egrove
USA
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Warning to those who tow a Honda CR-V using a Blue Ox base plate. Ours failed while towing. The base plate itself cracked and broke. After doing some some searching I've found others have had the same problem, so it appears to be a design flaw with the base plate. Ours had over 50k miles on it before this happened, and our tow bars have always been level.
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/payw0mNl.png)
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/gysTiT0l.png)
Eric Grove
Dallastown, PA
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mleekamp
Washington, IL
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Yikes! Had not heard of this ever happening...BlueOx, not even other brands. We flat towed for a year with a 20 year old Jeep using the steel front bumper and a cheap tow bar -- something I was always worried about is what happened to you. I thought the actual baseplates (vs setup we used to have) was safer.
Thanks for the warning!
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Y-Guy
Tri-Cities, WA
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Thanks for sharing about your issue. What's the response from BlueOx been?
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egrove
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Y-Guy wrote:Thanks for sharing about your issue. What's the response from BlueOx been?
So far I've gotten no reply from Blue Ox.
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egrove
USA
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mleekamp wrote:Yikes! Had not heard of this ever happening...BlueOx, not even other brands. We flat towed for a year with a 20 year old Jeep using the steel front bumper and a cheap tow bar -- something I was always worried about is what happened to you. I thought the actual baseplates (vs setup we used to have) was safer.
Thanks for the warning!
I'm actually thinking of switching to a jeep with an offroad bumper so I won't need a base plate anymore. What was your concern with this setup?
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willald
NC
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Yikes is right! Honda CR-Vs have been a popular towed vehicle for a very, very long time. Really surprised to hear of this happening with a CR-V.
Yeah, makes me also think once again, that I went the wrong way in installing a blue ox base plate on our Jeep Wrangler, and may well one day pull it off and go with an offroad bumper with built in tow hooks that bolt directly to the Jeep's frame.
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ken1961
Florida
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I've had Blue Ox on 4 of my vehicles with no problems. I have seen motorhomes try to back up with the toad attached and this can break the base plate.
Ken
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Y-Guy
Tri-Cities, WA
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egrove wrote:So far I've gotten no reply from Blue Ox.
That is very disappointing, I'd at least think they might want to inspect it - doubt they will step up to replace it but at least learn from it.
egrove wrote:I'm actually thinking of switching to a jeep with an offroad bumper...
I went this route, very happy with the setup.
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Horsedoc
Dixie --- N. Georgia
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What do YOU think caused it?
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egrove
USA
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Horsedoc wrote:What do YOU think caused it?
It appears to be a bad design. The metal used for the drop from the car attachment point to the main cross bar stressed over time and cracked. This has happened to others besides me. I won't buy another.
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