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BLUE OX TOW BAR — Other/I am not sure

crash · 1786767 · 2022-01-05

Vehicle

Make
BLUE OX
Model
TOW BAR
Year
Manufacturer
AUTOMATIC EQUIP. MFG. CO.
Component
Other/I am not sure

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
No
Crash
Yes
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

I experienced a failure of a Blue Ox Ascent ™ motorhome tow bar and subsequent damage to the towed vehicle (2016 Jeep Patriot). The Jeep, at 3300 lbs, is well within the capacity of the tow bar (7500 lbs). The failed towbar and failed safety cables were shipped back to Blue Ox. Blu Ox has replaced my tow setup and made me whole, so this isn’t a complaint against Blue Ox. But when the BACKUP SYSTEMS are challenged and fail, it warrants introspection and consideration of a recall. ACCIDENT DETAILS We connected our Jeep to our motorhome on September 20th AM near Acadia National Park heading for central Massachusetts. I noticed that the spring ring on a retaining pin (non-load-bearing) didn’t snap into place with its usual force and noted to look into replacement pins. This was the 1st such observation, and my wife & I had just completed a 3½ month, 10,000-mile trip around the country during which we connected our Jeep to the motorhome dozens of times. Exiting the interstate, we felt some jerks in the motorhome on the off-ramp onto a two-lane state highway, then felt a 2nd jerk and pulled into the shoulder immediately. The Jeep was no longer connected, but had crossed the two lanes of the HWY and come to rest against the guardrail separating the EB and WB lanes. One of the two towbar arms had fractured at a weld and all the safety cables had parted. The other towbar arm remained attached to the coach. It’s apparent that the suspect retaining pin worked its way out,

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11446396
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown