Just a fair warning for all those of you (like I was) that have not inspected the basic hitch system. I had a stock hitch that was bolted on at the Newmar Factory. The bolt sheared off on the Alaska Highway and the hitch went 90 degrees snapping the tow bar. Safety chains help towd in place. Analysis of the problem cheap bolts holding the hitch to the coach. they should have been grade 8 bolts. Look yours over and check it out. yes the alaska Highway is a bruiser but you can get into this on other roads. I was very lucky, the next person might not be.
1999 Newmar Dutch Star
Cat 300 Allison 6 spd
1992 Suzuki Samurai
10 year old MH. Have you EVER checked the torque on the bolts? Looks like a (lack of) maintenance problem to me. You don't need grade 8 bolts for a hitch if the bolts are kept torqued. After all, they lasted 10 years as they were.
My friend with a Kountry Star gas MH had the same problem and his was less than 3 years old at the time. His is an 02 Unit I believe.
The hitch was a Canadian brand I believe?
JM2CW
2003 Georgetown 346DS Ford F-53 Motorhome,
2007 Pontiac G6 Toad, Blue Ox Aventa LX
Family Campers & RVers
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Deen wrote: 10 year old MH. Have you EVER checked the torque on the bolts? Looks like a (lack of) maintenance problem to me. You don't need grade 8 bolts for a hitch if the bolts are kept torqued. After all, they lasted 10 years as they were.
It is unfair to expect everyone to check every bolt in the MH. For example: do you check the torque on every bolt in your front suspension? I do look at everything visible when I crawl under my rig, just in case. On my Winnebago, there is not that much holding on the hitch, I think only 4 bolts. Even then it is attached to an welded extension on the chassis, not the actual chassis. Given the information from the OP, I will check mine more.
When I was connecting my 5'er to my Little Rocker hitch, I found a broken bolt and nut in the bed of my truck. Upon investigation, I found the front bolt on the swivel portion of the hitch had sheared off. Whew, I'm glad I noticed it. That could have been interesting in the mountains. It now has a nice new shiney grade 8 bolt in it.
Back in the early to mid-90's when I worked for a top end military contractor, the government put out a directive to all of it's contractors that required metallurgical and stress testing of all bolts.
One of the suppliers of fasteners for armored vehicles was using Chinese supplied bolts and the turrets were popping off of tanks while under way. Not a good thing !
While the whole military supply system was not infected, there were quite a few instances of unacceptable and/or weak hardware (bolts).
I would NOT doubt for a moment that some of that same hardware got into the automotive supply chain and remnants may still be in use.
Healeyman wrote: Back in the early to mid-90's when I worked for a top end military contractor, the government put out a directive to all of it's contractors that required metallurgical and stress testing of all bolts.
One of the suppliers of fasteners for armored vehicles was using Chinese supplied bolts and the turrets were popping off of tanks while under way. Not a good thing !
While the whole military supply system was not infected, there were quite a few instances of unacceptable and/or weak hardware (bolts).
I would NOT doubt for a moment that some of that same hardware got into the automotive supply chain and remnants may still be in use.
Tim
Honestly, that's reassuring. If the Chinese army ever had occasion to run down the Alaskan Hwy I bet lots of their stuff would fall apart.
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