A Frame Disaster

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Realist

Realist

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Found this on one Facebook forum.
5CF8072C-5558-4C5C-A7EF-BD48898FE402.jpeg
 
I know who the A frame supplier is but I’m not saying who because of the nature of the above and possibilities of legal ramifications for the OP and past customers.
 
It is a tragedy waiting to happen, especially as cars and that type of installation ages and rusts. Relying on the towing eye mounts was never, ever a good idea, due to the way modern cars are made. The attachment relies upon steel the thickness of a biscuit tin holding a nut welded to it. This failure has been reported before, but without the crash as only one side ripped out of the thin bodywork behind the plastic bumper
 
I know plenty do it.. but I personally have never had the inclination or indeed the need to drag a car behind a moho and have always felt this is a very unsafe practise and should be illegal as it is in other countries.
Whats wrong with going all out and putting car on a trailer or even better become a tugger.
 
My Morris Minor A Frame provided by TAF is a major industrial price of work. The car’s connection to the chassis is as structurally strong as the chassis. Pictures like this make me pleased I went with them.

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What’s transpired is they used the original subframe and just welded the fixing points to that hence why they pulled away, no extra strength features what so ever.

Not all A frame suppliers carry out such poor work and some actually change the whole front end that’s been strengthened and modified to stop such a disaster.

But what gets to me is selling a A Frame with no break away cable or means to stop it if it comes away from the Motorhome.

Poor design and yes a disaster waiting to happen.

Now we wait for the OP to let everyone know the supplier, I’m not I’m just passing on vital info.

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Landy Andy said:
Three thoughts. The corrosion is pretty much only where the fixings went through so they’ve probably drilled holes and then not protected the holes. It’s been failing for a while, so hasn’t been checked on. Also these systems are dangerous and should not be allowed.
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poppycamper said:
Absolutely!
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What are your qualifications for making what appears to be a generalized inflammatory remark?
 
poppycamper I would use a trailer but I can not reverse one to save my life. I have tried for years and even got my brother to teach me, still useless. Recently we visited Devizes and overshot the entrance to Foxhangers as our satnav had the entrance further up the road and the sign is not clear (said to the narrow boat hire marina). I looked for a place to turn but couldn’t see one so I simply stopped in a layby, unhooked the car, turned them both separately and rehooked.
 
Landy Andy said:
Also these systems are dangerous and should not be allowed.
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Anything could be dangerous if NOT kept up to scratch and serviced and checked...

I have towed approx 60 - 80 K miles with one on the back of an RV and Eurovan and never had a problem, also had trailer because of the legalities in some country`s...

And always asked the mechanic to have a look and check on the towing eyes and cross beam, when car serviced..

Once it was mentioned that there was a bit of rust where the eyes had been affixed..

On checking it was surface rust, solid as anything.... But I still gave it a good rub down and a coat of red oxide and hammerite..

Just to put my mind at rest.... :smiley:
 
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Anyone with a modicum of engineering background can see that the fixings were only applied to the front surface of the bumper beam from the way they have pulled out. As a bare minimum, there should at least have been a hole through the front and the back of the beam, with a reinforced anchor plate/spreader fitted to the rear ?
The fact that there was no breakaway cable to apply the towed car's brakes must surely be against the basic requirements for towing any sort of braked capable trailer, A-frame or otherwise ?

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emjaiuk said:
What are your qualifications for making what appears to be a generalized inflammatory remark?
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emjaiuk said:
What are your qualifications for making what appears to be a generalized inflammatory remark?
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Far more than anyone who built what I have seen here.
Realist said:
and some actually change the whole front end that’s been strengthened and modified to stop such a disaster.
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Whichas I have said before, then makes the whole car illegal as in Breach of its Certificate of Conformity as it would require that the replaced front beam had a CoC homologation the same as any type of tow bar has to have.
 
Landy Andy My understanding is that the longer the distance between the hitch point and the towed wheels, the harder it is to reverse. A small trailer would be just as difficult for me. I would agree with you if there was no way of solving the problem of not being able to reverse. I don’t see why anyone just object to someone else solving their own problems without inconveniencing others.
There are also people who think only those who know how to fix cars should be allowed to drive them, and that everyone should be able to replace a punctured wheel. I am not one of them.

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Sorry, meant to say the shorter the distance, the harder it is to reverse. Apparently the short distance magnifies the slightest movement of the steering wheel. My problem is that, to me, reversing is counterintuitive, like having to remember that the two metre part of my motorhome behind the rear wheels goes in the opposite direction to the front of the vehicle when turning.
 
Northernraider said:
Thats been a very poor fitting ... both the towcars ive had were over engineered and had a full galvanized beam bolted along the full width of the front cross member . That one looks pathetic to be honest
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And joined to the longitudinal beams. I've seen several cars with rust at the cross member / longitudinal intersection....
 
I have studied the provided pictures and can say without a doubt that this failure has been in progress some time, with only a few inches of solid metal left to finally rip off. The rust on the torn edges show that the tears started quite some time ago and have passed un-noticed till now. That amount of rust takes a long time to form on bare metal. The surface rust around the damaged area indicates that the metal distorted and broke the paint surface

Again, the type of mounting used in that installation is in no way adequate for the stressed applied to it by long distance towing. I have seen many vehicles where the towing eye has torn from the bodywork when being towed at a diagonal or up to 90 degree pull. Those mounts are only rated for a straight pull on a flat surface to move a broken down vehicle. When I did recovery work, you never relied on the the towing eyes to avoid damage. One call out I went on was embarrassing for another company, as they sent out a lad who tried winching a damaged (nearly new) BMW onto his beavertail lorry using the tow eye. It tore out, sending the car rolling back off into another customer's car causing serious damage to both. The guy I worked for had the contract with a few insurance companies for good reason. The competition tried undercutting prices and cut corners to achieve it

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