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OEM Parts for Chevrolet Silverado


Merv and Di

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Hi all

 

We recently  had the unfortunate mishap of rippng the tow bar off the rear chassis mounts along with snapping the reinforcement bar which holds up the rear bumper and part of the tow bar of our 2012 Silverado whilst up in Hells Gate  (great place to visit).  Yes the van came home to Melbourne on the back of a semi thanks to great assistance from RACV.  Anyway a long story short this is apparently a common fault,  the bars are not strong enough for our conditions as explained to me by Chev USA who simply wiped their hands of the matter.  I now know of four others in Australia with the same fault.

I managed to find all replacement parts via a Company called World Parts Direct.com who sell OEM part for Chev at very reasonable prices.  They will not ship to Australia but I was informed by  them about a forwarding Company in Florida who does, their name MyUS.com  who have been brilliant.  Parts are delivered to them and even using their economy shipping I had them the following week and I could not fault their rates they were far cheaper than using Shopmate.com (AusPost).

 

If you need parts in the future please check them out, I could not recommend them more highly

 

The owners and staff at Hells Gate Roadhouse bent over backwards to help us, so please when up that way drop in to say hi.

 

Cheers

 

Merv

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G’day Merv,

I have used MyUS a few times and I have also found them to be reliable and efficient. 

GMpartsonline.net is a good source for parts & Rockauto.com is amazing. 

I must have a look at my towbar and see what it requires re strengthening 

Cheers

Tony

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These are the parts that let go.  Reinforcement bar which connects the rear bumper by two bolts from the tow bar centre and the second is the pieces torn off from rear most mounts on tow bar where it bolts onto the chassis.

 

Please check your bar fittings, it is a very common problem and after trying to locate parts here, there are none.

 

cheers

Merv

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Hi Tony

 

And they are both genuine factory items...Just makes you wonder doesn't it.  I had a look at a couple of other 'trailer hitches' and they are all so similar in steel size that I decided to stay with the factory one.  Just going to have to check it more often.  I will be putting some decent extra bracing along all the weak points when I fit the new one this week and keep my fingers cross.

I spoke to a Company in Gympy whilst trying to source parts here and I was informed that we all tow too heavy trailers here and that is why they are letting go.  He also hung up on me when I mentioned that they have a 4.5t tow rating on the ball and if the engineering was better this would not happen.

We were extremely lucky that it was still hanging on by two and a half bolts and only just because at the next whoopy do I believe that we would have lost the van as there was nothing to hold it.  The brake safe would have gone with the bars, now looking for a new location to attach this separately.

 

Cheers

 

Merv

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Hi Merv

When at Cruisemaster/Vehicle Components a little time back, Keiran the service manager noticed that the brake safe cable attachment on my Cruiser is quite independent of the towbar, and he remarked that he rarely sees that. If the towbar goes, so does the cable.

I have a stainless steel cable which runs in between the towbar and the bumper bar and attaches on to the vehicle chassis. The other end has a loop which attaches to the brake safe cable with a small D shackle. 

Cheers

Bas  

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That does look familiar. Ours failed in almost the same place only geographically different, we had just turned from a 100kph to a 25kph when our tow bar parted company in Tasmania and the van skidded/rested on the new electric jack that I installed before we left. I had a complete new towbar manufactured and reinforced mounting plates as per drawings supplied by American Imports in Melbourne.

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Hi Bryan

 

The new OEM trailer hitch (tow bar)was US$284.00 and shipping through myus.com was US$280.00 at a weight of 25.4kgs, which I thought was pretty reasonable.  When I fitted it, all I did was to reinforce inside the chassis rall top and bottom with a length of 10mm mild steel on both the front and rear mounting points.  I also reinforced the bolts where they attach to the bumper reinforcement bar the same.  

 

 

Cheers

 

Merv

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