Heads up: Check your trailer hitches and couplers!!

[Dale M.]

When checking out hitch. Look under it!.... Many have adjusting nut under there that controls how "tight" the coupler pieces "latch" to the ball... Some times a loose ball/hitch can be remedied by just a turn of the nut... Sometimes it may be more prudent to replace coupler and ball...

Dale

[Creamcracker]

I was going to ask if there was any reason to prevent one using a padlock to attach the safety chains to the TV but I guess the chain quick links would cover that...I think I need to get some of those.
Philip

[zippypinhead]

One other thing to check on those couplers that have a large hand knob on top.... Make sure the threads are not stripped.
Years ago I borrowed a friends trailer with just such a coupler. I've always been in the habit of giving the tongue a sharp pull upwards after everything is hooked up just to "make sure..."
More than once, the coupler popped off... Each time I thought, "Oh, I must've forgot to tighten it up..." Hooked things back up and yanked again and it would hold.
It wasn't until it popped right off after re-tightening that I thought to look at the threads. Scared the poop out of me to think of what could've happened every time I had used the thing...

[madprinter]

Sorry about your damaged Trailer Jeff. Thank God it was'nt alot worse. I lived in a town where a woman was killed when a trailer came off a truck and went into her head on. The guy had a 2" trailer hooked to a 1 7/8 ball.
I also had to pull a guys trailer home for him when he stopped at a redlight and his tractor rolled forward, the weight shearing his bumper bolts off. He was just using a bumper ball and no hitch. All this had me thinking last week. I installed a under bumper hitch. This is one area no one should overlook. Good hitches are cheap at the salvage yards. I had to buy a new one due to not many Ford Sport tracs in the local bone yard tho. Its easy to get comfortable with things that always work , until they don't. God put his Angels with you that day. Glad your safe. Good luck with the work truck. "Work Truck"too cool, send pics.
William the not so Mad anymore "Madprinter"

[rowerwet]

my carry-on trailer came with quick links on the chain, not sure what the rating on the chain is...
I towed for years with my dads car with just S-hooks but we crushed the open side of the hook so it took it being at just the right angle to get it on and off. My dad finally bought those screw together chain links, slow but solid, for our tent trailer.
Now I am wondering how tight the striker is on my hitch...... [/url]

[SteveF]

I was driving back from an off-campus lunch meeting with a car full of co-workers a few years back and a guy coming at me lost his trailer. It was a twin axle flatbed with an Audi sedan on it! It came past him into my lane, rocking back and forth gently like a boat crossing a wake and angled into the ditch about 60 feet ahead of me. Being young and indestructible (and a little buzzed from the lunch) I was more amused than freaked out, but a few hours afterward it hit me what that thing would've done if it had, you know-hit me. (I was driving a little VW Golf at the time) Scary stuff...

[Wimperdink]

I was headed to VA to pick up a motorcycle with my 6x8 utility the other day. The night I was gonna leave I glanced at it and said..... I guess I better just repack those bearings quick as its been awhile. Took the hub off and the bearings just kinda scattered at my feet. I would have more than definitely lost a wheel along the way. I left a night late but kept my wheels on throughout the trip with the new bearings. Honestly I probably would have left them alone if I wouldn't have browsed through all the harping on repacking wheel bearings at this site. lol

Now I'm going to check 'em on all my trailers over the next lil while.

[Wild Bill]

Most safety chains are anything but. Many or under rated for the shock load that they may have to endure. I upgrade my chains and put snap hooks on the ends. Also the same thing that happens when a 2 inch trailer is connected to a 1 7/8 ball happens when you take a 2 inch ball and attempt to pull a large 2 5/16th inch Boy Scout trailer coupler. For me the chains held and it put a ding in my old dodge van bumper. I put a decal on that trailer to remind me of the ball size. Moral of the story guys, check your balls carefully and be sure they are tight or you may lose your load. Bill

[Engineer Guy]

The Safety Chains on my '89 Play-Mor TT appear woefully-undersized. They look like they should be used to close off a Checkout Register at the Supermarket. The TT did not come with a Break-away Switch either. I got some 2,800 lb-rated 'peened' Chain at Home Despot. Holding both ends up, I hung the center down into the A of the Frame, just behind the Coupler. I took both Chain ends and, from behind this hanging-down loop of Chain, fed them through inside from the rear to the front of this loop. I secured the Chain Links there together with an ample-sized Quick Link. I put major-sized Snap Hooks on both Chain ends to attach to the TV. All components are comparably-rated to avoid the proverbial weak link.

The Quick Link snugs everything together and prevents movement w/o welding to the TT Frame. In dicey areas, I can quickly remove this 'multi-function' Chain to secure a Spoke Wheel to the TT Frame and lock/immobilize it.

It's important to cross Safety Chains to support a Coupler if it drops. I've had this happen once, and crossed Safety Chains kept the Coupler from augering into a County Dirt Road.

[Maverick71]

Howdy,

My travel trailer has a ball hitch that is welded to the 52 degree A frame tongue. There is no adjustment for the latching mechanism. I like the design since when the hitch is completely down on the ball, the latch is tripped, and only when it is secure on the ball can the safety pin be inserted. Neat!

It isn't idiot proof since the latch can be tripped with no ball in the hitch! I don't think the hitch would stay on the ball and slide off at the first attempt to tow the trailer.

I also like the electric brake safety cable hooked to a switch on one end and the other end is hooked over the ball so if the trailer becomes unhooked, the electric brakes are applied. A 12volt pony battery or a full size 12 volt marine battery is required for the emergency braking.

I use a torque wrench on the ball nut as well as checking the torque on the trailer wheel lug nuts. Nothing like one of these $12.95 Harbor Freight set to click torque wrenches in the trailer tool bag.

After reading all these horror stories, I now understand why drivers following me drop way back when I wag the trailer to take a peek at how close the cars are behind me. I guess they are anticipating the moment the trailer becomes unhooked! There is no substitute for excitement on a trip!

Take care,
Maury

[rowerwet]

extra long chains can cause problems as well, I was on an interstate bridge one day when a truck going the other way lost the pop up trailer they were towing, the coupler hit the road and caught on an expansion joint or pot hole, the trailer started to pitch pole over the tongue, about the time the wheels came off the road the chains yanked the trailer back forward and the tongue up, the diver slammed on the brakes and got the coupler in the tailgate. it took less time than it took you to read that, and I'm sure their vacation (they were heading north on a friday) was ruined, but it could have been worse.... proper crossed chains would have saved them a big headache though.
Reminds me of a guy at work telling me about watching a fifth wheel camper slide into the median and start tumbling with stuff flying everywhere, what do those have for safety?

[Larry C]

I used to work for an industrial distributor that sold chain and connections. There were 4 grades of welded chain:

1) Grade 30 (proof coil)
2) Grade 43 (hi test)
3) Grade 70 (transport)
4) Grade 80 (overhead lifting)

I will probably be using 1/4" Grade 43 or 70 chain for my build. Also, quick links are not rated very strong. The WLL is listed on them. The Screw pin shackles Slow mentioned are pretty strong (check the WLL on them). I think there are some dedicated load rated connections for safety chains that are available at RV suppliers.

There are also hardened S hooks that are much stronger than regular S hooks, but I don't like S hooks myself. Each part of the system should be load rated, either tonnage marked on it or in case of the chain every 4th link is grade marked, except grade 30 is probably not.

I will try to get every component to have a similar WLL and safety factor for my own piece of mind.

I always use the trailer jack to try to lift the coupler off the ball to make sure the coupler is properly tightened to the ball with the correct amount of free play.

Another trick a friend of mine that has a lot of different trailers with different ball sizes uses. He writes directly on top of the coupler with a yellow paint pen the coupler size. He has one of those multi size ball hitches, and can switch to the correct size when he sees the size marked on the coupler. The paint mark lasts for years.

Larry C

[Woodstramp]

Kind of on but off topic......another danger if you have bug alergies. Luckily, I'm only mildly alergic.

Here in the south, I have found that red wasps love to build nests in hitch sockets. Kind of interesting when you go to hook up and these bad boys are flying out, looking for blood. I keep my coupers soaked in wasp spray.

[frank_a]

I borrowed my sister's TTT in 1980, and towed it behind a Dodge Ram 50 with a bumper ball. About 500 miles from home, I gave everything a once over. The nut on the ball had backed off, though not completely. I had nothing with me to do anything about that. I had to unhook and drive into the nearest town, buy a big wrench to tighten the ball nut, and go back and get the trailer. Now, I carry a big cresent wrench. Have never needed it but that one time I didn't have it.

I have both 1 7/8 trailers and 2", like on our ttt. I have standard open/closed end wrenches for every ball and nut set I own. Right now that's only two. Interestingly enough, the 2" ball on my coupler for our ttt takes the same wrench for the larger 2" balls I have. I always bring along those wrenches and a set of big high quality slip joint pliers (for the ball base) whenever I travel with any trailer. I'm fanatical about stuff like that!

Frank

[frank_a]

I got some 2,800 lb-rated 'peened' Chain at Home Despot. Holding both ends up, I hung the center down into the A of the Frame, just behind the Coupler. I took both Chain ends and, from behind this hanging-down loop of Chain, fed them through inside from the rear to the front of this loop. I secured the Chain Links there together with an ample-sized Quick Link. I put major-sized Snap Hooks on both Chain ends to attach to the TV. All components are comparably-rated to avoid the proverbial weak link.

The Quick Link snugs everything together and prevents movement w/o welding to the TT Frame. In dicey areas, I can quickly remove this 'multi-function' Chain to secure a Spoke Wheel to the TT Frame and lock/immobilize it.

EG, I'm having a hard time picturing this. Got any pics?

Thanks!

Frank