Patent ID: 8128116

Claim:
A tow bar for connecting a towed vehicle to a towing vehicle, the tow bar comprising: (a) a towing hitch member secured to a towing vehicle; (b) a towed hitch member secured to a towed vehicle; (c) a head member structured to releasably connect the head member to the towing hitch member; (d) a pair of tow bar legs, each tow bar leg having: (1) a proximal end including an outer member with a distal end, and (2) a distal end including an inner member with a proximal end telescopingly displaceable within the distal end of the outer member; (e) a leg connector mechanism pivotally connecting the proximal ends of the tow bar legs to the head member; (f) towed connector elements secured to the distal ends of the tow bar legs, the towed connector elements being structured to releasably connect the tow bar legs to the towed hitch member; and (g) a locking mechanism structured to automatically and releasably lock each of the tow bar legs in either a stored configuration or a deployed configuration, the locking mechanism including at least one spade device secured to each outer member and a shuttle member fixedly secured to each inner member with the shuttle member having a peripheral groove thereabout to releasably receive the at least one spade device of the respective tow bar leg.