ForEverlast 50 lb. Tailgate feeder from Academy

For starters, sorry for the long read.

Short story: Don't buy the ForEverlast 50 lb. tailgate feeder and their Receiver Hitch kit from Academy.

Long Story:
I've been looking for a cheap and used, but effective road feeder to stick in my receiver hitch on the truck. Couldn't find one local anywhere so I saw academy had their Game Winner tailgate feeders that looked to be fairly decent. I procrastinated too long to order one, but hoped they had one in stock. They did not, so my next option was the Foreverlast 50lb. feeder. It looked good on the box, but if you want to attach it to your hitch, you have to buy their $40 receiver hitch adapter. Fine, cheap enough.

Once I get home and unpackaged everything, it is definitely cheap. The sheet metal for the main body was sharp and fairly jagged under the lid, and will cut the out of you. They have sheet metal screws holding the feeder body together, with sharp screw points sticking inside the feeder...more finger grabbers/cutter. The motor and wire harness/switch seems nice and worked as it should, and the receiver kit looked fairly well built and powder coated...at first glance.

There are two plates that mount to the back of the feeder for rigidity and bolts lined up great with the feeder portion. The "L" shaped 2" square tubing that mounts to the plates, however, does not line up. I had to drill 2 new holes through the plates and the feeder. I'm talking close to an inch from where their pre-drilled holes are located.

Now don't get me wrong, I feel as though I'm pretty handy with tools, and didn't really have a problem getting everything attached (with some modifications), but you would think that if someone has a product that they are selling in a chain store (ie. Academy), all bolt holes should line up and the fit and finish of the product would be in tip-top shape. I can understand the possibility of the feeder and the receiver kit being two different brands, but in this case, they were the same brand.

For your average Joe Cityboy, taking it back would be the easiest solution, but I really didn't want to spend the extra time to drive back to academy, return the product, purchase something else or even order something. Hence the reason I just busted the drill out and went to town.

I work in product design and would be absolutely ashamed if this was my product. Sharp, jagged edges on sheet metal should be ground down or folded over. Sharp screws shouldn't be left protruding into an area that hands may be going into to fix a clogged hole. Bolt holes should not be an inch out of spec... Oh, and the hole to put your hitch pin in to attach to your receiver hitch, wouldn't even fit a hitch pin through it. The hole wasn't even close to round. Isn't that the whole point of a hitch? Being able to put a pin through it to attach it to a vehicle?

I guess this is more of a rant on quality control of a certain "hunting gear" product and I may get some flack on my review like I've seen on other peoples reviews, but just thought I would forewarn anyone who was planning on this particular road feeder.

Rats, bought one of these Tuesday night and was planning to get it mounted up this weekend. I'm okay with the holes being off, but the exposed screws sound bad.

Just check the inside of the feeder. Mine had some pop rivets on some of the edges, and I'm almost wondering if they ran out of rivets while building mine and reverted to some small sheet metal screws on the rest of it

I'll have to check when I get home, but I may be able to get an angle grinder down in there and grind the tips of the screws off.

We have two of them. They don't have any screws all rivets. I built my own receiver bracket out of some 2" tubing for cheap. Its been great, only complaint is it will run out if you have a lot of roads to feed.

Mine has been fine but holes were off. Had to drill a few new holes and add new self tappers. Best thing I did was change the spinner plate out (To one that springs open and closes) and remove 1/2 the shield. NOw throws way better. Teeth on the bowl spinner it came with on (2) of ours broke off fast.

Did you have to modify yours to get the other spinner plate in there? A guy at my lease has the same feeder and put an Eliminator spinner plate on his, but had to lengthen some brackets on the bottom of his feeder to make it work correctly.

I put this one one.....no modification needed to the length of the brackets. Just removed the shield and pushed it back a little then re-screwed it on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPHxkcObmz0

I have none with the sheet metal screw. Never had a problem with the screws. All the screws are pointing inside the feeder. Where the corn goes not your hand. Problem I had is the flimsy side by the lid. Screwed a 1x2 in the middle to keep the middle from pushing in. Now you have to push the release button to open.

looks like that would work well.

Kind of contradicting, don't ya think?

Like I stated in the OP, there are sharp screws pointing to the inside of the feeder. While assembling the receiver bracketry, you have to put your hand INSIDE the feeder. Now if I was someone like that lady that sued McDonald's for being burned by hot coffee, I could have made sure to cut my hand real good and done the same with this company...but that's not me. Something that is not so common in the good ole USA, I do have and that's called common sense.

If a company is going to sell a product with sharp screws or parts on the inside, sell it as a complete package without "assembly required". That's just asking to get sued by someone that isn't so bright.

Sorry type o error I have one