Done with Blue Ox - a cautionary tale

[mbulriss]

Greg’s out-of-synch porpoising description is pretty much what happened. Bus rear was going down as Hummer was coming up. When I saw the Hummer grill in the rear view monitor, I knew real bad stuff was coming. And it did.

However, one point of order, the failure of the Brake Buddy happened 30 miles prior. The Hummer was in free wheeling mode at the jump. The tow truck driver said his colleagues referred to it as the launching ramp. Apparently it keeps them in clients. Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a liability claim here?

The new Demco is spec’ed as all steel with a lifetime warranty for the original purchaser. At 10,500 lb rating, it was the highest that I found.

I find it unacceptable that Blue Ox had a cast aluminum piece at a major stress point, and a single point of failure location. They have a 3 year warranty. I have not called them yet. Too busy arranging repairs, ordering new tow bar, and just generally re-couping. I will call, but expect nothing, so have concentrated on recovery. Looking at different braking systems now, rather than the inertia driven Brake Buddy, which will merely be a non-activated placeholder for the rest of the trip. Ironically, I had tried to buy a new version of that aluminum clevis when I rebuilt the tow bar with all the Blue Ox rebuild kits. I was told it “was not available for individual purchase”. Good plan!

Shipping delays on everything so far. Thanks UPS! Stuck here until mid next week at this point. Oh well, it’s the only place in the world that you can buy “Michigan” hot dogs and maple walnut ice cream, so I’m ODing on those while I wait out the debacle.

FWIW,