We upgraded our towed car. Per my previous post, the choice was a newer Smart to stay within the Orion's towing capacity. I found this 2016 Smart Passion model at a Denver dealer at the lowest price I had seen in looking for a few months. The price was even better when I saw that the car already was equipped with a tow baseplate, through wiring to the tail lights, breakaway switch, and battery cut-off switch, all worth at least $1500 more as installed. The trade deal for my 2013 wasn't good, so I bought the car outright and sold the '13 for a better price.
Old (left) and new (right) Smarts
I did have to do some work to get the new car compatible with the Orion. I had Roadmaster equipment--tow bar and Smart baseplate. The new Smart has a Blue Ox baseplate. Fortunately, I could get Blue Ox inserts for the baseplate and Roadmaster to Blue Ox tow bar adapters much cheaper than buying a new tow bar.
Tow bar end with new Blue Ox parts (top), old Roadmaster adapter (bottom)
I bought a 2019 Orion 20CB. I'm also looking to buy a Smart car and attach it to a Roadmaster towbar.
ReplyDeleteMy setup is working well. I have used the same Roadmaster Falcon 5250 on both the '13 and '16 Smarts. It was hard to justify the cost of replacing a perfectly good working old one that I bought used for $125 with any new or used Blue Ox towbar that I could find. Good luck.
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