I recently had a bad experience with my Blue Ox Aventa II tow bar. I was towing my F150 pickup. I was U-Turning in a parking lot at night. It was a large enough parking lot for the turn. It was night time so I wasn't really able to see much in my mirrors while I was turning. Mostly I was watching everything in front of me as I turned. About three-fourths through the turn I felt something strange and got out to take a look. The right arm of the Blue Ox tow bar had completely buckled and the bar was up against my towed vehicle. I really don't know why this happened. Perhaps for some reason the toad did not follow my truck. Perhaps the wheels locked up on the toad. I was able to get the vehicles separated and removed the tow bar. I was able to get another tow bar and resumed my trip.
Today I called Blue Ox for support. I was hoping they could give me some insight on what might have happened so that I could ensure that this doesn't repeat itself. The woman that answered my call told me that it was an old tow bar and they don't make that model anymore. She said there were no parts available and it could not be fixed. She told me that they feel the expected life of a Blue Ox tow bar is only 6-7 years and should then be replaced.I assured her that it had only been lightly used and stored indoors. She told me that the Blue Ox tow bar would suffer from metal fatigue even if it was sitting on a shelf indoors! I was floored by that ridiculous statement. I asked her if there was someone I might speak to that could offer more insight into the reasons for the failure. She assured me there was no one at Blue Ox that could give me a different answer than hers. She asked if there was anything else she could help me with. I assured her that up until now she certainly hadn't helped me with anything at all.