Breakaway car

Just read this article for the second time. I own a Chevy product with a Demco baseplate, so I was concerned to see if this was a generic issue with Chevy or Demco. Can't tell for sure if the baseplate is Demco or not, but I went to the Demco website and downloaded the installation manual for the Equinox. Looking at the photos, it seems as though the spot welds attaching the bumper mounting plate to the sub-frame are broken. If this is a Demco baseplate, upper and lower brackets are provided to bolt extra support gussets behind the spot-welded bumper mounting plate to the frame. These appear to be missing on the subject vehicle. I have not checked other baseplate manufacturers installation plans, but spot-welded components should not be placed under this type of stress without re-enforcement. It looks to me that the installation was done improperly or incompletely if this was a Demco.

I'm not defending Demco but I am trying to apply the lessons learned so that this type of occurrence does not happen to me. I witnessed an incident where the hitch receiver became unbolted from a MH's frame. I now annually sound my receiver's mounting bolts. By the way, I verified my installation and noted that my baseplate is re-enforced by additional bolting into the sub-frame channels. The best use of any forum is to understand the actions and inter-actions of components and learn from other's experiences. JM2¢...