Blue Ox Tow Bar Over Or Under?

In a post earlier today I had shared a video of the Blue Ox Tow Bar installation. The technician walked me through the process of connecting the tow bar. In that video, he had all of the cables under the tow bar.

I had already done some research beforehand and there are different views on whether all of the cables should be over or under the tow bar. Generally, the prevailing view is to place the lighting and breakaway cables above the tow bar and the safety lines below. The rationale is that the lighting and breakaway cables will be better protected from potential road debris.

The Gadget Guru had a Blue Ox representative run through the process and you can see in Andy’s video that the Blue Ox representative does place the lighting and breakaway cables over the tow bar.

I decided to contact Blue Ox directly and I asked them for their specific recommendation.

Here was their response:

Richard,

We only recommend that the breakaway cable be above the tow bar. The safety cables and electrical cables should be under the tow bar that way they avoid the latch handles on the tow bar. The chance that either the safety cables or electrical cable would cause the latch handles to push down and unlock the leg while towing is very small but there is a chance. The breakaway cable is small enough where it doesn’t have enough weight to affect the latch handle. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you and have a great day!