Does Reese = Junk?

I have purchased a couple of Curt receivers and have been happy with them. I have two Reese W/D hitches and have been happy with them. I will say that I prefer a welded steel shank versus the cast style.j

My current welded shank is a "Curt" purchased from Amazon. Made in China with a Curt p/n sticker on it.

There are many more Reese products out there than other brands so you would hear more about them. Personally I have had Reese 5th wheel hitches for over 15 years and never had a problem.

I was not happy with my hitch head failures, but finding out it's a known issue from folks here and getting on the right path to getting it worked out, I have no complaints about Reese. Shoot, they GAVE me a new hitch head in addition to the covered one. I was supposed to send it back and they're like, "....meh, just keep it." And the DrawTite reciever I installed is bomb-proof. If they start powder coating them it would be worth it. I'd pay extra for that. Paint is the downfall of all of them that I've seen. But, fit, finish and function does NOT get anybetter than that UltraFrame receiver, IMO. Bolted up like a dream, and NO flex.

BenK wrote:
Jeremiah, with the Internet, this type of 'change' is outed much sooner vs if ever

I've learned to pay heed to folks like you as my filters. There are others that
I'll not... ;)

An example is MOOG HD steering linkages/ball joints

Used to be my go to product, but after my last experience with them...found that
MOOG has been sold and the new owners cheapened their cost structure by going
off shore...China

Not to say the Chinese can't make it to the old spec...but the new owner's bean
counters also cheapened their spec

Betcha the fall out happens to line up, date wise, with them going
off shore...

Good to know and note that I'm going Blue Ox on my next WD Hitch system

Thank you for the kind words.. I do appreciate that.

I know from my studies (Masters program) that anytime a production facility is moved (off shore or down the street) close attention must be paid to QC. I know that "made in China" is the new "made in Japan" (remember the 70's and 80's when Japan = junk? Now Japanese made equals quality.

China can make very high quality stuff.. some of the things that come from China are fine examples of craftsmanship (Coach purses are an example). However, the company has to demand and pay for top quality production and talent. Even in China good talent is relatively expensive. So much so that some companies have found its cheaper to bring the production work back home to the states.

So, what you have is a company that buys into "Cheap Chinese Labor" and moves production over there. However, "Cheap Chinese Labor" can't keep up the quality just like "Cheap American Labor" can't keep up the quality. Quality work and pride in craftsmanship is expensive regardless of the country of origin.

AND... why did Reese move this stuff overseas? Why are their upper echelon hitches still $800-1300 and made in China? How can B&W produce a better product, manufactured in the USA for a cheaper price? Profit Margin is all I can think. B&W's overhead is likely much less than Cequent's.

CURT and HUSKY may be in the same boat I just haven't personally seen the failures described for them. Well, until this thread with the two broke Curt hitches.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

I think you can find problems with any hitch company. The thought that comes to mind is you get what you pay for. You want to buy the cheapest hitch out there its your own fault if it breaks.
My thought is overkill is great insurance when it comes to hitches.

Francesca Knowles wrote:

jerem0621 wrote:
Is this feeling unfounded

Sorta hard to tell if it's "unfounded" or not...can you hook us up with links to some of the "multiple failures" of Reese components that have led to this feeling of unease? And are there no such stories out there about other mfr's hitch component failures?

Or is it just sort of a general perception?

I am with most of you as far as personally experiencing failures. I have not really experienced a failure per say. I know that I specifically mentioned Reese but this is really an issue with Cequent. I have had some QC issues with some of Cequents parts.

My initial post was made on a phone, hence no links... here is some specific instances of QC or Failure that I have observed/experienced..

Personal QC experience

My Kia Sorento had a Tow Ready (Cequent compay) T-adaptor for the flat four vehicle side plug before our accident. The part worked great, but the flat four was not sized correctly and I had to trim the adaptor with a knife to get the adaptor to fit. Minor QC issue here.

My son and I went to Wal-Mart last night and looked inside of the Reese shanks, the "welded" draw bars looked okay.. however the one piece draw bars were rusting like crazy on the inside... I am specifically referring to these.

I also had a hitch head failure caused by Reese Dual-Cam but this was user error and not a Reese failure. I do not blame this on Reese. The DC was doing exactly what it was supposed to do (I mention this because I have talked about this failure before)

Instances of failure (not personal experience)

Pro-Series (Cequent) fifth wheel failure

Dropped my Fiver

Another 20k Reese failure

Scroll to post # 13

Reese Shank/WD hitch failure

Shank failed

Vintage Hitch Head Failure

More hitch head failure

Spring Bar Broke

BRUTAL 16k Carnage

Welds Coming Apart on a Signature Hitch

Another hitch let go of the king pin

I'm tired of researching for now :)

I know that this sample size is small.. but ANY of these failures could have killed someone. I personally do not feel like accepting these types of failures, especially the total failures.

Even if Reese is 99.9% okay, thats still too high of a failure rate.

Remember that if the airline industry was 99.9% safe that means that only 810 airline flights would crash every month.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Reese has made good quality products for years and most replying to this thread are referencing those products. However recently they have decided they can make more money by getting their stuff off shore (read China). Now we are seeing many more problems than in the past. Yes it is still a small percentage but when shanks and torsion bars start breaking its time to rethink who you want to buy from. And BTW I use a Reese 16k hitch but it was made before the quality problems began. Jmo

Also if your not seeing problems, your not looking very hard.

Oh yeah, Curt is way way better... that must be why I had 2 Curt receivers break. I replaced with a DrawTite and it's been fine; what was I thinking?

I would say your over reacting without any evidence of your claims, what has actually happened with all hitches vs other brand cheer leaders conclusions/guessing. Just my opinion.

Hell I could say the same about GM products but what purpose would it serve.

I have only seen 1 reported failure on this forum and it was very strange to see. A complete shank failure is not common but I saw the photos and it was ugly