Hayman Reece Towbar Debacle

Submitted: Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 09:53

ThreadID: 59104 Views:10059 Replies:3 FollowUps:11

This Thread has been Archived

scottforster

Dad's Toyota Prado was fitted with a Hayman Reece tow bar. Last week as he pulled out of the carvan park in Dalby, it gave a huge clunk and basically fell apart. (search for thread 51695 here for others stories).

Subsequently he has had it replaced. A big thanks to Blacks Toyota DALBY for the help and replacement. THUMBS UP

Not cheap either, at over $420 for a replacement.

As a fathers son, not only do I have to collect the mail as he cashes in the inheritance, I'm also tour coordinator and feeling at times like mission control.

I called Hayman Reece (HR) they wanted to know if it was there's and they stumbled around working out whre he should drive to Toowoomba so they could have a look at it. No suggestion of seriousness and how can we be of assistnce, just a casual, "well he'll have to go to Toowoomba for us to have a look at it..." . THUMBS DOWN. He's in Dalby travelling...Nth...

Dad,god bless'im, 600k into a top end trip, believes that people will do the right thing. He pays for the replacement to be fitted in Dalby and hopes it will work out in the end, he wants to get on with the trip.

In the mean time,

I call HR in Melbourne where they have technical advice. When I told her that the a replacement had been made, they were critical of our actions and then asked WHY we had decided to make the replacement. THEY"RE DOING NOTHING AT ALL... big THUMBS DOWN to Hayman Reece, they're questioing my dad's decision making and actions to get on with a trip.

The upshot is, SAY G'DAY TO THE 'URUNGA NOMADS' as my dad is now carrying a rather heavy paperweight with him in a box to Mt Isa where he will meet with the Rayman Reece representatives.

They now travel across N.QLD with a bunch of parts in the back a and a CD of photos taken of the assembly on the chassis in Dalby before it was removed.We hope that Hayman Reece will set them right. At present I would hope that this story will have a happy ending.

Beware of your Towbar and have it checked if you even consider it a possible candidate for failure.

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Reply By: Member - neville G (QLD) - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:12

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:12

Any chance of seeing photos of the failed part?.
Cheers, Nev.

AnswerID: 311762

Follow Up By: Member - Andrew (QLD) - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:45

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:45

DONT post any more images Scottforster at the moment....we do not have access to those images on a NSW government webmail server! Anyone accessing this thread at the moment are receiving login requests to your webmail server.....damn annoying.

I have asked the EO Moderators to remove those replies....please be patient.

Andrew

FollowupID: 577767

Follow Up By: Member - John (Vic) - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:54

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:54

Yeah me to Andrew, wondered what was going on there for a minute.

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FollowupID: 577770

Follow Up By: scottforster - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 15:11

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 15:11

Sorry, I have linked to a secure website.
I have added these images to my/ our bigblog site.

http://scottandann.bigblog.com.au/gallery.do?id=206628

FollowupID: 577773

Follow Up By: Member - Andrew (QLD) - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 15:21

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 15:21

Would have been wise to take hede of my first sentence......David (EO) or someone will probably delete this "reply" (reply 1 of #) for consistancy.

hmmmm....i should poke fun at John's big nose then. ;-)

Andrew

FollowupID: 577777

Reply By: scottforster - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:58

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 12:58

Hi Nev,

Sorry, but I don't have the photos yet. Dad's got them with him. He's in Longreach at the moment.

I forgot to to add that the Prado and towbar are 3yrs old.
The mechanics at Dalby initially thought that the nuts attaching the bar to the chassis had not been done up as it was the bolts that had finally snapped. Blacks Toyota Dalby will have the pics.
MMM iit's a murky thing. The bar was Hayman Reece bar, fitted by Toyota Coffs Harbour. I'm still sensing a bit of 'not my fault- it's their fault" coming from both sides.

Nevertheless, the fact that this fault was occured as Dad left the carvan park instead of at 80-100km/h as he passed through the ranges as he motored to Mt Isa is pleasing.

Safe travels.

Cheers

Scott

AnswerID: 311764

Follow Up By: Mogul - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 13:44

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 13:44

If the bolts snapped how is that HR's fault?

FollowupID: 577744

Follow Up By: Member - barry F (NSW) - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 13:47

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 13:47

Howdy Scott, my impression on reading your first post was that the HR bar had failed in the structural sense. Your follow up post indicates that the bolts failed because "perhaps" the nuts had not been done up, which would hardly be the fault of HR. would it?
Might be better to get all the facts first, then decide on your course of action.
We have had a HR bar fail on us a few years back, it was the welding that gave away. They do guarantee their product for life, (not much of consolation if you or others or property were injured as a result) so if you can prove it was in fact a failure in manufacturing standards then I would think you would be compensated.
It is a worry & I can guarantee you that once it has happened to you, the thought of a recurrence is never far from mind when towing.
Anyway, let us hope your family have a safe trip from here on. Cheers.

FollowupID: 577748

Follow Up By: scottforster - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:11

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:11

Ah, too true.

I was blissfully unaware of the issues with HR until the service manager at the Toyota dealer where the Towbar was fitted emailed me the forum thread that I quoted in the initial post.

Quote from service manager in email.

"There is also a link to some photos( I have attached them) of a failed Hayman Reece tow bar and if you look at the same 2 bolt holes you will see the same rust and elongated holes you are describing...rang Hayman Reece on Friday and confirmed the part number of the bar and described the failure. Apparently there was a problem with a batch of tow bars that caused the bolts to fail then eventually the weld would fail, Hayman Reece requested..."

To see the archived thread, in the thread search field type 51695 and click search
Cheers

Scott

FollowupID: 577751

Follow Up By: scottforster - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:42

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 14:42

The sadness in all of this is that HR knew of an issue with their tow bars. They even know of the batch. These bars are still failing and are attached to the arse-end of a few cars exploring Australia. I hope nobody has the misfortune to have such a failure and pity the poor traveller who has his arse-end detach on a remote section of our wide brown land. Then they'll really be in poo city.

As to all the facts, there is a fair amount of fact in the pictures and the mechanical reports and historical evidence to support my concerns.
My main aim of publishing this thread was to highlight the concerns with such a potential failure.

While my old man's been truck driver in his past and carted his kids around the state with a variety of caravans in tow, at 70, he shouldn't be dealing with such a severe failure from a highly regarded company and a modern vehicle.

Cheers.

PS Finally had at least 12 hours without rain here in Forster, I was gunna say 24 hours , but it rained last night.

FollowupID: 577764

Reply By: Mikee5 (Logan QLD) - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 13:13

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 13:13

The Gall boys from Kedron Caravans tore the towbar off a Prado on Fraser Island - saw it on their DVD. So your dad is not the first to do this.

AnswerID: 311766

Follow Up By: Holden4th - Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 20:31

Monday, Jun 23, 2008 at 20:31

I had an HR fitted last Friday to my NP. it was a hit of a rigmarole as I had to wait a week for a bar to be delivered and this post has raised some doubts. Does this mean that I should check with HR about the model that fails?

FollowupID: 577848

Follow Up By: roblin - Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008 at 01:08

Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008 at 01:08

To put the Kedron incident in proper context. They actually were using the Toyota moulded tow bar. They were towing a 2 ton plus van over Fraser Island AND they still had the Hayman Reece weight distribution hitch attached whilst off road. Along with the articulation of the Hyland coupling on the caravan I believe even they admitted fault on their DVD. The breakage of the towbar had nothing to do with its design or an inherent weakness. They tried to tow the van through a large dip and the leverage of the HR stabilising bars snapped the moulded bar. Arguably it broke through their stupidity.

I'm not being nasty here. It was just a completely different situation and, no, I am not affiliated with Toyota. I actually own a 2004 Prado with the Toyota tow bar. It has towed boats, a caravan and now an off road camper. I have not had a problem (thus far) with the towbar BUT I do use it correctly.

FollowupID: 578077

Follow Up By: scottforster - Thursday, Jun 26, 2008 at 12:39

Thursday, Jun 26, 2008 at 12:39

Re the Toyota Prado and HR bar whiich started this tread.

At 70yrs Ian is reluctant to take the Prado alone off the bitumen, the most gravel it has traversed is the lenght of the old Tuncurry airstrip which now serves as the access road to Tuncurry Golf Course.
Coupled to the caravan, Ian has dragged the Evernew van to WA, Tassie, Central QLD and now en route to the Top End- and the centre. All on bitumen roads.

Actually he's becoming a bit pedantic about travel and I feel he's losing the 'adventure' ideal.

So he wasn't dragging the van along the Gunbarrel Hwy, nor through Bronty Park and down through Interlarken in Tassie- that's my idea of travel with the most basic and ancient Cub-o-matic.

Happy travels

Scott

FollowupID: 578281