Tow bar incorrectly fitted

It was a new Prado and the dealership arranged the fitting of the tow bar.

Thanks for your advice and concern, I have only this morning written to Hayman Reese to tell them of the incident and to suggest that they only supply to properly trained specialists. Then I posted this warning to others.

When we bought the Prado from the dealer we asked them to have a Hayman Reese bar fitted as we bought the car to tow a van.

I am still on the road, so I will take it up with those who should have made sure this didn't happen when I get back.

A

Hi Rob,

Thanks for replying, my bet is that the dealership somehow acquired the tow bar and had some apprentice fit it to save money. It sickens me to think that I could have caused a fatal collission had my van and tow bar disconnected. For 2 weeks my daughter and sometimes 2 of my grandchildren were travelling directly behind the van in her car.

I will in future deliberatley ask that the mechanics check the tow bar, whenever I have the car serviced. And not by any dealerships any more, they generally do not do what I ask. I asked for the battery to be checked at one service and was told my car was in excellent condition for my trip, the battery died the very next day. When I phoned I was told "Oh they do that." My bet it it was never checked.

Unfortunately I cannot check the bolts as there are none to check, but I would have thought that when I had the weight distribution system fitted, those specialists would have also checked the tow bar they were connecting to. You would then think that if it had not been correctly fitted it would have been obvious to them.

A

Unfortunately this is the world we live in at the moment. The service industry is not living up to its name and the old saying 'if you need something done properly..do it yourself' is starting to make sense.

When I had the 80k service done on my land cruiser it developed a horrible shake at about 90kms. Seems that when they repacked the wheel bearings the locking washer was not installed correctly.

What do you mean when you say 'there are no bolts to check'?

Pretty sure if you get under the car there would be some bolts for the towbar / distribution system and you could just check them from time to time.

ROb

Hi Rob,

When I say the bolts are not there, I meant that I cannot check the bolts on the original job as they have fallen out somewhere around Australia.

I am sure there are good new bolts there now and I will be having them checked if I cannot get under to check them myself. (Got a dodge knee makes it hard to get up and down)

thanks for your feedback
Adele

G'day Daza,

The tow bar attached to the car almost came off. When discovered by a vigilant caravan park owner who actually helped me unhitch, he discovered when he climbed under the back of my car that there were no bolts holding the towbar to the vehicle at all.

When the tow bar expert I took the car to to checked it out, he moved the towbar up with his hand and it fell off. He estimated I maybe had 10km left to tow before it fell off including the heavy weight distribution system and the 1.5 ton van I was towing. A thin line of weld was all that was between safety and disaster.

Pretty scary hey?

A

Since when has a H Reece tow bar not been bolted but welded??

I would have thought that to weld a tow bar to the vehicle should require an Engineers certificate.

I think there is more to the story than suggested. I think it was probably not the tow bar installer but who ever installed the weight distribution system.

Cheers Kev

I think the dealer you authorized to fit the bar has some responsibility. After all (if I understand you correctly) you paid the dealer to fit it. He then subcontracted the work out. He has a duty of care to ensure that the vehicle and work was safe and roadworthy when he returned the vehicle to you after you paid for it. Go buy a lottery ticket - you were lucky there is no bad ending to the story..

I am so grateful for all this advice and insite, I have up until now not up with how a tow bar is supposed to be fitted, and I just trust people to do what they are supposed to do.

I had no idea that tow bars are not meant to be welded but this one definately was welded in what looks like two places. The bolt holes in one place are oval shaped so those bolts must have held on for a while before they gave up. Lucky for me the bar was welded on I suppose or it may have broken away much sooner.

When I tackle the men who I will have to deal with over this when I get home, at least now, thanks to your help, I will be well informed about what should have been done with this tow bar and will not be able to be bluffed by anyone.

Hayman Reese has responded to my email I sent this morning saying they are interested in what has happened and the email has been forwarded on to the appropriate department. I have not made contact with the dealership or the other fitting place as i want to take the old tow bar with me to show them.

Thank you all for your help once again

Adele

Thanks Steve for your advice, I will be definately following this up when I get home. I have the original Hayman Reese tow bar in the back of the car to show the dealership and the weight distribution fitters. Someone has to accept responsibility for this and learn to be far more careful when dealing with the lives of who knows how many.

Adele

Thanks for the advice , obviously either the dealer or the weight dist. fitters must have welded it and obviously they are both at fault, because if the original fitting was not done correctly, the second "specialist" place should have noticed and corrected it. If they did the welding they should not then call themselves specialists.

I am thinking that logically it would have to have been the dealership who was responsible for the original bad fitting, but you would think that a towing specialist business would have checked the tow bar set up before adding the weight distribution system to it.

I feel better armed to deal with these places since the discussions on this forum and I thank all of you.

Adele

Hi Mainey,

I have the receipt for the replacement of the tow bar on me and the other paperwork from the original work will be filed away at home.

I also have the old tow bar in the back of the car to show the problem physically. I have informed Hayman Reese who have referred my email to an appropriate department I have been informed.

I need to get home, to get the paperwork in order and have all my facts straight when I go to see the two places in person. I am heading homeward on Monday, so very soon I will see what their reaction is. Depending on their response I will consider taking it further.

They do need to be taught a lesson, that cutting corners where driving safety is concerned is not going to be tolerated. In one way I would like to take them to court and then they would be named and shamed but on the other hand, instigating a confrontation is daunting. It all depends on what they do and say when I tell them what happened and that they are responsible.

Thanks for your advice and interest

Adele

I thought I should give you all an update now that I have taken the towbar to the manufacturers head office in Dandenong. I asked why it would have fallen off the car rather than make my own judgement and it was a good way to begin as the Customer Service Manager told me mine was the 4th hayman REece towbar designed for the Prado to come in with the same fault.

It seems the steel used was not of a strength needed for such a tow bar and he informed me it had now been corrected. I asked if they were going to do a recall and he said no, They had informed their distributors and recalled what they had in stock and replaced it. I pointed out that those on the vehicles needed to be recalled or at least warn the Prado owners of the possible weakness. He commented that he didn't think it was worth panicking the whole country. He offered to get rid of my old tow bar but I told him I wanted it for a souvinir, his comment then was "Well don't show too many people."

He did offer me a refund for the cost of the replacement tow bar on receipt of a copy of my receipt. I thanked him and left feeling responsible now for informing the rest of Australia about what I now knew. I have written to the CEO of the company Hayman Reece is incorporated in and told him I will inform consumer Affairs if he does not warn Prado owners that they need to check their tow bars. I suggested he could do this by informing Toyota who could send out the warning as they do for recalls to all Prado owners.

So it was not incorrect fitting as first thought. The tow bar had not been welded either, the metal had broken through but at three different times making the remaining edge look like welding.

I will keep you informed of what transpires from Hayman Reece.

I wrote this in the wrong place originally and since then I have spoken to several people even the police, as knowing there are potentially thousands of caravans which could at any moment come adrift from their tow vehicle is constantly on my mind. I have been advised to notify Consumer Affairs regardless of what Hayman Reece do. So I have done this using their online form which takes 2 weeks to process the web site says. I have also notified my caravan insurance company CiL as in the long run they may be affected too and suggested they tell people to check their tow bars when they send out renewals or other correspondence.

There is another caravanners web site I found too and posted a notice there as well as I found a referrence to a BMW hayman Reece tow bar with a metal weakness and they included photos a link to which I have included below.

Have alook at:http://groups.msn.com/TouringOz/hitches.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=2571

I have taken photos of mine as suggested and have put them on the web at the link below



Thanks again for all of you who showed an interest in this Forum entry and offered me advice.

Adele

The picture on the MSN site of the BMW bar does not show much other that the two bolts on the right hand side????
Can you explain what we are supposed to see with that picture?

Your link to your photos has failed, can you try and link it again so we can see the problem properly

If I read what you write as being correct, your suggesting that Hayman Reece have used substandard steel in the bar in question???

Hello John,

if you click on the NEXT button top left of the screen on the BMW tow bar link

http://groups.msn.com/TouringOz/hitches.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=2571

you will see the fractured metal on that towbar.

This is the link to where I have posted my towbar photos.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561466362gzRSRq

I don't know how to insert an image to this forum sorry the last link failed I used the insert Image button.

That is not only what I am saying, that substandard steel was used it is what the customer Service manager at Hayman Reece told me has been the case in 4 instances including mine to date.

I want to warn people to check their tow bars.

Adele

Not real flash all round!!!
Bit surprised with Hayman Reece if it is a quality issue as they are renowned as normally such a good quality manufacturer.

Thanks Kev & DArkie for inserting the images, and John, I too am surprised and disappointed in Hayman Reece, they have always had the best reputation and that is why we opted for their towbar instead of Toyota's own. Even the dealer agreed with us, as we were buying the car to tow a van around.

I hope somehow the word gets out and no one ever gets hurt by a flying caravan.

Adele