Hitch pin broke

[PyrateSilly]

Hello all,
Going from the Los Angeles area up to Reno, NV. Got 1 mile from the end of the ride when the hitch pin broke and the Fiat Abarth driver's side hit the passenger side of the MH. Luckily we were not going over 30mph but it did damage both vehicles.
Question is does anyone know of anyone that can examine the Blue Ox tow bar to see if it's still ok or maybe need work? Or where can we can get the base plate looked at and/or fixed or if we need to replace it we will. Not much information on their site so thought I might ask here to see if anyone has anyone that might be able to look at things.

Thanks all!!
Christine

[j-d]

Do you have ReadyBrake and ReadyStop?

Sounds like the Fiat wandered around back there, enough to apply the ReadyStop and it stayed applied.

This thread deserves a footnote:

There was damage to the coach and the toad. Toad was totaled as collateral damage to the mishap.

BUT

BUT

BUT

This OP was RESPONSIBLE. I don't mean that as "at fault." I mean it as Doing the Right Thing:

They locked their equipment.
They had safety cables.
They had supplemental braking.
They (it seems now) also had breakaway braking.

They had a full system in place and The System Worked!

For those of you who say:

I don't tow that far or that often.
Nobody enforces this stuff.
My coach has enough brakes to stop my toad.
Braking laws are about trailers not cars.

Consider This:

These nice people are not living in mourning and grief because that toad collided head-on with traffic.

They are not worrying over somebody it clipped on the side of the road.

They are not in legal trouble.

Coach? Toad? They're "Just a Thing." Can be fixed. Can be replaced. Peace of mind can't.

PyarateSilly:

Sure sorry it happened.
Sure proud of you.

[j-d]

You must have had some kind of breakaway braking system that got set in the original incident then stayed engaged.

Dearest RV.net friends: This stuff HAPPENS, and not just one time in one RVer's lifetime. It's rare, just maybe not everyday.

So please, Be Thorough, Trouble Waits with the Greatest of Patience.

Going out to check the locking hitch pin in our coach mounted tow bar. NOW!!!

EDIT: It was OK.

[RJsfishin]

Quote:
I was wrong in thinking it was ok. It was not. I know little but my other half is an engineer and saw what was wrong. I was going off what little I know to start. It was a locking hitch pin that sheared at a point making it like ok to me, not to someone who knows what to look at. If we had been able to get the pin off the highway we would have to send it to the manufacturer for analysis but it was on the off ramp. we were looking but traffic prevented us from getting it off the road.
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It is just amazing that you and your other 1/2 were able to go back and inspect the sheared off pin, which had to be in 3 pcs, and while it was still laying on the off ramp, too far away,.....or traffic to heavy for you to get it.

[Lancslad]

Iv'e got a locking hitch pin. It's got 20k miles towing a 7000lb TT and 30K miles towing a toad. I check it when I put the towbar to the coach. So far no wear. Maybe yours wasn't locked properly... its certainly not part of your Blue Ox system.

[PyrateSilly]

I was wrong in thinking it was ok. It was not. I know little but my other half is an engineer and saw what was wrong. I was going off what little I know to start. It was a locking hitch pin that sheared at a point making it like ok to me, not to someone who knows what to look at. The whole assembly came apart from the tow away from the MH. As a consequence the car hit the back end of the MH since the only thing holding it were the safety cables. After towing 400 miles that is what happened.
THEN on the trip home we were ok'd by the insurance company it was ok to tow back 400 miles to fix what damage they saw. The brakes apparently had been damaged and were dragging and caught on fire. Yep the car was on fire 20 miles down the road. Well a combo of the collision and the fire damage and the car was totaled by the insurance company, actually the axle had been damaged in the collision but the fire did not help in the cost. So instead of just selling our Harley when we got back we are now using the bike as part of the purchase price for our next vehicle.
All just bad luck. The others that have looked at the parts were quite surprised that that particular hitch pin sheared like it did as they are supposed to be extremely well made, better than the ones in that picture in this thread. You could tell from the hole it went into that it had stressed that hole too as it was also compromised. If we had been able to get the pin off the highway we would have to send it to the manufacturer for analysis but it was on the off ramp. We knew the approximate location of where it might have sheared at so we were looking but traffic prevented us from getting it off the road.

Just double check all parts as you never know what might go at the wrong time.

[RJsfishin]

There is something bad wrong w/ this whole senerio.
First the hitch pin broke,
Then found it down the road, and it was ok.
Then "thinking" a bolt sheared off causing the hitch pin to come out.
And the whole time not even knowing "what hitch pin" ??
Then did I read it was a key lock "receiver" pin, that is first of all no part of Blue Ox, and 2nd, it was found down the road w/ nothing wrong w/ it.
What is going on ?? Someone has got to be kidding !!

[klutchdust]

Look up truck fabrication or off road fabricators and have some motor head look at your set up to determine what is going on. Have it put on a lift and inspected. Without knowing which pin broke it's difficult to determine your needs. Chances are you can get back to towing again and have it repaired at home. IF it were my vehicle I would have it repaired near home in case there are issues later that need to be resolved.

[hohenwald48]

Those locking hitch pins are notorious for not getting the lock firmly seated and working loose.

Seems that if the main pin between the Ready Brake shank and the tow bar sheared that the car would head off into the woods on it's own.

What bolt are you thinking sheared off since the pin was fine with only the lock missing (I assume)?

[PyrateSilly]

j-d wrote:
One of these, towbar to coach trailer hitch receiver? Or something else in the towing rig? Can you post a picture?

Actually we were using one of the key locking ones that are supposed to be stronger. This was the one that was hooking the NSA Ready Brake to the Blue Ox tow bar that sheared off.
Again this was only the 3rd time hooking up to flat tow.

[Dutch_12078]

With our ReadyBrute Elite tow bar and Blue Ox base plate, I found that the pins at the base plate end always worked themselves towards the same end of the pin as we traveled. If the end of the pin with the "hairpin" clip happened to be the end that ended up against the the side of the "knuckle", it didn't take long for the hairpin to start wearing through. I labeled the tow bar with arrows showing which way to insert the pins as a reminder, and have not seen any hairpin wear since.

[PyrateSilly]

We were able to back track the driving somewhat and found the hitch pin. It was fine so what we are thinking happened is a bolt sheared off which loosened the hitch pin which then loosened the tow assembly. All within about 1 1/2 miles driving distance.
So far about $3,000 damage to the car but still waiting on the adjuster for the RV on Tuesday. We are pulling out of here on Wednesday to go back to the LA area to have the work done as we have appointments down there we can't change.

[j-d]

Glad there's at least some degree of progress. What was the location of this Hitch Pin? Holding Tow Bar to Car (which would mean one pin on each side)? Tow Bar to Coach (just one pin)? Or somewhere else...?

[PyrateSilly]

Kinda update:
We had only flat towed the car from Los Angeles to Vegas and back again last year. This is only the 2nd time we have flat towed it. My other half is an engineer and double and triple checks everything more than once. So to have the equipment do that only after a few times using it ..... Once things are fixed we are actually going on the road as my other half is going contractor for several companies.

The first opening the insurance company has to do an estimate on the car is Thursday. 3 days after the accident. So taking the fender off and stuff to look to see everything else we don't want to do until they do that estimate. The car is still drivable so we don't have to mess with a rental while we are out of our base at the moment. Thou we may need to rent a small trailer to put the car on as we will not tow with things broke. Not sure when they can get to do the estimate on the MH as they don't know when yet themselves.

[TucsonJim]

Tom/Barb wrote:

TucsonJim wrote:

PyrateSilly wrote:
Insurance was called last night. Since it's an RV and a car there are 2 claims for it. Just talked to Blue Ox and depending on what the pictures show they may end up paying what the insurance does not. Unfortunately we are now waiting on the insurance company to do their bit, according to them it could be tomorrow before we get the adjuster to just call us on the car claim. "Coming up on our busy time" is their response on the slow calls ......

Make sure the adjuster knows exactly what happened and what part failed. They may go after Blue Ox if it's deemed their fault. If they do, then you need to follow up with them to make sure that you don't have a claim against your insurance.

Jim

Does Blue Ox provide the hitch pin ??
If not why would they make good on anything?

Read the OP's second post and he clearly states that Blue Ox is considering paying for what the insurance company wont. And then my post says "if it's deemed their fault". The point of the post is to make sure the adjuster has the facts and can pursue a financial settlement with Blue Ox if their part caused the damage.