Hitch trauma -- near disaster

bruceh · 07-04-2011, 04:44 PM

On my back from a long RV trip, I heard an odd clunk as I came to a stop at a signal. When I took off to make my left turn, I got a louder clunk. As this point, I knew that something was definitely wrong and pulled into a parking lot. When I got to the back of my RV, I saw the following.

After I got the towcar disconnected, I went looking for help. I found an excellent hitch shop in Ames, Iowa. They had me out of there in 2 hours with a new hitch that looked a lot stronger that the old one and was held in place with 8 bolts rather than 6.

The old one was not useable because a weld cracked on the left side when it came loose. The right side had come loose and the left side had not.

I can't speak highly enough of this shop and its people. The place was spotless and had a large selection of hitchs. The new one was designed for a Grand Cherokee. The shop name was 'Schuling Hitch Company' in Ames, Iowa. The service was excellent and the price was quite reasonable.

Everybody that I ran into in Ames was very friendly and helpful. The gentleman in the parking lot who tried to assist and recommended a mechanic. The mechanic who knew that he couldn't handle the repair but recommended the hitch shop. Things could have been so much worse.

As a side point, I had read on this site about a hitch coming completely off and had installed a safety cable that was attached to my frame. Luckily, I didn't need it as the hitch did not come completely off.

Stillwater · 07-04-2011, 04:55 PM

OK that does it. We are leaving tomorrow on a trip. I will crawl under this afternoon to check mine. Thanks for sharing that. It could have been a lot worse for you, glad it wasn't.

RJay · 07-04-2011, 04:57 PM

If I may offer a suggestion. Where this is such a critical installation I would get under the coach and check the connections to the frame. Make sure they used lock washers or locking nuts or locktite to secure the nuts to the bolts. I notice in the picture that three bolts had to come loose and fall out for the hitch to be in the condition as found.

bruceh · 07-04-2011, 05:02 PM

I closely watched the installation, nylon lock washers were part of the installation.

When I first read the other thread about this, I got under mine and made sure that they were all tight.

bellsharbor · 07-04-2011, 06:47 PM

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think we will all be checking our hitches this week. Happy future travels!!

TXiceman · 07-04-2011, 06:53 PM

Bruceh, what was the hitch rating on the one that failed and how much weight were you towing? A lot of the manufacturers, put on a 3500# rated hitch. Hopefully the new hitch was for a heavier rating and does not exceed the chassis manufacturers rating for GCWR when towing.

Ken

Mr_D · 07-04-2011, 07:11 PM

I had to take our 2002 DSDP back to Spartan and Newmar. Spartan needed to put a new front axle under the rig due to overloading. While Spartan had the rig on their rack they did a whole chassis inspection and discovered my hitch bolts were loose. They tightened then per specs and no trouble since then. Nothing like factory service!!

My parents had a brand new 1958 KenKraft TT. On one trip I was riding in the back of the Plymouth station wagon and heard a strange noise while in town, told my father. He stopped and found the welded on hitch had broken lose and only one bracket was holding it on. There was a city park right there so we SLOWLY pulled around three corners and over toward the curb. Just before we got to the curb the whole hitch broke lose and was laying on the ground. My father was extremely glad we didn't get back on the highway!!

wa8yxm · 07-04-2011, 07:59 PM

Well...... There is an old saying "Been there, Done that"

In my case there were a few differneces however

First, I use a drop hitch on my Damon Intruder because the dang receiver is about waist high on a normal size person, and the attachment point on the towed closer to knee high. (Ok, I exagarate a bit but the ratio holds)

The bolts also held.

The welds where the cross bar bolts to the frame rail.. They did not.

BOTH OF THEM.

IN short, the only thing connecting my towed to my motor home was the control line for the US-Gear brakes.. Which by the way worked perfectly bring the towed to a perfect stop right were it belonged,, I mean in your case the cross bar was pulled out from under the motor home.

in mine it was lying on the pavement right below where it should have been,, NO damage to my towed may it rest in pieces (It died a natural death since)

bruceh · 07-05-2011, 01:34 AM

The old hitch was rated at 5000# as is the new one. The old one had a tongue weight of 350# while the new one is 500#.

I tow either a Jeep that has been weighed at 3900# with of tongue weight of about 5# (just the tow bar really) or an enclosed trailer weighing about 2000# with a tongue weight of 300#. I was towing the jeep at the time of the failure.

The coach has a GCVW of 25,500# and weighs 20,500#.

Good margins all the way.

cbeierl · 07-05-2011, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bruceh

The old hitch was rated at 5000# as is the new one. The old one had a tongue weight of 350# while the new one is 500#.
....

I would expect that the 350# tongue weight rating is coming from the coach rather than the hitch itself and would thus apply to the new hitch as well.

stik · 07-05-2011, 05:47 PM

So we don't get too far off the track, I am pretty sure, like almost positive, that the tongue weight is a function of the hitch, not the tow vehicle. Here is a good place to read more that you ever wanted to know about definitions with respect to hitches:
U-Haul: Towing glossary

cbeierl · 07-05-2011, 07:49 PM

Certainly the hitch itself has a maximum tongue weight of 500#, but I'll bet if you checked with Winnebago you'll find that they reduced the maximum allowed tongue weight as attached to the RV to 350# due to the vehicle structure, weight limits, etc.

JMonroe · 07-05-2011, 09:42 PM

Many years ago we had an 'exciting' evening in a small rural GA town, just off the freeway. Luckily we'd just pulled off to try and find a place to stay for the night. I was turning around in a large parking lot to make our way back to a large motel (it was dead of winter, and the TT was winterized for our trip back to the frozen Arctic). As I pulled back onto the highway there was a loud bang, and the front of the trailer dropped. The head of the hitch, the part with the ball on it, had completely sheared off the square bar that slides into the receiver. We were on a busy street, I drug the rig off the road and into a bank parking lot via the safety chains.

To make a long story short... The local police hooked us up with a local welder. I was given directions to his shop (and saw some of the dirt poor side of rural GA as I left the tourist services area just off the freeway). This was after 10 PM, on a holiday weekend, that this fine gentleman agreed to meet me to help us get back on the road. The shop was a metal shed, dirt floor, and a billion Jurassic sized bugs all went scurrying for the who knows where when he flipped on the light switch. I'd been in a lot of body shops in my capacity as a claims adjuster for State Farm, but I'd never seen welding equipment this old. It must have come over on the Mayflower, and I think he came with it! He knew how to use it though. I'm sure that hitch will be dug up in some archaeological dig some 5,000 years from now, still intact. Oh, and the price for the late night holiday weekend repair? $10

I think I'll be crawling under our rig soon too, just to give those mounting bolts a check.

Thanks for the post and reminder.

Chuck 1935 · 07-06-2011, 05:27 PM

You can see from the picture that the hitch didn't fail.
BUT it would be good to name the brand of the products that fail so that others could have advanced knowledge of a probable problem.

Idleup · 07-07-2011, 07:05 PM

You should just put the bolts back on instead of wasting money on a new hitch. Three case hardened bolts could pick your coach up. Some dummy just left the bolts out. You over reacted by replacing a perfectly good hitch.

Thanks!

McDuff · 07-08-2011, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Idleup

You should just put the bolts back on instead of wasting money on a new hitch. Three case hardened bolts could pick your coach up. Some dummy just left the bolts out. You over reacted by replacing a perfectly good hitch.

Thanks!

Judging by the angle the hitch is at compared to the coach, I'd bet the side you can't see was bent all to hell.

Dsouthw524 · 07-11-2011, 06:32 AM

While you are checking - check the mounting of the receiver to the towed vehicle. We had ours mounted by a well recommended shop. After towing for several times we hadd the "bang" and found that the receiver had come loose from the car and damaged the front "bumper" region. Our body shop found that the installers had not used high strength bolts - just hardware grade bolts! They remedied the problem and fixed the car.

ernieh · 07-11-2011, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Idleup

You should just put the bolts back on instead of wasting money on a new hitch. Three case hardened bolts could pick your coach up. Some dummy just left the bolts out. You over reacted by replacing a perfectly good hitch.

Thanks!

"The old one was not useable because a weld cracked on the left side when it came loose. The right side had come loose and the left side had not."

The line above is from the OP's original post.

JohnRR · 07-11-2011, 12:35 PM

Thank you for taking the time to post something which I'm sure many others will benefit from