Quote:
Originally Posted by RH_RVer
FOR THOSE REFRRING TO THE USE OF SAFETY CHAINS AS THE FALLBACK SAFETY MECHANISM
When my truck separated from the motorhome, I of course had safety chains attached. However, they do no good unless they are attached to the frame. My safety chains were attached to the bumper which did no good since the failure occurred at the frame. Basically, the Demco mounting bolts attaching the system to the frame of the truck pulled through the frame.
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Great point since all vehicles and baseplates are different in some respect. This is why I reviewed ETrailer installation videos for my Equinox before selecting a baseplate.
Internal safety cables, as opposed to the usual tow bar safety cables, are wrapped around the baseplate and the vehicle's frame so that if the baseplate tears completely away from the vehicle the internal safety cables keep the baseplate loosely attached to the vehicle. I saw pics of a failure where the internal safety cables saved the day after a failure like you had.
Roadmaster provides no internal safety cables for their Equinox baseplate and maybe not even others.
Blue Ox, at the time, only used thin flanges to attach the baseplate to the Equinox but had internal safety cables as standard. (Blue Ox later revised their Equinox baseplate to pick up some of the car's structure for additional strength.)
Demco not only provided internal safety cables as standard, they used a 1/4" steel plate on each side to add additional strength to the baseplate (in addition to the flange bolts). Those 1/4" steel plates use 1/2" bolts to hold them to the baseplate and they slip behind the impact beam (the bumper) on the other end. This is the baseplate I installed on my Equinox.
But none of that matters if the hitch itself separates from the motorhome. Attached are two pics of the same part number Buyers Products 5,000 lb hitch that failed, the one Forest River uses on some models.
Note that one has non-rusted clean and shiny metal at the tears indicating it was a sudden failure. Look for the white arrows on each side.
The other has a lot of rust in the crack indicating it was cracked for a while. (The latter owner had people pulling up beside them, beeping, and pointing. He did not see anything wrong so he started driving again. And then someone else pointed and beeped. That's when he found that crack but it wasn't 100% yet.)
Both of those are perfect examples of why attaching the breakaway cable at the motorhome end to the hitch instead of to a loop of cable wrapped around the motorhome's frame may not work as intended, and why safety cables attached to the hitch also may not work as intended...
When was the last time you checked the torque on your hitch attach bolts? And where did you find that torque setting?
Ray