Community Forums

Gary.Jones · 03-19-2021, 11:52 AM

Go to www.etrailer.com and look for protective caps (for the AF1) there.... they routinely have them available. I have several spares of each, plus spares of the breakaway unit pin.

Gary

RVsteve · 03-19-2021, 03:15 PM

I can't believe I drove over 100,000 miles and never knew about all these tow bar/barking issues. However, I am becoming more educated. I just checked my new Avail tow bar with a magnet, and all components are steel. So, was Dave's aluminum? The break looks like like aluminum. Does this mean the new Avail steel model is more reliable than the aluminum model? Those side tabs still look under-engineered to me.

RVSteve

Unplanned Tourist · 03-19-2021, 04:22 PM

Have a good look at the third picture. You can see one of the breaks has rust on both sides, and fresh steel in the center. Meaning there was cracks there for a while to make it rusty. See the picture. Red arrows point to the rust, and green arrow points to fresh break area.

The other break has a rust spot, but it's hard to see if it's in the broken area, or beside it.

Unplanned Tourist · 03-19-2021, 04:27 PM

Lets try a closer look.

RVsteve · 03-19-2021, 04:50 PM

I called the BO factory number and asked technical support guy about BO Avail failures. He said he was not aware of anyone reporting a tow bar failure. Is he lying or just uninformed?

Isaac-1 · 03-19-2021, 05:11 PM

Could be either, could be company policy to not inform tech support about product failures, or could be policy to not disclose them.

Chieflou · 03-19-2021, 06:08 PM

travel_man,
Thanks for the info and pics. Isn’t there a saying about “ounce of prevention” and “pound of cure”?

For the boots, now I know what to look for. In fact I’ve seen those before – in hardware store used on ends of iron pipe for same reason.

Haven’t done the 12v line from coach and charger, but have been thinking about it. In fact I installed a 7-way connector on the toad, coach already had 7-way, and I got a 7 conductor cable. So I’m ready to go when I decide to add a charger. Cable also gives me a conductor to use for an LED signal line to dash mounted brake notification LED (which was already installed by PO).

Regards,
Lou S.

Chieflou · 03-19-2021, 06:42 PM

Gary.Jones,
Forgive me but I swear I've search all over etrailer and can't find dust caps. Looked at AF1, baseplates, towbars, did "protective cover" and "dustcap" search and only found for axle bearings ... I'm stumped. Can you help me narrow it down?

Thanks in advance,
Lou S

Spk64 · 03-19-2021, 06:58 PM

See below.

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...o/SM99608.html

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...o/SM99609.html

Bigd9 · 03-19-2021, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chieflou

Gary.Jones,
Forgive me but I swear I've search all over etrailer and can't find dust caps. Looked at AF1, baseplates, towbars, did "protective cover" and "dustcap" search and only found for axle bearings ... I'm stumped. Can you help me narrow it down?

Thanks in advance,
Lou S

Check the dimensions. These are what I used. I also found the rubber front wheel bearing end caps from my John Deere lawn tractor fit. (but anything from John Deere is more expensive!)

Chieflou · 03-19-2021, 07:18 PM

My advice to Dave, cause I know he hasn't received nearly enough yet --
- Don't send em your broken tow bar
- Do submit report to NTSB and any other appropriate agencies.
- Tell BO your research has shown the "U" bend yoke (think that's the proper nomenclature) with extreme tight bends is a deficient design and you know yours is not the only one which has failed. The fact they are no longer making them with that design pretty well confirms that as fact.
- Your requirement to be satisfied -- a brand new towbar of same or higher weigh capacity, with the new style, flat tabs with large weld area -- shipped free of charge to address of your choosing. To expedite that effort, you could inform them that your insurance adjuster and the NTSB have both stated they need to inspect the towbar prior to you releasing it to BO.

For all the rest of us, we should spread the word far and wide that every BO owner should look at their towbar to see if it uses that U-bend yoke design. If it does, they should disassemble it at the yoke/pivot point so they can visually inspect BOTH sides of the metal at those bends for even a hint of crack formation. And with a magnifying glass ... seriously!

Regards to all -- and hang in there Dave, I'm sure it's going to work out OK,
Lou S.

travel_man · 03-19-2021, 07:24 PM

I saw the close up image of that Avail failure just now at the arrows described. That is scary and it seemed to have broken right at the weld. If I had an Avail, and as expensive as tow bars can be, I would take it to a weld shop and have a non destructive test done on it at those welds if it did not cost too much. Maybe they could recommend a beef up in that area, but it would require a longer bolt with correct shank (non threaded section). If too many or any threads are part of the bearing surface, those threads will wear down fast and could cause some problems.

Chieflou · 03-19-2021, 07:28 PM

Spk64,
Thanks for the input, but what we were looking for are big ones to go over the baseplate quick-release tab receivers.

Bigd9,
That's good input ... I think I might have same ones on by rider front wheels, will have to check. Problem with what I found on etrailer ... they were metal dustcaps.

Thanks again to both of you,
Lou S.