Mobtown hidden hitch failure. Need suggestions

I stayed out of it lol. Too many "engineers" posting...

 

The SOS plates are a real pain to install. Also double check your clearances. It will push your hitch forward that extra 3/16”. Wasnt a fan of the extra gaps it created with my streamline bumper. But its mostly a cosmetic issue. And those plates will likely need modified. The holes on mine were 1/4” to 1/2” off in some places and not concentric.

 

Glad to see they took care of you and the issue. This is how you build a customer base.

 

I really want to like mobtown, but they took 3x the posted lead time to ship my recovery bar (preventing its use for hunting season) and when it showed up last week, it did not include the OPs modification. Saaaaad Panda.

 

Currently over seven weeks here. Asked in an email if mine was going to be updated. Got the standard it's in production we will let you know when it ships.

 

In a similar position. Ordered skids from them at the end of June. Haven't heard a peep. I sent a couple of polite email inquiries. Nothing....

 

Mine arrived dead on perfect for alignment and nice hardware. Thankfully given the nature of this setup being behind the bumper the only thing the plate thickness will affect is that the hitch and d ring points will poke just a bit more through the grill (which is fine with me). Welding them in and painting tomorrow and the new modded bar comes back from powder tomorrow as well.

 

Just wanted to chime in as I just installed mine yesterday. I ordered Mobtown's front recovery bar on 9/2 (Labor Day Sale) and it shipped on 10/13. A second unidentified box that turned out to be additional parts and hardware shipped exactly a week after. If you ordered in this timeframe, it looks as if Mobtown has updated the design a bit to accommodate the issues OP originally had. See pictures below:


Here you can see that they extended the steel channel all the way down to the bottom of the plate now. That channel only went down to about the level of the lower front bolt on OPs. This extension replaces the gusset piece you see in OPs replacement recovery bar. This seems like the more production version of what OPs posted fix from Mobtown was.

Anyways, the installation was a breeze and the new modifications to the design seem sturdy enough to me but I'm no engineer.


This is one additional support bracket that ties into the bushing mount location.


Then on top of that another metal strap tying it back to the frame. This strap and bracket are not mentioned in the 2nd gen installation directions but are included. Refer to the 3rd gen directions to install those parts.


Finished install.

 

Yours is for the second Gen truck. There never was a problem with those. The issue is with the 3rd Gen as the whole bar is simply moved 2" higher. This is/was the problem. All of those support parts you got have been part of both 2nd and 3rd gen kits for over a year and were on mine when it bent.
Regardless I finally welded and painted my new SOS bumper mount plates this weekend along with the updated bar. Those plates are so solid. They went on easily, lined up perfectly, welded in well and only needed the lower frame bolt drilled out to accommodate it. I slathered the whole area with primer and a rubberized undercoat. In my opinion these plates are cheap insurance for this design and should be used on all installs (even traditional bumpers) .

 

So I just received my hitch 12/22/20, ordered 9/7/20. It came without the gusset that OP had received in the update. Extremely unsatisfied in Mobtown. 4 month wait and it's not even updated when they know there is an issue.

 

Sure looks like the old design (no lower gussets and the use of plate steel instead of channel for the stand offs). Here is a pic of the updated one shipped to me back on Oct 19th. I initially inquired about the issue to Mobtown on Sept. 12th. They acknowledged a design change was needed around the 16th, agreed to replaced it with an updated design around the 22nd and shipped it on Oct. 19th.

Luckily yours is not painted or powdered yet so you can strengthen it up a lot by welding in 4 gussets under the channel yourself. A fab shop shouldn't charge too much for that if you dont have the ability to do it yourself.

 

I do have the ability to do it myself luckily, however, this should have been corrected right from the get go from @Mobtown Offroad. They obviously have a known issue that you so generously offered to help them for free with your software/modeling. Instead they choose to keep building a faulty product. Hopefully those of you still waiting on mobtown to send you something can cancel your order or demand that it comes shipped to you updated with the fix the OP got.

 

Did you contact them for resolution?

 

What do you think their resolution would be after four months of not completing it the right way in the first place? They aren't going to be open until the new year anyway.

 

Or, the buyer could have contacted us and it was not a known issue until this customer came to us. In 5 years, and literally 100’s shipped, he is the first failure. This product has been updated to the new design once this came about.

 

Never know unless you ask.

 

So you have a QC issue then? How many have you sent out since September that don't have gussets?

 

A: there's a pandemic on, so there will be delays with production/shipping

B: heaven forbid they made a bunch and possibly were shipping those when op showed them this issue. Therefore, a number of customers are still going to get the "old" design.

C: @Mobtown Offroad haven't had this issue crop up before. Yes there's a first time for everything, but maybe also don't use equipment in manner it's not meant for.

 

A- 12 weeks past their posted lead time?
B- See above.
C- Using front hitch/shackle mount as a recovery point isn't what it was meant for?