Done with Blue Ox - a cautionary tale

[mbulriss]

Just a little more info in response to other posts. Here’s a another picture of the fractired clevis that I had thought was steel. I see no signs of prior fractures in the broken ends. Looks all spontaneous to me.

Yes I had a brand new hitch leveler to make the tow bar eye ball level. Think there weren’t some serious sheer pressures involved? My new receiver leveler tube is now 1/2” from straight over the 6” insertion area. I’ll leave it to David to calculate the forces involved. At least it was steel. If that Blue Ox clevis had been, I don’t think I’d be writing these posts.

Still awaiting parts!

[davidbrady]

Have you noticed that Blue Ox changed their design. They no longer let that clevis rotate. Here's one of their new bars: http://www.blueox.com/tow-bars/bx4370bx4...t-tow-bar/. Notice that the rotation about the x-axis (the direction the vehicle is traveling) now occurs at the middle joint. The first joint now has fixed ears welded to the receiver tube. I guess we now know the problem with the old design: one of the ears of the clevis fails, most likely the one that failed at the bolt hole, then the clevis rotates and the other ear breaks in bending. Probably doesn't matter if the clevis is made of steel or T6 aluminum, In this scenario both materials would break. The new design eliminates this. More better!

A quick back of the envelop calculation shows that a 5000 lb vertical force applied 12" away from the bus's receiver would bend that bar. If the bar was solid steel, like the Roadmaster extension, than 7500 lb. So, pretty much the full weight of the toad plus some came down onto that receiver!

[RainbowrvGreg]

I reversed theblue ox tow hitch on my 94pt. to pull my h2 from the oem front mounted 2 inch receiver. made a baceplate that fit in the bus receiver. This change sent the tow'ed turn pivot back 3 feet and allowed for better tracking in turns. the LXi has a big swing and tracks well.
running thru dips I roll and drag brakes to keep the train tight. if I had electric supplemental I could just trip the manual stop a bit but the m and g does not have a trailer brake actuator like my semi has

[Urnie-Medie]

Hi
I also am done with Blue Ox. Driving home I saw my Dodge Ram 1500 trying to pass my coach. Needless to say when I slowly got everything stopped there was damage to both my truck and the coach.
I attached a picture of the clevis. When I contacted Blue Ox they said that only happens when you try to back up a vehicle or make too tight of a turn. I explained to her that I did neither but she insisted that is the only way.
Needless to say I am done with Blue Ox.
Has anyone had much experience with the Roadmaster tow bars?
I think they have a model that will attached to my base plate.
Open to suggestions.

Thanks
Urnie

[mbulriss]

Urnie,

Sorry to hear of your problem. I tried to warn everyone to get rid of Blue Ox. Most of my travels today involve a stacker trailer, but for toads I moved up to a Demco Excali-bar II (10,500 lb rated) to tow my Hummer and have been very pleased with it. It’s a very solid built product. As easy, or easier, to hook up as the Blue Ox was. I’ll never use Blue Ox anything again. If you have one of their brake controllers, get rid of that also. You’ve been warned. But that’s another story. The Demco is pricey but you won’t be repairing your bus and toad because of it. No opinion on Roadmaster since I haven’t used their hitches, but the height leveler I used with the Blue Ox was a Roadmaster product. It bent up pretty badly when the Blue Ox tow bar broke, but it didn’t break.
Update: I see that there is now a Demco Excali-bar III listed for use with Blue Ox base plates on the toad. I saw that at etrailer.com but I’m sure it’s available at many others. I already had Demco base plates on the Hummer so I used the Excali-bar II.
Best regards,

[Arcticdude]

Urnie,
I had a Falcon 2 years ago. It was a really good bar. I switched to a Demco for more weight capacity, but like the Roadmaster better. It was easier to use than the Demco. The Demco works well and had I not had the Roadmaster previously, I would be just fine with it.

I still use the Roadmaster 9100 braking system for my current toad. That works well enough I will not get rid of it.


I must add to this that the Demco folks are super at ensuring their product functions as intended. There have been 2 times where I've called about small issues and they've immediately sent out new parts to me without question.
I'll also add that the perception of ease of use I mentioned previously may truly just be that, perception and not actuality. I don't have to fuss with my Demco bar to get it to work. It just works.