Warning for Blue Ox base plates on Honda CR-Vs

Yikes! Had not heard of this ever happening...BlueOx, not even other brands. We flat towed for a year with a 20 year old Jeep using the steel front bumper and a cheap tow bar -- something I was always worried about is what happened to you. I thought the actual baseplates (vs setup we used to have) was safer.

Thanks for the warning!

Thanks for sharing about your issue. What's the response from BlueOx been?

Y-Guy wrote:
Thanks for sharing about your issue. What's the response from BlueOx been?

So far I've gotten no reply from Blue Ox.

mleekamp wrote:
Yikes! Had not heard of this ever happening...BlueOx, not even other brands. We flat towed for a year with a 20 year old Jeep using the steel front bumper and a cheap tow bar -- something I was always worried about is what happened to you. I thought the actual baseplates (vs setup we used to have) was safer.

Thanks for the warning!

I'm actually thinking of switching to a jeep with an offroad bumper so I won't need a base plate anymore. What was your concern with this setup?

Yikes is right! Honda CR-Vs have been a popular towed vehicle for a very, very long time. Really surprised to hear of this happening with a CR-V.

Yeah, makes me also think once again, that I went the wrong way in installing a blue ox base plate on our Jeep Wrangler, and may well one day pull it off and go with an offroad bumper with built in tow hooks that bolt directly to the Jeep's frame.

I've had Blue Ox on 4 of my vehicles with no problems. I have seen motorhomes try to back up with the toad attached and this can break the base plate.

egrove wrote:
So far I've gotten no reply from Blue Ox.

That is very disappointing, I'd at least think they might want to inspect it - doubt they will step up to replace it but at least learn from it.

egrove wrote:
I'm actually thinking of switching to a jeep with an offroad bumper...

I went this route, very happy with the setup.

What do YOU think caused it?

Horsedoc wrote:
What do YOU think caused it?

It appears to be a bad design. The metal used for the drop from the car attachment point to the main cross bar stressed over time and cracked. This has happened to others besides me. I won't buy another.

It isn’t only the Blue Ox Brand that has questionable design issues!
We have an Excalibar by Demco Tow Bar and Baseplate which separated from the front of our 2007 Honda CRV!

In our case I chocked it up partially to the inability to check the various bolts to see if any were becoming loose. And the attachment design of the baseplate.
The Base Plate and Hitch assembly always felt secure and towed well for about 40,000 Miles. Then during a slow turn while proceeding left at a Stop sign with a loud rendering of metal the entire Base Plate and lower Plastic Bodywork tore off . The only thing connecting the car to the Motorhome was one extra cable that I had attached to the tie down ring on the Honda and the safety chain loop on the Motorhome.

I have photos but am unable to post them to this website!

The design flaw is that the Baseplate was not properly designed to utilize the Hondas Bumper mounting points but rather was attached to the Sheet metal of the unibody !

From what I have read this same issue has occurred on other makes of vehicles that are unibody.