Two good friends within the past 30 days have had a critical event happen to them, that has put me on alert. If you are towing a car, truck, suv and the towbar (both Blue Ox's--in these two cases) this word of CAUTION may apply to you. This is any towing arrangement whereby there is a baseplate that is mounted on any vehicle and the towbar/mounting baseplate is six years or older and/or the vehicle has been exposed to salt air (as in within 25 miles of an ocean), you might want to do a thorough inspection. If you see ANY CRACKS developing, you may want to do further testing.
I've added a couple photos from the most recent incident. These friends were far more "lucky" than the ones traveling near Lynchburg VA last month. Both instances the vehicles were traveling under 25 MPH. However the first incident cost my friends over $35,000 and a month delay in their planned travels. I can't begin to fathom what things would have been like if out on an Interstate and this happened to me. No co-pilot!
Here's a link to the two photos I've posted in my album.http://foreforums.com/index.php?action=media;sa=item;in=1021 (http://foreforums.com/index.php?action=media;sa=item;in=1021)
You can never be too careful, can you?
We have a Road Master setup (Falcon All Terrain) and I believe the instructions advise an inspection every 3000 miles.
"Additionally, check the tow bar bracket every 3000 miles - inspect for any fracture or cracks in the steel or any visible damage."
I have heard of Blue Ox failures.... has anyone heard for failures with Road Master?
I've read of two other cases on another forum. These are not the first. Rather scary!
George,
Do you mean like this one.
I discovered it while I was at HWH getting some work done.
I called them & they promptly sent one to me overnight.
It was 6 years old.
Yikes!! I'm about 18K miles over due. Checking now, though...
Brother got the Roadmaster education behind his Foretravel, Towing a F250 Ford using the Roadmaster, broke twice on the Alaska trip, Finally had wife drive it to Blue Ox factory where they installed the proper system. no more issues of banging into the back of coach
Roadmaster, best check every time you fuel up.
Blue Ox, check once a month.
Can not compare Roadmaster with Blue Ox, like compairing a Vega with a Fine car.
Just more experience
Dave
Very good advice, especially since tow baseplates are almost an "out of sight, out of mind" item.
We run Blue Ox as a baseplate on the CR-V and Roadmaster (Sterling) as our tow bar. The tow bar gets an inspection, cleaning and lube each time we hook up; it's time to add the baseplate to the routine (especially since it's 6 years old).
Thanks John!
Michelle
Blue Ox now puts a tight safety cable around the base-plate and a nearby car frame member. If base-plate mounting bolts or mounting frame breaks loose, the safety cable is supposed to keep things from coming apart.
I built my own mounting for the Blackhawk All Terrain tow bar to hook up my Dodge Turbo Diesel 4X4. My connections are through bolted to the frame rails along with the custom front brush guard bumper. The safety cables are attached via another plate through bolted to the frame. Only one shop was willing to tackle the installation and wanted to weld the recievers to the frame. I think my installation is much stronger. It is some what a moot issue since I am looking to replace the 7000 pound truck with something lighter.
I realize that many of today's towed vehicles do not have a frame to attach anything to so vigilance is necessary as the places of attachment were never designed for that much flexing.
One of the beauties of a wrangler and a blue ox is that you can see the baseplate and mounting bolts every time you hook up. Mine is nine years old and about 300,000 miles on it.
I check it prior.to every trip and look at it at every stop. Found a pin coming loose once but other than that no issues.