CAUTION!!: Double Check Trailer Hitch

[bigben]

Sure will. It will be a few days. Still hard for me to get down with this new knee.

[Hoosier 26]

I have a nearly identical situation with my 2017 Challenger 37TB. I tow a 2017 Ford Fusion Energi. The vehicle is 3800 lbs. I have towed approximately 10K miles this year. When I returned home from a trip in July I noticed the hitch was too close to the ground. Upon inspection, I was shocked to see a 4” rip in the driver side of the frame extension and a similar rip on the passenger side of the hitch assembly. Both rips were precisely at the bend line of the two pieces of metal.



I am using Blue Ox towing gear on the car with an 8” drop to make the tow bar level.

Thor stood behind the product and paid a local welder to fix and reinforce the frame extension. I will try to get a photo of the repair this weekend. It definitely looks more heavy duty with the bracing that was applied to strengthen the frame extension.

Thanks for bringing up this serious safety issue. A walk around of your rig before each trip could save you a major problem.

[Hoosier 26]

Originally Posted by Hoosier 26

I have a nearly identical situation with my 2017 Challenger 37TB. I tow a 2017 Ford Fusion Energi. The vehicle is 3800 lbs. I have towed approximately 10K miles this year. When I returned home from a trip in July I noticed the hitch was too close to the ground. Upon inspection, I was shocked to see a 4” rip in the driver side of the frame extension and a similar rip on the passenger side of the hitch assembly. Both rips were precisely at the bend line of the two pieces of metal. Attachment 7329

Attachment 7330

I am using Blue Ox towing gear on the car with an 8” drop to make the tow bar level.

Thor stood behind the product and paid a local welder to fix and reinforce the frame extension. I will try to get a photo of the repair this weekend. It definitely looks more heavy duty with the bracing that was applied to strengthen the frame extension.

Thanks for bringing up this serious safety issue. A walk around of your rig before each trip could save you a major problem.

I mistyped the description of the tears. The frame tore on the passenger side and the hitch tore on the drivers side of the assembly. I should add that the fix involved welding the frame extension and attaching vertical reinforcements to strengthen the lip formed by the bend in the frame extension that the hitch is bolted to. That is about as good as I can describe it without pictures. I’ll try to get pics this weekend.

[mash557]

That looks to me like a weld with zero penetration. The bottom of that vertical piece is just too straight to have torn. Just my opinion.

[Chance]

The receiver doesn't look welded where it failed. And if I recall from last year (haven't gone back to look at previous pictures), the frame extension wasn't welded where it failed either. It's a formed steel member.

Bottom line is that the likely loading that can cause these failures is towed car pushing into motorhome during braking. While toads may have brakes, it doesn't appear to eliminate the towed car from pushing into motorhome.

[bigben]

Chance - I am still not sure, nor were the experts, of the cause of this problem. You and I have turned out okay with two failures that could have been catastrophic. It is still worrisome that a failure of this magnitude exist. I would encourage all owners to give there coaches a visual inspection just for everyone to safe side the frame issue. Also curious that both of our coaches are 37TB just 2 years apart.

When the issue occurred with our frame Thor handed me off to the company that did the frame extension. The good news is both of the repairs were cover by Thor or a sub. And it sounds like your hitch is like mine - over engineered this time wit repeat failure virtually eliminated.

[Hoosier 26]

Originally Posted by bigben

Chance - I am still not sure, nor were the experts, of the cause of this problem. You and I have turned out okay with two failures that could have been catastrophic. It is still worrisome that a failure of this magnitude exist. I would encourage all owners to give there coaches a visual inspection just for everyone to safe side the frame issue. Also curious that both of our coaches are 37TB just 2 years apart.

When the issue occurred with our frame Thor handed me off to the company that did the frame extension. The good news is both of the repairs were cover by Thor or a sub. And it sounds like your hitch is like mine - over engineered this time wit repeat failure virtually eliminated.

I just want to explain that there are no welds in the area that failed. These rips in the steel are at the bends in the frame extension and in my case one side of the hitch.

I think this a case of inadequate thickness and reinforcement of the frame extension. They claim a 5k lbs hitch but my perfectly level flat tow of a 3800 lbs car completely destroyed this design. I use a Blue Ox Patriot 2 brake system that seems to be working fine. The truth is that if the frame and hitch were designed correctly the flat tow car shouldn’t even need a braking system to be safe. People towed for years before the new braking systems were available and things worked just fine.

In general I am very happy with my Challenger, but this issue really has me thinking about the attention to detail in the engineering. If The extension is bad, how well is the rest of the floor grid designed? This is my first Class A and it makes me worry about safety and long term durability.

My coach has shown an alarming propensity for rust in the Framing attached to the Ford chassis. This issue includes the storage compartment frames and all the support structure under the coach. I have begun the process of painting these surfaces with rust inhibiting paint in high gloss black. It looks better but I’m asking myself if I’m just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Should a Class A coach, stored indoors and kept clean, be rusting after just a few months of ownership?

Sorry I got off topic there but I am concerned about the 3-5 year viability of this coach with these issues cropping up so early in the ownership experience. Any insight on the rust issue would be appreciated.

[Chance]

Originally Posted by bigben

Chance - I am still not sure, nor were the experts, of the cause of this problem. You and I have turned out okay with two failures that could have been catastrophic. It is still worrisome that a failure of this magnitude exist. I would encourage all owners to give there coaches a visual inspection just for everyone to safe side the frame issue. Also curious that both of our coaches are 37TB just 2 years apart.

When the issue occurred with our frame Thor handed me off to the company that did the frame extension. The good news is both of the repairs were cover by Thor or a sub. And it sounds like your hitch is like mine - over engineered this time wit repeat failure virtually eliminated.

Bigben, that wasn't my failure. It was Hoosier 26.

I'm just expressing my proffesional opinion. It's a poor design. Having said that, I can't think of any other reason these two failed other than toad applied more force during braking than the frame/receiver design can safely handle.

Failure likely came about from a combination of poor frame/receiver design, toad brakes not stopping enough or fast enough, and ball drop to level tow bar creating higher stress than system could handle. Seems fairly straight forward to me.

[bigben]

Hoosier26 - we've had ours for 2.5 years and almost 36k miles. Other than this fubar everything else seems to be holding up very well. And we truly enjoy our coach.

[tigwelder]

2016 axis 25-2. the ford frame is 1/4'' thick. the extension they use is 1/8'' thick.should have been 1/4'' the tear looks like a dropped hitch or something very heavy or it may have had a tear in the 1/8''steel when they bent it to make a flange for hitch bolts. i have my hitch off now making some modifications and plan to add some support on extensions . they should have been 1/4'' and you never would have had this problem.

[tnedator]

Originally Posted by tigwelder

2016 axis 25-2. the ford frame is 1/4'' thick. the extension they use is 1/8'' thick.should have been 1/4'' the tear looks like a dropped hitch or something very heavy or it may have had a tear in the 1/8''steel when they bent it to make a flange for hitch bolts. i have my hitch off now making some modifications and plan to add some support on extensions . they should have been 1/4'' and you never would have had this problem.

Just for clarity, are you saying you also had a similar tear on your Axis or that you just plan to reinforce it to make sure you don't have one?

[wayneroe]

This made me wonder - if you guys are just stopping for an overnight stay in an RV park, do you unload the toad before leveling the RV? I've wondered about any extra stresses that might put on either the rig, the towbar/dolly, and/or the levelers? i left the toad attached when we stopped overnight on our last night out during our last trip. Afterwards, I wondered if I had done something I shouldn't have. I'm getting ready to leave on a trip that will have several night like that and I'm wondering if I need to unload the tow dolly and unhook it each night, even though I am not going to be using the car during those stops. I certainly don't want to mess something up that could cause me to have any issues like that one bigben had.

[tigwelder]

no problem but i am reworking hitch and have it out so while i am doing that i am going to take the extensions out and re weld the corners where the hitch and bumper bolts to. not a lot of weld for holding so much. i will also add some gussets.

[bigben]

With a forum name like tigwelder - I believe you know best. It is definitely something to inspect. The local business that did my rework also builds fifth wheel hauling trailers and I now feel 110% confident that we will not have a reoccurrence.

[gnach]

Originally Posted by tigwelder

no problem but i am reworking hitch and have it out so while i am doing that i am going to take the extensions out and re weld the corners where the hitch and bumper bolts to. not a lot of weld for holding so much. i will also add some gussets.

Hey tig', will you post photos afterward?

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by wayneroe

This made me wonder - if you guys are just stopping for an overnight stay in an RV park, do you unload the toad before leveling the RV? I've wondered about any extra stresses that might put on either the rig, the towbar/dolly, and/or the levelers? i left the toad attached when we stopped overnight on our last night out during our last trip. Afterwards, I wondered if I had done something I shouldn't have. I'm getting ready to leave on a trip that will have several night like that and I'm wondering if I need to unload the tow dolly and unhook it each night, even though I am not going to be using the car during those stops. I certainly don't want to mess something up that could cause me to have any issues like that one bigben had.

Unless you raise the RV much higher than normal you should not have a problem leaving the toad connected. I'm not sure the leveling jacks are capable of raising the RV to the point you could have a problem unless your parking spot already puts you high to the toad.

[tigwelder]

yes i can do that.

[Budman]

Here's some of the actual hitch failing. I was pulling an enclosed Haulmark trailer w one Harley in it. The bike was mostly behind the axle so I do not think it was tongue weight. I had some clothes hanging in the front of the trailer and maybe a cooler w adult beverages. I also was using an one foot extension with a double hitch for a bike rack but no rack or bike this trip or very often.
Even if at the reduced weights, total and tongue, I usually didn't haul any more than the trip listed above.
As u will see that is the actual hitch that broke. It broke right in a bend of the metal where I am sure it had be stamped/pressed into that shape. As mentioned, check regular all over coach and be very observant.
I had not noticed anything strange about hitch until I pulled into campground after a 600 mile. I could have lost trailer and bike but more scary is it could have hurt someone. Thx Dennis.

[wayneroe]

Originally Posted by Tfryman

Unless you raise the RV much higher than normal you should not have a problem leaving the toad connected. I'm not sure the leveling jacks are capable of raising the RV to the point you could have a problem unless your parking spot already puts you high to the toad.

Thanks. That was what I was thinking, too, but would rather be safe than sorry and wanted to check to see if others had stayed hooked up and if anyone had problems.

[bigben]

Chance had it spot on - poor design and as Tigwelder further pointed out with specifics dimensions. I have only pulled our toad with our coach, not direct downward pressure. On both Hoosier26 and our instance of this failure the frame actually tore and in both cases we were flat towing. Our instance of this was a one off. With Hoosier26's instance this is no longer a one off and deserves an inspection by owners. Look at the pics in Post #1 and Post #82 - virtually identical failures.

When I looked at the hitch hanging down and looked underneath the coach at the torn frame - I had vision of the toad coming loose, hitch digging into the road surface and the toad rolling and flipping with catastrophic results. For other old folks that can remember as I do, the instances of a drive shaft - in old rear wheel drive cars -dropping down and pole vaulting the car to a nasty result.

Please inspect your hitches.