Rambler Steel RV Tow Bar (7,500 lbs., 2" Shank) #70001

Just bought and had installed the Curt Rambler Tow Bar and used it to tow my 2015 Jeep Wrangler. The tow bar was easy to hookup and pulled my Jeep with ease. Very pleased with the tow bar, just wished it had a cover bag when not in use while stowed on the back of my motorhome.

I was fortunate to be selected by Curt and Lippert Scouts to receive the Curt Rambler tow bar to evaluate and provide an unbiased review. It included the tow bar, 2 safety cables, hitch pin, and instructions.
The tow bar appears to be well built and solid.
A couple areas of improvement upon initial receipt.
1. One of the latch handles was sticking out of the box when it arrived. It does not appear to be damaged but I imagine damage could occur if this is an ongoing packaging issue.
2. Both of the "Curt Rambler" labels on the arms were not properly applied. The edges of the label looked as if there were peeling but were never adhered to the arms. This feedback was provided to Curt / Lippert and they were going to take it to their manufacturing as they want their name to remain on their product for years to come.

This is my first experience with flat towing and any related equipment. I really like this tow bar so far. It was very easy to setup and hook to my Jeep. I didn't have any issues...even re-read the instructions to make sure I wasn't missing a step.
My wife drove our RV down my driveway and into my yard (I wanted terrain variation) as I walked, watched, and recorded. It performed beautifully without any binding or concerns.
I noticed that storing both arms to one side is a lot more stable (no shaking/wiggling) than storing one arm on each side (shakes a little).
A couple of accessories that I wish were included in the kit are locking pins for all the connections (I already ordered this one) and a storage cover bag (I do not see this as an option on the Curt website yet).
I saw on the website that this tow bar is compatible with Blue Ox base plates. That will be nice for those that already have that base plate as they wouldn't need to change it to use this tow bar.

I want to thank Lippert Scouts for introducing me to this tow bar. The Curt Rambler Tow Bar is easy to install and worked perfectly with my Blue-OX tow plate on my Jeep. I have been pulling my Jeep during my travels over the last two months and I love how easy this Tow Bar is to connect and disconnect from my Jeep. I can connect my Jeep in less than two minutes, and we are on the road. My Blue-OX tow bar would sometimes get in a bind, and it would be extremely difficult to disconnect/connect. I also want to mention that I can tell the Curt Rambler is very heavy duty and the Safety cables are bigger than the ones that come with the Blue-Ox. The Curt Rambler Tow is an improvement from My Blue-Ox Tow Bar. Thank You, Lippert and Curt!!

We were contacted by a representative from Curt and they graciously replaced our Rambler Steel tow bar with a new one and we shipped back the tow bar that wasn't working properly. The new one arrived in perfect condition with better packing materials around it and was assembled in the proper order for the hitch stowing notch. The arms snapped right into the locking position, which made hooking up the Jeep a snap. We are updating our review to Five Stars for the great customer support! Curt manufacturing provided this Rambler tow bar at no cost for a complete and honest review. We really prefer this new tow bar hands down over our previous tow bar system. Thank you for this opportunity and for your unsolicited customer service for product follow-up! We most definitely recommend this tow system.

I was provided the Curt Rambler towing system in exchange for an honest review of the equipment. I replaced my aging BlueOx with the Rambler and I'm so glad that i was able to do so.
The unit shipped to me in a sturdy box undamaged and ready to install. It fits snuggly in the hitch receiver and only took a moment to install. Now I'd like to acquire a locking pin to keep it secure.
What i like best is the handle release. So easy to work the handle and steer the bar into my Jeeps connection. The same with releasing the Jeep at my destination, super easy to release the pressure and remove the tow bar.
Storage of the towing bar is a simple exercise of closing the two arms, lifting them up to lock in and folding down. I do wish that a protective cover was provided to keep out the elements.
Driving down the highway I feel secure that my Jeep is following without issue.
Overall I'm a happy camper and would highly recommend this towing system for every RV'er as providing value to their travels.

Curt Tow Bar Review
Rambler Steel RV Tow Bar (7,500 lbs., 2" Shank) #70001 review for flat towing.
The package with the tow bar arrived in a semi-banged up condition and had a couple of holes in the box, but it did not appear too bad overall. The shipping company had to apply additional packing tape to the box to keep it together as one end had been re-taped only to split back open as it came off the truck. Inspecting the contents revealed that one latch handle pierced through the wall of the box and the rubber-padded coating was damaged at the end of the latch handle. The bag containing the two safety cables and the hitch pin & clip were still inside of the box. Other than the latch handle missing the coating on the end of the handle, there were no other scratches or dents noted on the tow bar system. The tow bar was missing one set of pins from one of the arms/lynch pin assembly. We did have locking pins that fit the pin size and used those to make our connection for us to test out the new tow bar on our Jeep. The Curt Tow bar has a nice finish to it and looks nice.
We removed the tow bar system from the box and lay out for inspection; all looked okay with the minor note that one of the Curt stickers on the product has curled and does not want to stay adhered to the tow bar. We easily were able to then slide the tow bar in to the receiver of the truck and secure it to our truck. In getting the items needed to check for proper torque of the bolts for the clevis and pivot block, we decided to try out the storage position features of the hitch and discovered that the arms did not line up with the storage notches on the tow bar body. Who ever put together this specific tow bar arms together, did not put the arms in proper order before placing the bolt through the holes and washers. This needed fixing and required removal of the bolt and switching the arms position where the bolt goes through. The installation position from the manufacturer had the driver's side arm placed closet to the bolt head with the passenger's side arm placed closest to the storage block. In this position, the arms would not descend in to the storage notches on each side of the block. We removed the bolt, placed the driver's side arm closest to the storage block and the passenger's arm closest to the bolt head, making sure that the washers were in the correct position and re-tightened the bolt to specified 55 ft. lbs of torque. The bolt for the Clevis was about 10 ft. lbs torque off and we tightened it to 90 ft. lbs as specified in the owner's manual.
Once we finished with tightening the bolts it was time to line up the Jeep behind the truck for the hooking up procedure, which was not difficult as we are experienced with this task. We followed the steps outlined in the owner's manual for using the latches for positioning the arms to the base plate tabs and the tow bar lugs, which was easy. After prepping our Jeep to flat towing condition after the hook-up, we then pulled the towing truck forward slightly and that is when we encountered a problem. The locking handles on the passenger arm did not snap down to the vertical locked position while the handle on the driver's side did. We tried a couple of times turning toward the locked arm side while slowly pulling forward with the truck and the latch handle still did not automatically snap to the locked position. It is apparent that the automatic snap lock mechanism on the passenger arm of the tow system is defective and it requires heavy persuasion manually forcing the handle down to a locked position. No matter how much we pulled, moved and rocked the handle, it will not loosen up to allow the snap lock to engage automatically. The handle of the driver's side easily snaps locked with a pull of the arm to the full-extended position by hand. Once we got the handle locked down manually we measured the length of both tow arms and verified each were of equal length so we were assured it was in correct position. We're not sure what makes the snap lock mechanism work, but we're not about to take it apart to try to fix it and so it just makes the hooking up process a little more tricky to make sure all is safely locked in to place for towing.
The safety-coiled cables included with the Curt Rambler Tow Bar are heavy duty and appear well made with tight cables through the thimbles that are well crimped. The safety cables appear to be of better quality than what came with our Ready Brut Elite tow system that we have been using. The safety springs on each cable hook are tight and felt very securely attached both vehicles. We attached our braking system safety breakaway cable and tow lights. We right away noticed that it would have been nice for the Curt Rambler to have a ring or loop to hold the light and the emergency brake cables up from dragging on the road, so we used plastic zip ties. After a light check on our tow vehicle, it was time to take it out for a ride on the roads.
It pulled very nicely and we hardly noticed it there at all. The only time we felt bumping was going slowly in a shopping center parking lot where we stopped and started several times to allow pedestrians to cross in front of us. It is possibly related to the slight looseness of the tow bar in our receiver. Upon returning home from the drive, we disconnected easily from the tow bar, moved the Jeep away and moved the tow bar to the locked stowed position in the storage block of the hitch.
Here are some of our likes and dislikes of the new Curt Rambler Tow Bar.
Our likes include that it is lighter than the tow system we have been using. Second, it has heavier safety tow chains. Third is it is easier to position the arms to the stored position when not having the towed vehicle attached and lastly, there are less pinch point risks of locking handles during hooking up of unhooking of the towed vehicle. We felt the hitch pulled our Jeep well behind our truck and we felt it was secure and was not at risk of detachment from tow vehicle.
Problems we found with the Curt Rambler Tow Bar include poor packaging, which allowed damage to the product inside (protective rubber on latch handle), a missing part (tow/lynch pin), incorrect arm placement during product assembly for storage notch use and one locking arm does not work properly. A minor inconvenience is not having a ring or other way to safely keep tow and brake cables up off the road surface.
Overall, the tow bar pulls the Jeep well, and it felt very secure in travel and we will use it on our travels. Lippert Components and Curt Towing provided the Curt Rambler Tow Bar at no cost to us for this unbiased honest review of their product. Thank you for this opportunity to review your tow system.

My customers and installation technicians like it!