2015 Ford Focus flat tow damage

[j_wackerly]

I had a 2015 Ford Focus that Ford said it could be flat tow behind a RV . My Ford Focus came lose from my RV . The unibody broke from the weld . The whole front of car came off . The car was still under warranty and Ford would not fix it . I baseplate was installed per instructions . It was still attached to the front of the car when it came off . This car should not be flat towed . It could happen to any Ford Focus with the same unibody.

[D_E_Bishop]

In my opinion Ford says that the car can be towed four down, it does not say that it can be towed four down with any specific method of attachment. Roadmaster says/infers that their baseplates are a valid method of attaching a tow bar to a vehicle without causing damage.

In as much as you installed the base plate and tow bar and not Ford, and Ford has not approved the use of those base plates, they are not going to be held responsible.

The photos you posted appear to show that the base plates were not the point of failure, so Roadmaster isn't the responsible party.

Who is then responsible, "YOU". Why, because you made an unauthorized modification to the vehicle. All this responsibility stuff has been hashed out in Court and while it appears that there was a mechanical failure of the vehicle's frame, it would likely fall into that grey area of what really caused the failure.

Should there be a history of failure of the frame, and I mean hundreds of similar failures, or several deaths or... Do you get the point.

It may seem to you that Ford should should cover the damage under warranty but the warranty does not cover any owner modifications that they did not approve. Read the warranty, it says you are responsible from the time of modification until the failure. Sorry.

Your post is a valid and helpful bit of information and thank you for that important post.

[Elk_traveler]

I read this topic with some concern as I tow a 2017 Ford Focus and have done so for more than 20K miles with some four trips from the east coast across the rockies of Wyoming, montana and colorado. It appears the towbar could have been connected to the bumper assembly instead of to the chassis properly. I remember when I had baseplate installed the mechanic had to remove the entire front end of vehicle in order to make the correct connections since he said it would be literally impossible to properly hook up the tow bar unless he remove the front end. Once removed I could see why because the Focus being subcompact is very cramped and you simply cannot reach anything unless you have clearance. Anyway he did a good job as I have never had any problem associated with the baseplate mount which is critical for any flat tow.

[carringb]

1) How would a 2015 Focus be "under warranty" when the factory bumper-to-bumper warranty is only 3-years?

2) The baseplate was attached to the bumper assembly, not the chassis aka "unibody". The section affected is part of the crumple-zone.

3) Rust indicates the welds were cracked a long time. Could be from towing stress. Could also be from a low-speed collision that maybe didn't even cause visible external damage. I'd put my money on a tow-bar that wasn't level however. This causes tremendous stresses under braking and accelerating.

[j_wackerly]

dodge guy wrote:
Blue ox gives you the same safety cables to go around the frame rails. Must be something with the Focus, because I haven’t seen those on other vehicles including my Explorer.

I looked at blue ox and the base plate all bolt on the same Before i towed the Ford Focus i towed a Honda for years . I sold my Honda and the guy i sold it to is still towing it with no problem . I was going to buy a new Honda CRV in 2015 . I found out you can no longer tow them because of the new tranmission. So i had to settle for a Ford Focus . Big mistake after 4 transmission 2 modules and unibody problems . It looks like the base plate manufacture and car manufacture need to get together to engineer the right product especially for unibody cars.

[dodge_guy]

Blue ox gives you the same safety cables to go around the frame rails. Must be something with the Focus, because I haven’t seen those on other vehicles including my Explorer.

[hohenwald48]

j wackerly wrote:

hohenwald48 wrote:
Like I said, Ford designed the chassis and specified the welds to hold the body panels, doors, bumpers and other components, in place under normal use. The owner, in conjunction with the baseplate installer and manufacturer endeavored to modify the vehicle to serve a function not considered by the Ford design engineers. Any failure of a vehicle caused by an unauthorized modification is the responsibility of the person making the modification. Ford has no control over how you decided to mount the tow bar. :R

According to your logic, if I decided to mount a 5th wheel hitch on the roof of a Camry and pull a 40' 5th wheel around, Toyota should be responsible if the roof couldn't handle the stress

As to the transmission, based on post #1 I thought this was a thread about a tow bar failure.

The reason i posted this post was to make aware this could happen to anybody that tow a Ford Focus . I purchased this car because Ford said it can be flat towed as stated on page 185 of owners manual. And roarmaster base plate will work on this car per instructions . As a consumer who can you believe ? The only way this could be avoided is to have a full frame car .

Or a better engineered tow bar baseplate. When they provide the little short safety cable to go from the baseplate to some other location on the vehicle that should raise a red flag.

Thanks for making everyone aware that Roadmaster makes a sub standard baseplate for the Focus. Maybe other Focus owners should consider other baseplate manufacturers.

[j_wackerly]

hohenwald48 wrote:
Like I said, Ford designed the chassis and specified the welds to hold the body panels, doors, bumpers and other components, in place under normal use. The owner, in conjunction with the baseplate installer and manufacturer endeavored to modify the vehicle to serve a function not considered by the Ford design engineers. Any failure of a vehicle caused by an unauthorized modification is the responsibility of the person making the modification. Ford has no control over how you decided to mount the tow bar. :R

According to your logic, if I decided to mount a 5th wheel hitch on the roof of a Camry and pull a 40' 5th wheel around, Toyota should be responsible if the roof couldn't handle the stress

As to the transmission, based on post #1 I thought this was a thread about a tow bar failure.

The reason i posted this post was to make aware this could happen to anybody that tow a Ford Focus . I purchased this car because Ford said it can be flat towed as stated on page 185 of owners manual. And roarmaster base plate will work on this car per instructions . As a consumer who can you believe ? The only way this could be avoided is to have a full frame car .

[hohenwald48]

Like I said, Ford designed the chassis and specified the welds to hold the body panels, doors, bumpers and other components, in place under normal use. The owner, in conjunction with the baseplate installer and manufacturer endeavored to modify the vehicle to serve a function not considered by the Ford design engineers. Any failure of a vehicle caused by an unauthorized modification is the responsibility of the person making the modification. Ford has no control over how you decided to mount the tow bar. :R

According to your logic, if I decided to mount a 5th wheel hitch on the roof of a Camry and pull a 40' 5th wheel around, Toyota should be responsible if the roof couldn't handle the stress

As to the transmission, based on post #1 I thought this was a thread about a tow bar failure.

[j_wackerly]

If you look at my photo on page 1 you can see where the unibody came loose from the weld . The above photo shows a roadmaster instructions where the base plate is installed to the unibody. I did some research on base plates and roadmaster or blue ox install the same . You decide did roadmaster or Ford did not anticipate the fatigue on the on the unibody ? I am no engineer but who can you believe to trust on a car that can be tow with all wheels down ?

[j_wackerly]

Click For Full-Size Image. This is a photo of my 2015 Ford Focus Roadmaster base plate that failed .

[j_wackerly]

file:///var/folders/tj/js23wsr126l1p6d1m3q75qg00000gn/T/com.apple.Safari/WebKitDropDestination-Vwj0VfT8/Image%209-30-21%20at%204.45%20PM.jpg

[dodge_guy]

Yes the shifting is like a new kid learning to drive both the car in general as well as learning to drive stick at the same time, only it never gets better! LOL

[rdhetrick]

dodge guy wrote:

My buddy had his replaced at 30k miles. and has been flawless for 100k miles. just a month ago he needed to have the shift module replaced. still under the extended trans warranty. all these transmissions are, are a manual transmission with a complex shift assembly attached to them.

Correct, but the "complex shift assembly" was notorious. I had mine for about 60k miles, and while mine never "failed," it did a lousy job of shifting. I took it in to two different dealers, they just said "it's normal" and wouldn't do anything.

Clunks, stutters, hard shifts...no fun to drive, and I always worried about it leaving me along the side the road.

Never so happy to get rid of a car as I was with that one!

The story I heard was that this transmission was modelled after a BMW or Porche (not certain of the brand) that worked really well. I'd guess the Ford engineers missed a few fine details when copying it, or just cheaped out on something, that resulted in a terrible user experience.

[dodge_guy]

j wackerly wrote:

hohenwald48 wrote:
Actually, I think fault lies with the baseplate manufacturer, the installer or with the vehicle owner. They're the ones who designed and installed a baseplate to an insufficiently strong point on the vehicle frame. Like someone said, if the baseplate manufacturer designed the baseplate to bolt to the license plate bracket, who's fault would it be when the license plate bracket pulled off?

Several years ago some baseplate manufacturer (don't remember who) designed a baseplate for a Wrangler that bolted on to the lower front air dam bracket. Several folks had issues with that but it certainly wasn't Jeeps fault.

When you bolt something on to a vehicle, it's your responsibility to make sure it's bolted to something that can handle the load. Ford did nothing wrong here. They designed a frame to hold on the front panels of a car they built. I doubt they ever certified the baseplate design. They did say the car could be towed 4 down but they likely never said you could bolt a towbar in that location.

And Ford doesn't make the decision as to who can bring a class action lawsuit. :S

How about the transmission problems 4 in less then 5yr . I am not the only one on that .

My buddy had his replaced at 30k miles. and has been flawless for 100k miles. just a month ago he needed to have the shift module replaced. still under the extended trans warranty. all these transmissions are, are a manual transmission with a complex shift assembly attached to them.

[j_wackerly]

hohenwald48 wrote:
Actually, I think fault lies with the baseplate manufacturer, the installer or with the vehicle owner. They're the ones who designed and installed a baseplate to an insufficiently strong point on the vehicle frame. Like someone said, if the baseplate manufacturer designed the baseplate to bolt to the license plate bracket, who's fault would it be when the license plate bracket pulled off?

Several years ago some baseplate manufacturer (don't remember who) designed a baseplate for a Wrangler that bolted on to the lower front air dam bracket. Several folks had issues with that but it certainly wasn't Jeeps fault.

When you bolt something on to a vehicle, it's your responsibility to make sure it's bolted to something that can handle the load. Ford did nothing wrong here. They designed a frame to hold on the front panels of a car they built. I doubt they ever certified the baseplate design. They did say the car could be towed 4 down but they likely never said you could bolt a towbar in that location.

And Ford doesn't make the decision as to who can bring a class action lawsuit. :S

How about the transmission problems 4 in less then 5yr . I am not the only one on that .