Jones Offset Hitch
by Dave Galey
One morning while sitting at my computer totally engrossed in the next chapter of my new book, the phone rang. The voice on the other end was a bus nut from Canada. Bob Jones informed me he wanted to do some fishing off the pier in Balboa and wanted to know if I knew of a place to park his rig for a day or so.
I thought about it and suggested an RV park in Newport Beach that charges something less than $500 per night. Bob let me know that might be a little over his budget, so I suggested he could park in my back yard and my nightly rate was only, like, nothing. Of course, he would have to drive his tow car to Balboa, about 70 miles from here. That made sense to him so I gave him directions to my backyard.
A few hours later, I heard the familiar sound of a Detroit motor rumbling out front of our house so I went out and met Bob Jones of Raymond, Alberta, Canada. One of his first comments was, "I've read your books and own 'em all." (What a nice thing to say.) As Bob squirmed his GMC 4905 into my back yard, I noticed the unusual design of his tow hitch.
His tow hitch was offset to the drivers side of the bus by about a foot and half. "What's this all about?" I remarked. Well, Bob kinda grinned and began to explain.
This GMC 4905 is a forty foot, two axle bus and it's turning radius is kind of big. In fact, when Bob brought his bus into my back yard, he had to back and fill many more times than I do. Bob went on to explain he had two major reasons for the offset tow hitch.
First, with the offset tow hitch, he could look in his rear view mirrors and see his tow car's left mirror at all times. A lot of us have rear view television monitors to keep track of our tow vehicle. And, a lot of us just rely on looking for the tow car shadow to reassure us of it's presence. But, with the offset tow hitch, Bob has a piece of his tow car in sight at all times.
Secondly, when the tow hitch was center mounted, Bob had a tendency, when making a sharp right hand turn at a corner, to bounce the wheels of the tow car over the corner curb. Now, with his offset tow hitch, he misses the corner curb with both the bus and the tow car. Now you may ask, why doesn't he bounce the tow car over the curb on a left hand turn? Duh.
It is a rare event when a truly new and novel idea comes along. This is one of those events. It is the opinion of this writer that this design should be named in honor of the inventor and hence forth be known as the Bob Jones Hitch. Too bad Bob doesn't have a more unique name like Alzheimer, Heimlich, or even O'Shaughnessy. We may have to be content with the Jones Offset Hitch.
Some may inquire as to the eccentric loading on the towing vehicle. This is not really important since it can be accommodated by some simple structure. After all, the Eagle model "oh-five", and on have the motor offset by seven inches. Do you think an eccentricity of 18 inches on a 35,000 pound bus towing a 4,000 pound car will matter that much? In my experience, the bus considers the tow car to be nothing more than a slight annoyance. I feel confident that bus could allow the tow car to be pulled tangentially with nothing more than a slight correction for steering. It may be argued that a certain amount of right rudder has to be held while towing the car in an offset fashion. And, this will ultimately wear our your steering system along with the associated tires. According to Bob, he has less pull than driving in a light cross wind. In any event, I classify this concept as a truly unique idea and Bob Jones is to be congratulated.
By the way, for those of you driving your rig in Australia, or the UK, simply put the offset on the other side.
Dave Galey is a retired structural engineer with 25 years of experience working on bus conversions. By 1997, Dave had logged over 200,000 miles in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in his own creations. Dave is also the author of several excellent books about conversions through his publishing company, Winlock Galey.
