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  #21  
Old 09-17-2021, 11:58 AM
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David Jones David Jones is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 71GP76TA View Post
He probably backed into a couple brick walls with it..

Yeah, could be.

I've seen them bent, attached to trailer hitches folded up by wrecks but never cracked or broken. Bent so badly you'd have to torch it out of the receiver if you wanted it. They'll bust an engine block.
Looking at the one pic, I suspect it was bad from the beginning and finally fatigued. A faulty stamping that made it through manufacturing.

Or Chinese first quality............

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  #22  
Old 09-17-2021, 12:44 PM
Wakepowell Wakepowell is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Formulabruce View Post
A buddy had his son tow a car in a enclosed trailer back home. Just before getting on the highway, at 30 ish mph. The hitch broke, dug into the pavement. As did the jack.
Trailer full was at 6k lbs. Hitch ball is rated at 6k..
The hitch mount is NOT forged, its a cast steel. It is 20 years old and was just used on a 2,600 mile trip.
Note some rust under the label, but ... this is scary. This could have been really bad at speed. Pics below.
You mention that the ball was maxed out at the trailer weight, 6000 Lbs.. What was the rating of the ball mount that failed?

My approach is to error on the high side when selecting towing attachments (balls and ball mounts). In a 2" received the capacities vary from 3,500 lbs. to 16,000 lbs and often they look alike until you look at them closely.

  #23  
Old 09-17-2021, 01:33 PM
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Originally Posted by 400 4spd. View Post
In case anyone misunderstood my post, I was only pointing out that the rust is indication that the part all ready had a fracture/weakness that led to the break. Not that the rust caused the break.
That is a good point. The break wasn't sudden. I was referring to others that acted like the rust was significant to the failure cause.

  #24  
Old 09-17-2021, 03:01 PM
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Cheap cast crap.

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  #25  
Old 09-17-2021, 03:17 PM
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This is the type of break I have seen. Avoid these things at all costs.
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  #26  
Old 09-17-2021, 07:22 PM
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mrennie mrennie is offline
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Originally Posted by Mr Anonymous View Post
This is the type of break I have seen. Avoid these things at all costs.

Wow, that ball is in terrible condition. Obviously never seen grease and I can only imagine how much extra stress the friction would place on the ball and mount!!

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  #27  
Old 09-17-2021, 11:30 PM
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First of all, I agree that there was a crack in the first pictured hitch. The fracture was discolored long before the piece broke off completely.

Anything I haul heavy, is done on a fifth wheel, or a gooseneck hitch trailer. A gooseneck, or a fifth wheel trailer is so much superior to a bumper pull hitch in every aspect that I decided back about 2007 to only use bumper hitches on single axle light trailers.

Driving tractor trailer for years demonstrated to me how much better the over the axle placement hitch point is superior over bumper pull placement hitches. It allows a 15,000 LB tractor to pull a 65,000 LB trailer safely down the road at 70 MPH every single day of the year.

A fifth wheel hitch use the same 2 inch forged tempered steel pin that an 18 wheeler rig uses, plenty of overkill on strength. A gooseneck uses a 2 5/16 inch ball which is plenty heavy to haul cars, or any heavy load.

FWIW, those 2 failed hitches pictured with the hex recess shown are Reese hitches, not chi com garbage hitches. I've never really seen the advantage of that recessed socket, except to tighten, or remove the nut holding the ball on, and as shown it can definitely be a point of failure.

The average person that tows trailers occasionally usually never even checks to see if the trailer lights are hooked up properly, or working. I wouldn't expect them to look over the condition of the hitch parts to head off a failure.........




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  #28  
Old 09-18-2021, 06:27 AM
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Interesting.
About 10 years back I was hit in the rear of my Holden Caprice. The tow bar looked totally unmarked but the insurers insisted the entire tow hitch was replaced. Didn't worry me much -I wasn't paying - but it sure looked like overkill to me.

But looking at the insurers point, they didn't know if it had sustained any overload impact so it would be cheaper for them to replace the entire unit rather than a claim being made if the item had failed in service.

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  #29  
Old 09-24-2021, 10:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Anonymous View Post
This is the type of break I have seen. Avoid these things at all costs.
This thread got me to thinking and looking into things.

The ball mount with the recessed hex is a terrible design. They take a 3/4" thick bar and machine it to 5/8" thick in the recess. So you've lost material thickness AND you've created a sharp stress concentration at exactly the place that the pictured one broke.

The ones with heavier load rating are 1" thick bar with no recess.

Very few are made in the USA. B&W seems to be the exception but they are more expensive which is why you won't see them on the rack at Walmart. Their 16,000 lb model looks bulletproof.

Eric

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  #30  
Old 09-24-2021, 12:06 PM
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An interesting story about chains. Many years ago, ~1974, I was riding with my dad pulling a 2 horse trailer. This trailer was much older I'm sure (I was about 10 so didn't know much) but I do know it didn't have chains. Nothing broke but the trailer "jumped" off the ball and the tongue dropped into the road and flipped over on it's side. Fortunately we were moving slow on a gravel road. The horses had a heck of ride! They scrambled out of the trailer and we pulled it back up on it's wheels. It was a surprise when our horses jumped back in the trailer to finish the trip, I guess they had plenty faith in us. When we got back to the shop the trailer had a pair of chains welded on. I don't know exactly what caused the trailer to become unattached. It had plenty of miles on it without problems. Maybe the latch wasn't engaged with the ball? Nothing actually broke as far as I remember.

  #31  
Old 09-24-2021, 12:21 PM
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One hitch I had on smaller trailer had a round piece of steel like a washer but about 1/2" thick on a shaft.This would slide over under ball to latch. This 'washer' in time got a flat on it that would allow the hitch to become disconnected! Luckily the chains kept it in line.

  #32  
Old 10-08-2021, 03:37 PM
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Saw this today in my feed. Not mine, but ... damn.
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  #33  
Old 10-08-2021, 03:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Anonymous View Post
Saw this today in my feed. Not mine, but ... damn.
Those multiple ball things are inherently weaker. Just welded onto the surface of a thin tube instead of going all the way thru a thick tongue and preloaded with the nut.

Eric

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  #34  
Old 10-08-2021, 04:41 PM
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Look at all the rust in the multi ball hitch..not for me.

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