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I just towed my M1009 from S Florida to middle TN about 75MPH average with my IBIS TEK 44,000 and worked great. I would love to see Pics when you can.
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Catastrophic Ibis Tek tow bar failure; snapped like a twig.
- Thread starter actionpaintball
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actionpaintball
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M1075
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Dang, that is some kind of carnage!
actionpaintball
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The truck was making a regular right hand turn. It looks like the left hand leg of the bar failed in tension and ripped out at both welded joints. The right hand leg looks like it buckled at the same time. This was at less than 5 MPH taking off from a stop. The tow vehicle was freely rolling with the air brake jumpers hooked up. Nothing appeared to lock up...it simply just broke.
I do not know the local statutes for being in a tow vehicle, but this truck was fully operational with good brakes and steering, it just had a bad transmission. We actually towed it about three miles with a chain after this. I am pretty sure you cannot be riding in the truck with tow bar flat tow...
I do not know the local statutes for being in a tow vehicle, but this truck was fully operational with good brakes and steering, it just had a bad transmission. We actually towed it about three miles with a chain after this. I am pretty sure you cannot be riding in the truck with tow bar flat tow...
bigbird1
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looks like it broke right in the center of the welds, I wouldn't feel safe with one towing anything very big from now on. Give the company a call and see where it gets you and Thanks for the pictures .
Jeepsinker
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Looks like you could replace that tube with some solid roundstock. Will make it a lot heavier, but it sure wont break there again.
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It looks like he didn't use feet and somehow had the towbar ends go right to the bumper shackles and missing the "foot joint" caused the failure.
actionpaintball
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I had feet...they are still on the truck, we pulled the pins to drop the dragging bar ends. I am not sure I would even be able to turn 3 degrees without a joint at the bumper clevis attachments.
Hypothetically, lets say the whole bar was mounted statically with no joints on either end....even then, it should not fail at half the rated load. The "joints" simply make the turning transition smoother, the forces at those failed joints would not change much. A single leg of a 44,000 pound *rated* bar should be able to take the entire pulling load of a 20,000 pound truck and still have an ample amount of "factor of safety" left over.
Hypothetically, lets say the whole bar was mounted statically with no joints on either end....even then, it should not fail at half the rated load. The "joints" simply make the turning transition smoother, the forces at those failed joints would not change much. A single leg of a 44,000 pound *rated* bar should be able to take the entire pulling load of a 20,000 pound truck and still have an ample amount of "factor of safety" left over.
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Wow!
I am curious to see what Ibis Tek's response will be.
I am curious to see what Ibis Tek's response will be.
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WOW!!!
gimpyrobb
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I am willing to wager that since he is not the original owner, they will tell him "to bad, so sad". Its sad to see this. I now wonder if I will ever use mine.
Jeepsinker
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Being it to the rally or send it to me so I can fix it and have a tow bar. Unless you actually plan on fixing it. Would be happy to pay shipping.
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I don't know that I would expect them to replace it or anything like that, but I want to know what they say - Will it be "We're concerned and want to know details of how yours broke to do product improvement" or "User abuse - sorry kid, thats not a MATV"?
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I don't think the point of telling the manufacturer that it failed is get a free new one. It should be that "hey, I had one fail doing this and I'm sending it to you for a root cause analysis". That might prevent something bad happening in the future.
My first thought is the safety of others, a thank you note would payment enough.
My first thought is the safety of others, a thank you note would payment enough.
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I don't have one of these tow bars but am wondering what the set up is. I was looking at your pic 1 and trying to understand the geometry considering the teeth on the 'inside' of the legs - is this some kind of geared knuckle joint, so the legs stay symetrical to the perpendicular line between the lunette ring and the 'casualty's' bumper? If so - in the pic, the unbroken leg is not in the right place.
Was there some kind of 'bind' on the teeth causing overload?
If there is a simple explanation to the pic - please disregard my point of speculation.
For a bar rated at 44,000 lbs - something must have happened that was outside the operational parameters - ie., material defect - maybe a broken tooth??, and nothing to do with your attempted correct use of it.
Regards. Sorry about your broken towbar but congrats on the vehicles!
Was there some kind of 'bind' on the teeth causing overload?
If there is a simple explanation to the pic - please disregard my point of speculation.
For a bar rated at 44,000 lbs - something must have happened that was outside the operational parameters - ie., material defect - maybe a broken tooth??, and nothing to do with your attempted correct use of it.
Regards. Sorry about your broken towbar but congrats on the vehicles!
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actionpaintball
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Those big teeth just keep the geometry symetrical just like you mentioned.
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actionpaintball
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Those big teeth just keep the geometry symmetrical just like you mentioned: They force the bar angles to be equal. It's hard to tell from those pictures, but it would be impossible to install the bar with one of the legs offset from the centerline more or less than the other.
I contacted them, we will see what happens. I wrote it off in my mind as a casualty of doing business, and lesson learned. We will see how/if Ibis Tek responds. I will be happy to send it in. And, as always I am not quick t oassign blame, could have been a manufacturing defect, or even user error in some way. I know the military has had failures and issued special bulletins;curious to see how others failed and how/what they were towing.
I contacted them, we will see what happens. I wrote it off in my mind as a casualty of doing business, and lesson learned. We will see how/if Ibis Tek responds. I will be happy to send it in. And, as always I am not quick t oassign blame, could have been a manufacturing defect, or even user error in some way. I know the military has had failures and issued special bulletins;curious to see how others failed and how/what they were towing.
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From the bulletin issued, they are to stop use of the Ibis tow bar. That is enough for me to steer clear of them. The use of the other medium duty and heavy duty bars are obviously the way to go. I have a heavy duty bar, doubt it will ever break. The only drawback is the weight. I think I would rather deal with the weight than a failure that could potentially get some one hurt or worse.
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It is possible to open and close the angle causing the gear teeth out of synch, causing the eye to be offset. Which would change the loading and stress. As I said earlier I have used this model a lot. Looks as though the weld may not have had enough penetration or enough weld material.
actionpaintball
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I could not get it to mesh incorrectly (it may be possible but would look horribly offset)... but I do know the bar was stowed straight with the legs together and they never "popped" out past 45 degrees during the install (IE past the end of the teeth mesh). Everything was symmetrical. I will look at the weld a little closer this weekend. I will run it through my weld sizing book and see if the wall thicknesses and joints are sized to be 100% efficient, and look for defects at the root of the joint(s). The larger aluminum screwed and welded joint fillet looks a little small, but the wall thickness is pretty small too.