3 Common Blue Ox Tow Bar Problems (Troubleshooting)

If you’re an RV enthusiast, you need a reliable tow bar to carry your daily vehicle behind your RV. Otherwise, you’ll have to go without your daily vehicle and take your RV everywhere. This situation is inconvenient because there’s not much parking available at regular places for RVs.

The blue ox tow bar is one of the most popular choices in the RV community because they have a strong reputation and years of industry experience. However, even though this option is reliable, you can encounter problems occasionally.

Please continue reading to learn all the common blue ox tow bar problems you can experience and how to resolve these problems. We will also discuss the common causes for these situations so that you can avoid tow bar trouble in the first place.

Blue Ox Tow Bar Problems

1. Loosened Tow Bar

One of the most common issues people experience when they have a blue ox tow bar is the tow bar becoming loose.

This issue can be big trouble for people who carry their daily vehicles behind their RVs because they need a tow bar to accommodate the heavyweight. Fortunately, a loose tow bar is an easy problem to resolve and can take you less than 10 minutes to fix.

Common Causes

The best way to prevent your tow bar from becoming loose is to monitor it and take great care of it. The following are common reasons you can experience a loose tow bar.

• The bolts that attach your toe bar to your RV are damaged or rusty.
• You accidentally loosened your nuts and bolts while attaching your vehicle to the back of your RV.
• You did not attach the tow bar all the way when you installed it.

• If you’ve been involved in a vehicle accident, you could have damage to your tow bar and need a replacement. If the metal is bent, it’ll be hard for you to fix this device.

Fortunately, all of these causes are easy and inexpensive to repair. You’re not going to break the bank when you tighten your loose tow bar.

How To Fix

How you fix your loose tow bar depends on why it’s loose. For instance, if you tighten rusty or damaged nuts and bolts, the device will only loosen again. Follow the steps below to fix your loose tow bar and not have to revisit the damage.

• Purchase new nuts and bolts if you notice any rusting or chipping in this area. You do not want to tighten nuts and bolts that have damage because this won’t solve your problem.
• If you didn’t attach your toe bar all the way, this is your opportunity to tighten your nuts and bolts so that you don’t have to worry about devices getting loose. You can use your standard toolbox and tighten these bits until they don’t budge to ensure they’re on all the way.

The easiest way to identify whether or not you have a loose toe bar is to shake it with your hand. You have a tightened tow bar if the tow bar doesn’t move. However, if you can shake this device, you must tighten things up.

2. Damaged Tow Bar

Another common problem with your blue ox tow bar is damage. It’s uncommon for these devices to arrive damaged, but the situation can occur.

You can also damage your tow bar in a vehicle accident or by using it too much. You must follow the guidelines in your tow bars instruction manual to ensure you don’t push it to the limit.

Common Causes

Several things can damage your tow bar if you don’t treat it with coughing. You can also receive a damaged tow bar if you get it through the mail and something goes wrong during delivery. The following are common causes that can lead to a damaged blue ox tow bar.

• You’ve driven with your tow bar for over 70,000 miles, and it’s at the end of this life expectancy.
• You were in a car accident that damaged and bent your tow bar.
• You hauled more weight than you were supposed to using your tow bar.
• Damage occurred to the device during delivery.
• Damage occurred to the device during the manufacturing process.
• Attempting to modify your tow bar.

Unfortunately, there are situations where you can receive a damaged device from the factory. However, you can speak with the customer service representative to get a replacement device when this happens.

Blue ox company has a strong reputation, and if you can prove that you received the damaged device, they will replace it.

How To Fix

If you have a damaged tow bar, there’s not much you can do to fix your device. When the metal gets bent or damaged, the device is ruined, and it’s unsafe to tow your vehicle behind your RV using this bar.

Depending on your situation, you can recoup some of your expenses if you didn’t damage the tow bar.

You can contact the person or company that supplied you with the tow bar and ask for a replacement or refund. If you contact them within the right time frame, they may have no problems refunding your money.

However, if you contact them months after you receive your device, it’s unlikely that you’ll get a refund.

Read your instruction manual to ensure that you don’t put too much weight on your toolbar. Unfortunately, every tow bar has a weight limit; if you exceed it, you can break it.

When it comes to a damaged tow bar, the best thing you can do is strive to avoid damaging this device.

Unfortunately, after you damage this device, there’s not much you can do to resolve the problem period if your tow bar breaks, it’s unsafe to tow a vehicle behind your RV using this device.

You need to prioritize your safety and not take the risk when it comes to towing with a broken tow bar. Otherwise, you could spend more money repairing the vehicle you attempt to tow behind your RV instead of purchasing a new tow bar.

If the company that issued you this device has reason to believe that it received damage in your care, they’re unlikely to give you a refund or replace your tow bar.

So, if you received this tow bar damage in the mail, you need to contact the people who sold you the device as soon as possible to resolve the problem.

3. Rusty System

If you have rust on your blue ox tow bar system, this can cause many problems. Leaving a rusty device attached to your vehicle or RV can make the rust spread to the vehicle.

Rust will weaken your metal and make it susceptible to environmental damage, which is trouble for your tow system.

It’s even worse if the rust spreads to one of your vehicles and causes engine or other damage. Rust is difficult to get rid of and can cause permanent damage to your metal devices.

You need to take great care of any metal items to ensure that it doesn’t develop rust which can lead to bigger problems.

Common Causes

Rust happens when the material on your system whereas away and allows weather damage. Typically, a protective layer on the metal throughout your towing system prevents rust. However, the material will wear out if you’ve had your blue ox tow bar system for a long time.

If it rains on the raw surface of the metal you use to tow your vehicle; the metal will rust. Your blue ox tow bar system is made from steel, and when water interacts with steel, it will always rust if there’s no protective layer.

You can also wear out the outer layer on your steel towing system if you put the system through the wringer. You’ll want to take care of your system to prevent rusting and wearing out your protective layer.

If your towing system gets rusty, it can be dangerous to tow your vehicle behind your RV.

How To Fix

Fortunately, if you’re towing system gets rusty, this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to throw the system away. You should only throw away your rusty system if it’s been rusted for a while and you’re worried that you can’t tell your vehicle safely behind it.

Leaving your system rusty for too long will wear out the metal and make it dangerous for you to tow your vehicle.

However, if you’ve only had rust on your towing system for a few days and your remove this rust, you should be fine to tow your vehicle. Follow the steps below to remove rust from your towing system.

• Remove the blue ox tow bar from your RV or vehicle. You don’t want this device to get wet while you work on getting rid of your rust.
• Soak your tow bar in distilled white vinegar overnight. You can soak it for two nights in a row if you want to ensure you get rid of all the rust.
• Use steel wool to scrape the excess rust after you soak it in vinegar
• Dry off your tow bar.
• Apply rust protectant on your tow bar and let the protectant dry.
• Reattach your blue ox tow bar.

Final Thoughts

You must be careful about using a damaged blue ox tow bar because you could cause damage to the vehicle you’re towing. The most common problems are a damaged tow bar, rusty tow bar, or loose tow bar.

The easiest option to fix is having a loose tow bar because you just need to tighten it up until it’s all the way on the back of your RV or truck.