Towing Our Chevy HHR

After considering several options for transportation when we travel in our RV, we finaly decided to tow our 2009 Chevy HHR on all four wheels with a tow bar.  We did consider renting a car once we arrived at our destination but that can get expensive and it's not very convenient. Then I took a look at dolly towing and that's a lot of work driving the car up ramps and strapping the front wheels down on the dolly.  I also thought it would be a royal pain in the arse to rig the car with a tow bar baseplate and hooking everything up, rig tail lights and install a braking system in the HHR.  

After a lot of YouTube research, talking to those whoe tow a vehicle, I finally decided to look for some used equipment and try it out before we head out on our big Trip Across America next year.  I found a used Blue Ox Avanta Tow Bar on Craig's List locally and I was lucky enough to find a baseplate for my HHR out in Nebraska on Craig's List.  I had our local RV dealer install the baseplate last week and we hooked everything up and went out for a test drive.  It was a very simple hookup, quick and easy.  The only thing I'm still looking at is what to do for tail lights and an auxillary brake system.

Here is a photo of our rig all hooked up and ready to go:

Knot At Sea and Dinghy Connected

I decided to try out a wireless tail light system I found at Pep Boys and so far they aren't working properly.  I'm not sure if its the existing plug on the back of my RV or the lights are faulty.  I plan on checking the pins on the plug to make sure I'm getting the right signals to the correct pin-outs.  If I get these things working properly, it's real easy to attach on the back roof of the HHR with the built-in magnets and the LED's run for days on 6 AAA batteries.

• UPDATE:  It seems that this product is very susceptible to interference.  These wireless lights never functioned with any reliability.  I noticed that when I activate the brake lights, the left one flashes instead of being on steady, and the other one flashes really bright.  There seems to be some kind of interference with the signal reaching from the 7 blade plug/antenna to the back of my towed car.  I returned these lights back to Pep Boys and I plan on installing a permanent wiring harness from the front of the car and connect to the tail lights of my HHR with a diode kit.

The next thing I researched was what kind of auxillary braking system to use.  There are quite a few out there with most of them requiring installation of permanent equipment inside the car.  I didn't really want anything permanent which brought me to the Brake Buddy or the RViBrake that's a completely self contained unit that sits on the floor of the driver's seat with an arm connected to the brake pedal.  The advantage of this is nothing to install and both systems are proportional braking for the towed vehicle.  These systems use high tech inertia modules that sense when you're slowing down and applys the brakes through the arm connected to the pedal with an air cylinder in the unit.  The pressure is maintained by a small compressor that runs on the 12v cigarette lighter.

My RV dealer was kind enough to loan me an older Brake Buddy to try out.  More on this later after I get it hooked up when we leave for our next trip.