wires. Nice neat and rigid installation.

Hi Gang! We made the 1465 mi round trip to the WIT Rally in Forest City IA flat towing our 2014 C Max Hybrid with not one single problem, including the "death wobble". The only change I made to my set up was to install a 4" drop receiver to get my tow bar closer to a level configuration. We stopped overnight both directions and left it hooked up. All I did was start the car and run it for 3 or 4 minutes with some gear changes thrown in each morning before taking off. We never had any battery issues so the Toad-Charge is apparently working as advertised and the odometer is not accruing mileage while towing. The SMI system also worked flawlessly with the vacuum hose capped off and not plumbed into the C Max brakes. I now feel very confident with this towing set up and using the C Max as a all wheels down toad.

Made the return trip home today with no wobble and zero problems. Also, the hybrid battery level and eco bush had not changed this time so the last time may have been a fluke. I think the C Max is going to make a great toad. Bob

Thanks Gary. I figured that my tow setup was probably OK. I can theorize a lot of different reasons for what causes the wobble. It is basically the same as if someone was in the car deliberately yanking the wheel back and forth. My return to center idea seems to make the most sense as it only happens after some turns at slow speed. We made a couple of stops during the trip with several right and left turns and it didn't happen again. The most dangerous aspect about it is that you have to come to a complete stop to get it to quit which is not the best thing to do if you just turned onto a busy highway! Knowing that it can happen will make me wait for a clear shot to pull out from now on. At any rate it is not a deal breaker as far as using the C Max as a toad. On a slightly different note, I wanted to mention that just before this trip I went to a Love's Truck close to my house and had them install Centramatic wheel balancers on the coach. Our Itasca had a slight shake in the steering wheel at 65 mph, and now it is smooth as silk! We're talking $623 for three sets installed to protect eight tires for less then the replacement price of two tires. If you are not familiar with these, check out their web site and watch their video's. What they do is pretty impressive. Bob

Hi Gang. Finally got to tow our 2014 C Max Hybrid on a 375 mile trip and wanted to share my observations. It was flawless except for getting to experience the dreaded "death wobble" on the 4 th right hand turn out of my neighborhood. It gave the coach a noticeable shaking and I came to a complete stop, then started up again and it went on rolling just like nothing had happened. It also did not happen after that for the remainder of the trip. I know Instr-Tech just posted on this and surmised that maybe he had a worn out steering damper with 30K miles on the car. Our C Max only has 5K so I doubt that is the cause. My receiver on the coach is one to two inches higher then the attachment point on my base plate so there is a slight downward slant on the tow bar. Whether that has any bearing on the occurrence is debatable but it would be interesting if anyone else who has experienced the wobble would post as to the pitch of their tow bars. Seems to me that I read somewhere that you want the car attachment to be level with or slightly lower then the receiver. If not that, then I would suspect that maybe the return-to-center on the steering is slower on the C Max then some other toads when not power assisted and that is what causes the wobble to happen. The Toad-Charge system kept the starting battery topped off so we did not have any problem when it came time to unhook the car. It started right up with no funny messages on the instrument panel. It also did not accrue any miles while being towed. What I did notice is that the hybrid battery was down to about a 35% charge and almost all the leaves were gone from the "eco bush". This did not create any problems and the battery level came back up after a short drive. I believe this happened because we have the SMI Air Force One braking system and as per SMI's recommendation, the vacuum line from the controller is not hooked up to the brake booster on the car. That essentially makes the brakes non assisted which apparently disables the regenerative charging system. With the regenerative system, the brake pedal is very sensitive, especially as the car comes to a complete stop, and I now believe that is why SMI recommends not connecting the vacuum line on the Hybrid model. I'm guessing that using the vacuum assist would cause the car brakes to lock up more often then not because the SMI progressive brake controller is not precise enough to properly control the pedal on the Hybrid. Just my guess, but anyone who has the Hybrid knows what I am talking about with the brake pedal. So, there are my observations, and I hope they are useful! Other then the wobble, it was a great first towing experience with zero problems thanks to all the useful info I got from this forum.

That's where these forums shine. I was able to bypass all the stumbles and get right to the dance. The C Max is my wife's car and replaced her 2008 Toyota Avalon. She has wanted a hybrid for years so we used the opportunity necessitated by our need for a toad and after much research, she settled on the C Max. It was quite a switch for her from the Avalon but she has come to love the car, affectionately calling it her "Little Toad". I have to be careful when I drive it. She knows how many leaves are on her eco bush and I'll hear about it if I make any of them disappear! Our first long tow will be when we attend the WIT Rally in July. If any problems pop up I will be sure and post them here. Bob

First of all, let me say thanks to all the people who have posted on this forum. The info gained helped immensely in gathering all the equipment necessary to get our 2014 C Max SEL Hybrid dinghy ready. Our MH is a 2014 Itasca Ellipse. The work was completed today so my only towing experience so far with this set up is limited to the 30 miles back home, but it worked flawlessly. My set up is as follows; SMI Air Force One braking system, Blue Ox base plate, Blue Ox Aventa LX tow bar, Blue Ox bulb and socket wiring harness, Blue Ox coiled inter connect cable, and Toad Charge battery charging system. The installation was performed at RCD Sales in Delaware OH. They have a great tech there named Shane Oates who did a very professional looking job. Although he has installed the SMI system before, this was his first install on a hybrid so he spent some time on the horn with the techs at SMI and found out about some interesting addendums to the install instructions. Apparently, the vacuum connection to the brake booster is not needed on this car so he was told to just cap the line from the SMI control box to keep it from sucking up debris. Shane wanted to mount the LED indicator for the system inside the car on the front of the left windshield pillar so as to be visible from the camera on the MH. SMI sells a pressure switch kit, part number 99629 that connects the indicator to the air line for the pedal actuator. That way, the LED does not get wired into the car's brake light switch, which according to SMI was causing some problems with the myriad electronics in the C Max. It also means that the LED will only work when the car is being towed. I have that on order and will be taking it back to RCD so Shane can install it. Can't wait until the wife retires so we can start full timing :)