Rear Bumper Collapse

[Ray]

     I purchased a 1974 Clipper 3 yrs ago here in south Louisiana. We had a festival food business and thought we could use the camper for our travels in the south.
I hooked up our trailer and off we went. We got about 2 miles from home and the entire rear bumper dropped.
      After calling our daughter to bring her truck and retrieve the trailer, I was able to limp home, dragging the rear bumper with us.
      As I checked things out I found that both the pot water tank and the grey water tank dropped along w/ the bumper.
      It looks like it was attched to wood framing, I really can't tell unless I tear up the bathroom floor.
       Anybody have any ideas? I'm about to sell it for parts if it can't be repaired at a reasonable $

Thanks in advance
  Ray

[mccammonds]

Remember your dealing with the original year of the American Clipper.   I would start about six inches in front of the problem area and evaluate from there to  the front bumper.  Let that tell you rather it's worth spending some money on.

If the rest of  the rig is in good shape then I would spend some money and strengthen behind the rear wheeels.


I have a 1975 and it has been rebuilt and strengthened quite a bit from the rear wheels to the rear bumper.  I pulled one of U-Hauls biggest trailer fully loaded about 1500 miles.  Someone must have done a good job.

Keep us posted.

[John Eversoll]

I must agree!!, the clipper is a strong bugger!! We towed the race car
roughly 2,000 miles round trip on a full trailer. That including 4 extra tires , tools
Beer-----Oh that wasn't suppose to be there----  roughly 3,600 lbs.
You knew you were towing something but no problems.
Just make sure that your tanks are empty " not fuel"

[Horst]

All depends on how the hitch was "attached" to your Clipper.
This was an aftermarket mod for almost all Clippers - and done properly - rarely, rarely causes problems.
But if done improperly (all too often) causes serious problems.
Basically, the hitch has to be reinforced/attached to the MAIN frame of the B300 chassis - NOT the extension (there are diagrams on this web site on how it should be done).
If a hitch is only attached to the extension portion of the frame - it will eventually fail when towing anything serious - sometimes minor fail (rear end sag) other times -  major fail.
My hitch is only good for an insert (hitch-haul) to carry surf gear and maybe a few light bikes - (100lbs tops)

I'd like to find a welder locally who can properly reinforce my hitch (and leave some money in my wallet!!) - that I can tow my little Geo Metro - woohoo!

[John Eversoll]

Horst, Geo Metro??, come on you should be able to tow that --- shouldn't you?

But then again as you said in your post.... I guess I just take everything for granted..

I mean if you have a tow hitch this means you can tow. "  I guess you should investigatye the system

to make sure that everything is where it should be.  I just lucked out..

Ya know it shouldn't cost too much to retro fit the hitch, at the most I would thiink around $80.

Have a great day! John

[Horst]

$80 to "retro fit" my hitch properly???!!!!!
I'll pay three times that to anyone who can do it! Seriously - this is at least a $400 job. Check out the specs on the diagram on this web site (can't find the link just now)