Where is the company Bulldog? Or Fulton, and Draw-Tite? Reese was one of my favorite towing accessory brands. The websites for all of these trailer parts companies are down now. What is happening?
The parent company of all these brands, First Brands Group, collapsed into federal liquidation. Unfortunately, the websites of all of these brands also disappeared about the same time. The websites are all dead, or completely inaccessible right now. (There are some cached versions of the sites still hanging around, but they are not functional and will probably disappear soon too.)
- fultonperformance.com
- draw-tite.com
- bulldogproducts.net
- www.reeseprod.com
- www.reesetowpower.com
- www.tekonsha.com
- www.bargman.com
And the disruption goes beyond hitches, couplers and jacks – Tekonsha brake controllers and Bargman trailer electrical products were part of the same Horizon business.
That is sad, IMHO, for the trailer parts industry.
Are The Trailer Parts Permanently Gone?
No, you can still find parts that people have in inventory. However, you might want to be careful with some purchases, because spare parts will likely be hard to find in the future, and warranties will likely not be honored.
In my mind, that means we can probably get some good deals! And, many of the trailer parts are not that serviceable anyway, so who cares if we can’t get spares. A good Bulldog jack, for instance, is usually tossed and replaced if it gets significant damage. For standard trailer parts like hitches, jacks, etc., I think we are fine purchasing them, so look for deals.
It is rather sad for us here at Mechanical Elements because we talk about cool functions like this Fulton hinge. Hopefully it will come back.
The Towing Products Division
While the original corporate structure is out of business, the towing division was rescued in a $64 million asset sale.
First Brands Group is winding down for liquidation. Yet, they managed to offload their towing and cargo-management division in North America and China. That division owned Bulldog, Reese, Draw-Tite, Fulton, Tekonsha, and Bargman. An automotive supplier named Flex-N-Gate bought the Horizon Global towing portfolio.
The Current Situation: Because the brands were bought out of a massive liquidation court proceeding, the new owners are currently reorganizing the businesses. Flex-N-Gate now owns the businesses, but the transition is not complete.
Manufacturing & Inventory: The factories did not permanently vanish. While they re-establish under Flex-N-Gate, massive amounts of pre-existing and newly transitioning inventory for Fulton jacks, Draw-Tite hitches, and Bulldog couplers are still active in major independent retail warehouses like etrailer and Amazon.
They will likely return online in the future, but the branding may be entirely different once the new ownership group finishes rebuilding their digital storefronts.
Reese Is A Little Different
Because Reese is a massive name in retail towing parts, third-party distributors like ReeseHitches.com remain entirely active and functional online to look up parts and place orders. (Hopefully all of this will not adversely affect them.)
ReeseHitches.com is still operating, but it is an independent retailer – not the official Reese manufacturer website.
Like Bulldog and Fulton, both of the official Reese product/fitment sites are down with the restructuring. However, we should be able to get parts for a while. Keep your eyes out for it.
Messy Business Layers
What really happened on the business side? Horizon Global was an independent publicly traded towing/trailering company until First Brands Group bought it in 2023. Horizon owned brands including Reese, Fulton, Draw-Tite, Bulldog, Tekonsha, and Bargman. Basically, trailer parts companies. After that, Horizon Global became a wholly owned subsidiary of First Brands Group rather than a separate public company.
OK, it is not that convoluted, but with the various layers, I wonder how many people were skimming? Is that why they ended up in bankruptcy? Let me know what you think – in the comments below.
During the First Brands bankruptcy/liquidation, the Horizon North America towing business (which contains the brands we know) was sold to Flex-N-Gate. In other words, they switched First Brands Group for Flex-N-Gate. I’m not sure that really makes business sense unless all those different levels can get along without each skimming a portion of the profits.
What we really need is a way to put the profits back into R&D instead of skimming.
What This Means For You And I
I suppose other parts companies like Dexter stand to gain a lot from this transition. That might mean some longer lead times in getting parts – if you purchase from one of them.
It also means that service manuals and such for the trailer parts produced by these companies are not as accessible. There are, of course, alternative websites for them, but we will need to look a little harder to find them. If you already own one of these products (and the manual), now is probably a good time to save the installation instructions, service information, part numbers and any other documentation you may need later.
Prepare to endure a bunch of broken links. Even when I asked AI a few things to verify for this article, Gemini kept sending me to broken links.
On the other hand, your knowledge of this change is likely power in your hands to negotiate good deals. I expect as time goes on that some part retailers will be keen to offload their inventory – seeing that they won’t want to be sitting on stuff that does not have a good name to back it anymore.
Yes, that puts more emphasis on us when we buy the stuff, but if you trust it, the gamble is likely good. If you need a hitch, or coupler, or tongue jack, or other accessory, ask for a deal.
Looking To The Future For Trailer Parts
It is certainly sad to see the trouble for these trailer parts name brands. Yet, it is probably an opportunity if you are building a trailer soon.
If you are building a trailer from one of our plans and having trouble finding the right parts, then our parts kit information is another place to find great compatible components. We have already done the parts search for you.
Fortunately, the brands themselves are not yet gone. What we do not know yet is exactly what they will look like under Flex-N-Gate. Let’s hope that means capital for new products and a better trailer parts over the long run. I would love to see a competitor take charge and stand up as great competition to Dexter. (Don’t take that wrong, I like Dexter. I also really like healthy economic competition where customers benefit from better products as the competitors all try to make a better widget!) Hopefully that is what we will get.
Keep your ears out for future updates. In the meantime, get your new trailer parts now while the getting is good.
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