Hi.
Some time back I shared a situation that I had encountered with a virtually brand new HR tow hitch.
The tongue had cracked & was bent after another vehicle had backed into it, what made me wonder about the failure was the lack of force in the impact, the speed of the other vehicle would have been about half walking pace, the tongue left very damage on the area of the tailgate where it impacted to the point that the owner has not bothered repairing it.
I took the hitch back to Repco where I had originally purchased it, their warranty bloke had a look at it & to my surprise reluctantly said... "
Well, yeah... Ok we'll give you a new one". Had I accepted that that would have been the end of it.
I didn't accept their offer thinking that the integrity of the steel that the tongue is made from has to be better than than this to withstand such a piddly impact, so I contacted Consumer Affairs.
Long story short: Here is the report from the testing.
Please find attached the final report in the analysis of the InterlockTBM.It has been a long drawn out process, impart due to accessibility of the testing equipment in our
test lab.Note: In the last 2-3 years of sales this is the only reported concern related to cracking of the TBM. Testing Summary.The TBM has been tested in normal operating conditions and passed the fatigue at 2,000,000 cycles, no cracking or damage to the TBM was observed. The TBM was further tested in the similar set as used by Mr George. This Included the use of a Tregg Coupling, Fatigue testing was carried out atthe severe angle that can be experienced when using the Tregg Coupling.The TBM reached over 1.4 Million Cycles when the Tregg Coupling failed.This was repaired and the testing continued up to 1,771,945 cycles. TheTBM showed signs of cracking and the testing stopped. Conclusion: The Interlock TBM is a product of sound design and suitable for standard On-road Towing applications.The product may under extreme off-road applications when using towing accessories such as the Tregg Coupling come under abnormal stresses andmay fatigue to a point of cracking. Should you have any further questions please forward to myself.
Now the reply from Consumer Affairs.
From this Office perspective the trader in this instance has provided a comprehensive report of testing performed on the Interlock TBM and its results. Whilst no explanation was provided as to why your unit cracked in the manner it did, the testing was performed to Australian Standards under normal operating conditions. In the absence of any other complaints for this product the Office of Fair Trading has no grounds to pursue the matter further at this point in time however, we will continue to monitor this product and should it come to our attention again further action as appropriate will be considered.
Thank you for bringing this matter to the Office of Fair Trading and please don't hesitate to contact me should you wish to speak with me further regarding this response.
I'll open another thread & try to post the actual
test results... Don't know if it will be successful though as it contains photos in it, that being the case if anyone is interested my Email is 33bravo@gmail.com
Cheers Tommy...