Third Major Blue Ox Casualty
Yesterday on our first trip of 2014, our Blue Ox Aventa LX Towbar separated in heavy traffic on I-85 near Charlotte, NC. One leg of the towbar came completely loose with the stub end dragging on the...
Forum Discussion
Final OP Wrap up. It was never my intention to castigate any brand but just to report my experience for the benefit of fellow Rvers. When I bought my tow bar years ago I believed it was one of the best. There are many issues and most of the many comments have been thoughtful and very good. I’m glad that many are checking their installations to avoid similar problems.
When we as consumers, purchase a quality, American made, expensive, high-end product , we have every right to assume it will perform as advertised. We are not privy to the design and its trade secrets, nor do we know the CV of the designers, the qualifications of the manufacturing and assembly personnel. Its also not our job to perform definitive failure analysis when failure occurs. But the more we understand permits us to better prevent similar problems. We generally buy based on reputation. Most important is how well the manufacturer supports its customers after the sale.
Attaching a rugged well-designed base plate in the “crumple zone” of a vehicle is an engineering challenge. As we used to say in submarines “keep the people out of the water tank and the water out of the people tank”…the vehicle designer is protecting the “people tank ” using materials designed to crush and absorb energy. As said by many it’s the base plate designer that must meet the challenge of properly attaching his design to a vehicle. I suspect that the manufacturers perform vast numbers of dynamic stress analysis but do they examine “one bolt missing cases”? Perhaps we should tow our cars backwards where materials are heavier and tow points are built in.
With reference to the tearing of the box frame when my base plate separated the second time. I could not locate one bolt on the passenger side (when it departed I don’t know). The second bolt on the passenger side sheared cleanly, possible due to elongated holes. Now the base plate was attached solely on the drivers side (and a 24” lever arm to torque the attachment point on the opposite side). A left turn twisted the baseplate and tore the patch out.
My skin is pretty thick and I can accept the criticism and mindless innuendo that I don’t inspect my components and willingly install “sloppy” partially damaged parts that can be easily checked visibly or that we should pursue metal fatigue analysis.
My tow bar was last connected in broad daylight the day before our planned travel date. It was thoroughly inspected, cleaned and oiled. There was no evidence of anything wrong. It towed perfectly, (centered and straight)for 350 miles and then “FAILED”! There is no evidence that the bar sheared or failed in tension. If the portion that remained attached to the car had not dragged on the concrete and abraded the end threads, the tow bar might have been reassembled. I chose to select a different manufacturer and have since successfully towed another 400 miles and continued our planned travels.
I will be glad to send anyone photos of my experiences by PM but even with four computers in my MH, I’ve never spent the time necessary to include photos to this forum.
When we as consumers, purchase a quality, American made, expensive, high-end product , we have every right to assume it will perform as advertised. We are not privy to the design and its trade secrets, nor do we know the CV of the designers, the qualifications of the manufacturing and assembly personnel. Its also not our job to perform definitive failure analysis when failure occurs. But the more we understand permits us to better prevent similar problems. We generally buy based on reputation. Most important is how well the manufacturer supports its customers after the sale.
Attaching a rugged well-designed base plate in the “crumple zone” of a vehicle is an engineering challenge. As we used to say in submarines “keep the people out of the water tank and the water out of the people tank”…the vehicle designer is protecting the “people tank ” using materials designed to crush and absorb energy. As said by many it’s the base plate designer that must meet the challenge of properly attaching his design to a vehicle. I suspect that the manufacturers perform vast numbers of dynamic stress analysis but do they examine “one bolt missing cases”? Perhaps we should tow our cars backwards where materials are heavier and tow points are built in.
With reference to the tearing of the box frame when my base plate separated the second time. I could not locate one bolt on the passenger side (when it departed I don’t know). The second bolt on the passenger side sheared cleanly, possible due to elongated holes. Now the base plate was attached solely on the drivers side (and a 24” lever arm to torque the attachment point on the opposite side). A left turn twisted the baseplate and tore the patch out.
My skin is pretty thick and I can accept the criticism and mindless innuendo that I don’t inspect my components and willingly install “sloppy” partially damaged parts that can be easily checked visibly or that we should pursue metal fatigue analysis.
My tow bar was last connected in broad daylight the day before our planned travel date. It was thoroughly inspected, cleaned and oiled. There was no evidence of anything wrong. It towed perfectly, (centered and straight)for 350 miles and then “FAILED”! There is no evidence that the bar sheared or failed in tension. If the portion that remained attached to the car had not dragged on the concrete and abraded the end threads, the tow bar might have been reassembled. I chose to select a different manufacturer and have since successfully towed another 400 miles and continued our planned travels.
I will be glad to send anyone photos of my experiences by PM but even with four computers in my MH, I’ve never spent the time necessary to include photos to this forum.
