We had a moment of excitement recently, pulling out of an RV park onto US 1 in Lexington, SC. Looked in the side-view mirror, only to see our toad peeking out, looking like it wanted to pass us!
Turns out, our 12 year old tow package had a failure: one of the tabs protruding from the front of the car that interlocks with an arm of the towbar broke off, leaving the car attached by only one arm of the tow bar. This allowed the car to swing more widely, side-to-side, which is exactly what I saw looking at it in the rear view camera.
We were fortunate in many ways, one of which is that we were able to stop without any damage to either vehicle, by allowing the coach to coast, allowing the car to 'snuggle' up against the rear of the coach, and to then come to a stop. We unhitched the car, and drove it the rest of the way home.
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The tow unit was a Blue Ox, Aventa II, towbar that mated with a baseplate for a 2001 Acura MDX. Here are some photos of the failed tab -- note especially the hairline crack on the intact tab. It's in exactly the same place as the break point of the broken on.
We reported this incidence to Blue Ox, who has responded as well as one might hope. They are shipping a new set of tabs, and paying to have us ship the old one back to them for inspection.
Turns out, our 12 year old tow package had a failure: one of the tabs protruding from the front of the car that interlocks with an arm of the towbar broke off, leaving the car attached by only one arm of the tow bar. This allowed the car to swing more widely, side-to-side, which is exactly what I saw looking at it in the rear view camera.
We were fortunate in many ways, one of which is that we were able to stop without any damage to either vehicle, by allowing the coach to coast, allowing the car to 'snuggle' up against the rear of the coach, and to then come to a stop. We unhitched the car, and drove it the rest of the way home.
The tow unit was a Blue Ox, Aventa II, towbar that mated with a baseplate for a 2001 Acura MDX. Here are some photos of the failed tab -- note especially the hairline crack on the intact tab. It's in exactly the same place as the break point of the broken on.
We reported this incidence to Blue Ox, who has responded as well as one might hope. They are shipping a new set of tabs, and paying to have us ship the old one back to them for inspection.
You're situation did give me pause because I have a Blue Ox base plate as well, but I noticed in your photos that the failure point is at that smaller second hole that serves no purpose that I'm aware of. I just took a look at my 9 year old tabs, and they do not have that second hole. Hopefully the new tabs they send will be the newer style without the second hole that appears to be the weak point.
