What do the truck and trailer gurus think of this?

[Egon]

As I'm in no hurry to get to my Destination I just start to slow down when there is a tailgater behind me. They soon leave me behind.

In some Canadian Provinces it's illegal to have the hitch ball in place without a trailer on it. One also has to tie down the hitch when it is lying in the bed of the truck.

They also become a pain when angle parking.

 

[BXRICK]

Another sorta funny thing to mess with tailgaters is to drift to the left of the lane, especially if it's the left-most lane. Tailgaters in cars behind a truck always like to drive just to the left of the truck so they can see ahead of it - or so I've noticed.
If you keep drifting left, pretty soon they realize they are off the road.

 

[JB4310]

When I have a tailgater I like to hit the manual slide bar on my brake controller. It lights up the brake lights and I have seen them lock up the brakes, spill drinks, about shat the pants they have on, and a few end up in the ditch. Serves them right.

Chris

It's one of my worst pet peeves as well (tailgating), but that's called a "brake job" (I know w/o the brakes) Much more vengeful and dangerous than just leaving your trailer hitch insert in ?

JB

 

[dave1949]

As I'm in no hurry to get to my Destination I just start to slow down when there is a tailgater behind me. They soon leave me behind.

Well, I can't honestly say I've never done that :laughing:

In general, I content myself with performing a public service by providing a slow moving vehicle for others to pass and feel good about it

Of course, there are problematic tail gaters who don't know how to pass or are afraid to.
Dave.

 

[ray66v]

A trailer hitch is not designed to receive and absorb crash impacts.

A hitch is a heavy solid object, in many cases during a crash, a trailer hitch will transfer impact forces away from a bumper, which is designed to do precisely what this device is doing, to the vehicle in ways that cause significant damage to the vehicle.

Because a standard hitch cannot collapse, combined with the fact that they are mounted low, they tend to be bent downward, resulting in all the areas of the body/frame the hitch is mounted to be bent in the same direction.

This kind of damage tends to be more expensive to repair, than if the same vehicle was struck without a hitch at all.

If the hitch has a draw bar on it when it is struck, there can be more damage to the vehicle than if it had been removed, as it adds leverage to the downward bending forces.

The Superbumper could perhaps help absorb minor impacts. But, I would be concerned in a harder impact, the additional length and width this device adds to the equation, would cause even more damage to the vehicle frame.

I vote no.

 

[slowzuki]

Trucks are such a mish mash in the rear anyways, their rear bumpers and frame have little to no crash energy absorption, they are designed to be rigid. That little do-hicky might help in a square on rear ending but slightly off angle it won't work. It looks similar to the old 5 mph shock absorbers that GM products had on their bumpers.

I was rear ended in my Matrix one day by a guy who had been fighting to cut in line with the woman behind me. Luckily my hitch punched through his styrofoam bumper and contacted some steel before he tore up my rear bumper cover.

 

[Deere Dude]

That thing is hokey, plus from what I understand maybe illegal, as many states have laws against leaving inserts in the receiver.
Which I'm sure came from an insurance lobby, to reduce claim costs from otherwise less expensive fender benders.

That said my pintle/ball combo never comes out. Not that I hope to cause damage to someone's vehicle but mostly for convenience, but I admit I hope it encourages people to keep back a little.

I only bashed my own shin once, and man it did hurt

JB.

Traveling through Kentucky with a brand new GMC 4X4 Dually a few years ago, pitch black at night going through smaller roads back to the campsite I thought I could see a halo around my tailgate. I was going about 50 MPH or so and I told my wife about it and asked her if someone was in back of me, but she said no, she couldn't see anything. I just stayed steady and then I saw a headlight about 3 feet from by tailgate and it stayed there for about 3-4 miles and I had all kinds of thought racing through my mind. I had all I could do to keep from pumping on the brakes and curling up his hood a bit, but I didn't. I wasn't to worried about his car, but about what it would do to my undercarriage. If I would have had a receiver insert with something on it, I may have tapped the brakes. But instead, I just started slowing down very, very gradually and finally he must have got bored and whipped past me, then I got on his rear for about 5 seconds and thought, not a good idea. But, if he would have tried blocking me somehow, I would have pushed him all the way back to his still.
Later on I saw at the campsite in Florida a 20 ton commercial duty pintle hook with a small bend to it from jack-knifing a load that someone left by the electric meter in some weeds. After a month or so nobody claimed it so now I have a tailgater deterrent. In parking lots, now nobody comes close the rear of the truck whereas before my license plates were always getting dinged up.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I had the habit of taking the stinger out of my receiver hitch on a regular basis, but on the rare occasion that I'd forget to take it out, I'd bang my shin every time. I've changed my habit to leaving it in, and I never bang my shin now.

 

[JB4310]

But, if he would have tried blocking me somehow, I would have pushed him all the way back to his still.
Later on I saw at the campsite in Florida a 20 ton commercial duty pintle hook with a small bend to it from jack-knifing a load that someone left by the electric meter in some weeds. After a month or so nobody claimed it so now I have a tailgater deterrent. In parking lots, now nobody comes close the rear of the truck whereas before my license plates were always getting dinged up.

:laughing::laughing::laughing:

I had the habit of taking the stinger out of my receiver hitch on a regular basis, but on the rare occasion that I'd forget to take it out, I'd bang my shin every time. I've changed my habit to leaving it in, and I never bang my shin now.

That's why I only caught mine once, it's always there so I don't even think about it. If I took it out I would never get closer than the distance it normally stuck out.

JB

 

[20 20]

A trailer hitch is not designed to receive and absorb crash impacts.

.

You make a good point, I was waiting to turn left once while pulling my 18' trailer. A young man decided it was more important to look for a CD that had fallen on the floor of his car then pay attention to the road. Lucky for both of us {him especially} this happened in a 30MPH zone. When he hit my trailer it totaled his car and bent the loading bar/ramps/hitch on my trailer. It also bent the frame mounted tow hitch assembly and tweaked the frame of my truck