Moutain Man Mike
Upstate New York
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Joined: 11/07/2006
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I am at a losss to explain the cause of a recent incident I experienced with my 2004 Newmar Mountain Aire (Chevy 8.1L engine). Heading homeward to New York State after a 5,000+ mile trip thru the western mountains of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, I stopped at a light in a 40MPH zone in Florida and noticed in my side view mirror that my Honda CR-V toad was off track and partially in the lane to the right! Fortunately I had a safe place to pull off the road and out of 3 lanes of morning commuter traffic. I expected to see one of the arms of my Blue Ox tow bar disconnected, but that was not the case.
The left side of the coach hitch was on the pavement with the tow bar arms still attached. The left gusset was still attached to the frame rail by two (loose) bolts and had separated from the 2" tubular hitch body at the weld. The tube to right gusset weld was cracked, and the bolts badly bent, but that side remained attached to the frame.
The scariest part of this whole episode was that all of the safeguards against a runaway toad depend on hitch integrity. I am rethinking the wisdom of anchoring the safety cables and auxillary brake break away switch to anything other than the coach frame. I can't imagine the consequences if this had happened on an upgrade in the Rockies!
Of all the possible causes of this failure I have considered, the most likely are loose mounting bolts and/or weld failure. Some have also speculated that a too sharp turning radius could overstress the hitch mounting. I'm not sure this is physically possible. The Toad has a curb weight of about 3300#, and the Hidden Hitch is rated at 5000#.
I would welcome any comments and conjecture.
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GBMcruisair
Bemidji,Mn, USA
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Joined: 07/21/2003
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This sounds a lot like wallynm's hitch problem a month ago. Do a search on Hidden Hitch an see the pictures.
Kip & Judy
2000 Georgie Boy Pursuit, 2001 Cherokee toad
1951 Pontiac with 400cu GTO running gear
1964 Corvair Monza all original
 (3).jpg)
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urmine351
fort smith, arkansas
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Joined: 02/18/2006
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who knows?? i know we all inspect our hitch and attachments every time we stop(well we know we should) and this is the reason why. i personally would rather have everything bolted and welded. toads pull so easy, we forget all the stress that is back there. the phone company drilled safety into me the whole 38 yrs i worked for them. i used to loath it, but i have come to realize, it was one of the best things i ever received. we may never know why something like this happened, but we do know, we can never check enough for our safety and that of others on the road.
1996 Safari Serengity, 3126 Cat,Allison 6 speed, 38' DPNS, 2005 Honda Element,vip tow brake. doran tire, Magellan750Nav,
and 1 good looking wife, and missy and Alex(died 11-03-06) and AJ, born 09-06-06 my carins. and Max, teacup yorkie
FMCA # F374886
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Norm Payne
Livingston, TX
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Joined: 04/25/2002
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The tublar type Hidden Hitch has a history of failures and I have seen two failures with my own eyes. The failure rate gets worse if you use a raised hitch because it torques the hitch.
I have recommended to several people they either replace the hitch or slide under their motorhome before every trip to inspect it.
Norm
2005 Dutch Star 4015, Cummins ISL 370 hp
2007 Honda CR-V
See Ya Down The Road
http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com
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sharkbait
Bastrop, LA
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Joined: 09/16/2001
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Wonder if this is a problem with Newmar's. Saw a Newmar in a small TX town last year with the hitch gone and a PU toad nailed to a power pole with the lines laying on the road. Made me want to get out a check my hitch.
Joe and Margie Hinkie
2000 Safari Cheetah 38dp
Bronco or Saturn toad
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Kajtek1
CA
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Joined: 12/04/2002
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Don't think there is any weld quality testing in hitch industry.
Welds can be stronger, than the material they hold, or be "birds droppings" that only slightly sticks to the surface and have not much strength at all.
Take a look at the surface of the weld. If it is flat between connected pieces, it got good penetration and suppose to be strong.
If it is more like quarter-round, there is not much penetration and better have expert checking it out.
Pessimist sees dark tunnel, optimist sees a light at the end, realist sees lights of coming train.Engineer sees 3 idiots on the tracks.
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Argosy24
MI
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Joined: 05/09/2003
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Safety chains should be attached to the frames of both vehicles.The manufacturers have made it easier now to attach them to the hitch and baseplates. That works unless a failure separates the hitch or baseplate from the vehicle. There should also be a break away switch that actuates before the slack in the safety chains has been taken up.
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HIDEOUT
San Francisco Bay Area
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Joined: 02/08/2006
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Wow, that's scary. We made a trip up the California coast and had the ball come loose. One more turn of the nut and gone. That scared me. We stopped at an rv shop (Coast rv) in Fort Bragg and had it tightened with a hammer ratchet. 450Lbs of torque. He did it for nothing. That should hold it forever, we hope. Now I guess we should take a look at the hitch. I check the ball every time we stop to make sure it is tight.
Kevin & Dawn
Doggies:
Persalina, We love you & miss you so very much!
Moonbeam
Chloie Pearl
'07 Itasca Suncruiser 35L
Workhorse 24-8.1 Vortec w/6 sp. Allison
93 Jeep Wrangler Toad
Roadmaster Even Brake
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Bruce Brown
Northern NY
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Joined: 06/01/2001
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sharkbait wrote:Wonder if this is a problem with Newmar's.
Yes, and no. It is a Newmar problem as they installed it. On some of these it looks to be a defective hitch, on many others it looks to be loose bolts causing the issue. I know if we towed much we'd be changing our hitch. As it is we check the bolts and welds whenever we tow. Also, by the design of the hitch they are very prone to corrosion at the weld point. Really a poorly built hitch IMO.
There are 24 hours in every day - it all depends on how you choose to use them.
Bruce & Jill Brown
2008 Kountry Star Pusher 3910
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wallynm
Los Alamos NM
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Joined: 09/27/2000
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Moutain Man Mike wrote:I would welcome any comments and conjecture.
I am the wallynm referenced above. Check here for additional information
hitch failure
In my case I believe that it was an installation failure not the hitch itself. They used cone nuts, no lock tight or lock nuts. To date Newmar has not accepted any responsibility. They requested photos and requested an inspection by an authorized dealer which I gave them. The authorized dealer agreed with my assessment. He called Newmar in my presence, reported his assessment and Newmar refused to talk to me. Later they called and wanted to know if I used a FROG braking system which is yes and did I know what the weight was which is yes @ ~5700 lbs by using a certified cat scale.
They no longer make the hitch for our unit and only Newmar used this specific hitch as identified by part number and it was never offered for sale on the open market.
The Newmar Yahoo group has a 140 post with hitch in the title and many have to do with hitch failures. This url contains a document for making a hidden hitch stronger look for a file with the title hidden hitch making it stronger
I am making a NHTSA report and I understand Newmar has had several failures of this type. More on gas rigs than DPs
* This post was
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edited 11/07/06 09:49pm by wallynm *
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