Trailer came off hitch.

[Forrest747]

Well on the return home this weekend my trailer came off the hitch. it ended up sliding under the jeep and damaging the tongue box lid. No one hurt and does not seem to have too much damage. I cant seem to find a fault other than the coupler was loose. So how common is it to have the coupler release. this is a first for me in almost 20 years towing stuff. do i need to just look at a lock of somesort to keep it in place.

[bobhenry]

Is the tongue weight extremely light ?

I have had it happen twice long long ago. Seems some dumb a@# was towing a 2 in coupler on an 1 7/8 ball. I had my lawn tractor way in the back and the tongue weight was nill. Each hump and bump in the road it was jerking upward and finally tripped the latch. I now safety pin or padlock thru the coupler to prevent it from tripping. A farm lynch pin work great as a safety pin. I have adlibed with a nylon zip tie a nut and bolt fence wire electrical wire what ever but never never pull without something thru that safety latch.

[Forrest747]

It is a 2 inch ball on @ inch coupler. I do not know the tongue weight would not suprise me if it was light. i do not notice much nose up when driving. will invest in a lock for sure.

[Verna]

Forest, is this one of the hitches that can be adjusted? I don't have the link handy, but check out Shadow Catcher's Accident thread. I wasn't aware there was an adjustable bolt inside my hitch. After adjusting, it fits just right on my 2" ball.

[Forrest747]

Yes i read that thread and it is adjustable and i said to myself well after this trip i will find the time to adjust it, was running late friday. time to go read read and make it happen before the next trip as well as find out the tongue weight.


http://philcotrailersales.com/2010/02/09/how-to-properly-adjust-the-fulton-type-trailer-coupler/


Asphault covered reciver and tongue

Tire imprint left

[Shadow Catcher]

As I can attest you are lucky that there was so little damage. I was just hooking up the trailer to take it is to have some one look at the water heater which was damaged in the accident and glad I now have a Bulldog hitch.
We will be taking maiden voyage 2 to check out what still may not be playing well together Wednesday prior to our leaving for California next week.

[48Rob]

Forrest,

It is good practice to use a lock or at least a pin through the hole in the coupler.
The hole is there so a lock or pin can be inserted to prevent the lock from springing or popping open.

A couple weeks ago I built/put together a kit trailer for a friend.
I hooked it up to my truck, pulled it a few miles and tested all.

Later he came over and hooked it up to his truck, attached the safety chains and wiring.
Before I allowed him to leave, I did my usual basic check.
Chains attached, wiring connected, lights and signals working, load tied down, and the final check, is the coupler attached to the ball?
It was, or so it appeared. He had the coupler on the ball, with the coupler lock down, and a pin inserted for extra safety.
I grabbed the tongue, and lifted up.
The tongue came right up off the ball, man was he embarrassed...
It would have been much more embarrassing and dangerous if it had happened at speed...

(It is easy, especially if you are distracted by a phone call, "helpers" etc. to miss something...)

I have no idea if that is what happened in your case, but if you get into the habit of lifting up on the tongue before driving away, even if you did get the tongue seated correctly over the ball, if the adjustment is off you will know because you will be able to lift the "locked" tongue off the ball.
If you have a tongue weight that is too great to lift by hand, the tongue jack will do the work for you.

Rob

[wingnut]

If you are using the proper size ball for the hitch. The hitch is properly adjusted to the said ball. You place a lock through the whole in the hitck latch. There is no way the trail will come unhooked from the hitch, even with negitive tongue weight, short of a total stucual failure of the hitch or reciever componemts. The key is to make the hitch is properly adjusted and the hitch lever is locked closed so it will not release due to road vibrations.

[iplay10us2]

I am not strong enough to pick up on the tongue, but I always crank up a few turns on the tongue jack after I have attached my teadrop. This way, I am pretty confident that I will not come uncoupled driving down the road. I always use a coupler lock when towing.

[Mukilteo]

Yep, I use the jack. My Cardiologist says no heavy lifting.

[Dale M.]

Two thoughts

Coupler was improperly adjusted...We just assume its correct when we buy trailer or coupler

Forgot to put lock pin in hitch and it "popped" ...

Interesting thing happened to me one day as I always put a pin through coupler! (yes always) and I put it through couple when its parked so coupler can not be closed unless pin (lock) is removed.... Well anyway coupled up and made 300 mile round trip... When I got home pin was missing from coupler WTH????

Now my couple lock pin has safety chain on it (on both trailers)

pin safety chain

pin-safetychain-2.jpg (188.54 KiB) Viewed 1286 times

This is my car carrier trailer and think somebody actually stole pin at a race event...

Dale

[aggie79]

Did you ever take apart your coupler? The reason I'm asking is that it looks like the ball clamp is installed incorrectly. With only looking at your pictures, it looks like the ball clamp may be upside down and rotated 180 degrees, or it may be that the front of the clamp ground away when it came into contact with the asphalt.

In the picture below, the trailer ball fits into the concave part of the clamp on the right side of the assembly.

[Forrest747]

Well I weighed teh tongue last night and it came in at 187.4 pounds, so with in the 10-15% range.

Aggie the coupler is in the correct position. it just looks odd with the flash and such. i will need to double check if its snug. I also went looking for a lock last night at wally world and i didnt like the only one they had. I do have a lock from the old popup we had, it would work but it is so much longer. almost three inches hanging out. i should look into cutting it and rethreading it. I have the long one and need the short one.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=coupler+locks&hl=en&sa=X&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&biw=865&bih=571&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=G8lre0fR_RrLeM:&imgrefurl=http://www.boating.com/boat-store/coupler-locks.html&docid=LYVE9plB7_IewM&itg=1&imgurl=http://www.boating.com/files/cache/coupler-locks_0b3b4c2434d8626723da33d6d07cc894.jpg&w=500&h=402&ei=_DnOT_i-N4Of6AHrxOiUDA&zoom=1

[samsberr]

Well on the return home this weekend my trailer came off the hitch. it ended up sliding under the jeep and damaging the tongue box lid. No one hurt and does not seem to have too much damage. I cant seem to find a fault other than the coupler was loose. So how common is it to have the coupler release. this is a first for me in almost 20 years towing stuff. do i need to just look at a lock of somesort to keep it in place.

I would be just a concerned that the safety chains didn't do there job...
they shouldn't have allowed it to run up under the jeep...

[pete42]

Most safety chains I have used only keep the trailer from heading down the road should the ball come loose.
I'll add use pin, bolt or a lock to keep the hitch from coming loose hiting a big bump can still cause the trailer to
come unhooked but having the hitch fit the ball and a lock to keep it from becoming loose will help.