I have a 2004 F150 XLT Crew Cab[/B] with 99,300. miles. Yesterday while towing my car trailer (all aluminum construction) my hitch bent down toward the ground. The rear cross member was rusted out and the receiver ready to fall off. Safety chains would not have helped as everything was coming off. This truck has seen limited winter use. Warning to all..could have been a disaster. I was lucky!:

 

Pictures please?

Sure would help ....

 

Interesting first post.

 

Further inspection by auto body shop of my F150 cross member trailer hitch reveals that it is a bolt-on unit. Removal of the bumper is required first. Will post photographs of replacement as this project starts. STILL...very dangerous situation! Is FORD using some cheap Russian steel like Toyota did on the Tundra?

 

Sooo, it's not the Ford factory hitch?

 

truck ever been rustproofed?

 

The trailer hitch is a factory tow package, however the entire rear cross member is the hitch assembly. We have the new one from FORD. It is a bolt-on unit...the entire rear cross member. The lower square tube appears to be a "water-catcher" with no drain holes. Pictures this week.

 

For those of you that don't know it, the factory / OEM hitch in 2004 through 2006 (if I'm not mistaken) was a rather massive beast. To say that it was more than up to the job would be an understatement. Ford even talked it up in their advertising as being more substantial than any competitor's hitch. It was downsized considerably (as a cost down) after that and then looked much like any other Class III receiver hitch.

I've never heard of one of those bad boys failing in this manner, so I'm kind of looking forward to the pics. And remember, I live in the road salt capital of the world.

 

I believe you will find that it was the finishing process used and not the type or country of origin of the steel that caused the issues you mention. And the frame supplier is a US company.

 

That's not always a safe assumption. I work for a vehicle mfger (not autos) and several years ago we had to ban Chinese suppliers for any structural components. More than one Chinese company would provide the proper parts for engineering testing and validation, then after a few months started supplying inferior parts on purpose to save money. Our steel supplier started mislabeling cheaper alloys which resulted in a lot of warranty work. That brand ultimately went out of business, and quality was the biggest reason other than the economy. The brand I transferred to will only work with US suppliers for metals, even if a foreign company is a little cheaper.

 

Then the issue is with your QA department and procurement department. If you deal with the lowest bidder on non-US steel, you're likely to get that result. The alloy content should have been monitored throughout the first few years by an independent party to ensure that the supplier maintained their quality. We use a Chinese forging company (as well as some US suppliers) for large (8Klbs+ carbon and SS) items, and have had very few issues with their quality. It isn't proper to assume that all Chinese steel is inferior.

 

I didn't say ALL Chinese steel is inferior. I stated its not a safe assumption to always assume the structure is fine and failure is due to inferior coatings.

The reason we ban Chinese companies is we don't have to test as much and we have recourse with major US companies. Higher risk = more testing = more cost. That coupled with logistic costs and lead times its just easier to buy American.

 

I don't disagree. However, there are tons of examples out there of quality steel being procured from China, et al. In many instances, the reduced forging costs DO outweigh the significant expenses of overseas freight and QA inspections. I agree on the aspect of having legal recourse, but unless the component failures have resulted in a high-liability condition, sometimes the best recourse is choosing not to pay for any open orders. That usually gets their attention quickly, lol.

I'm still interested in the pictures from this incident. If this were a widespread problem with the hitch assy, I would imagine we would have seen a lot more instances of it. It's more likely a finishing process issue, or heat treat, etc. Possibly even a bad batch of hitch assemblies, not likely a systemic problem.

 

 

Sorry, I am having problems trying to post photos of this Ford trailer hitch...both the old rusted-out one and the new replacement. For the time being, to get pictures I could Email them to you. Guess I need help to post them.
Racer17 rfbjmb@
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