Anyone ever broken a trailer hitch or ball?

[JerryG]

A friend of mine went to Dallas with his 24' enclosed trailer behind his F350 last spring to pick up a load. A little ways out of Dallas all of the sudden the trailer was all over the highway. It was all he could do to control it without having a wreck. When he finely got it stopped on the shoulder he found out that the neck part of the Draw-tite ball mount had broken. It was a good thing that it was safety chained correctly and that he had enough truck or someone could have been killed.

 

[peterc38]

The really high weight rated trailer balls are never chrome plated. There is ametallurgical change where chroming something weakens it by hydrogen embrittlement. Some also may have noticed impact rated sockets are rarely, if ever, chrome plated either...

While it is true hydrogen is evolved in the chrome plating process, many things are chrome plated every day that have critical end uses. i.e. aircraft bearings, etc.

Hydrogen does not just come from plating; "hydrogen can enter steel from a multitude of places, starting from the original steel making operation. Hydrogen can also enter steel from subsequent casting and forging operations. Even grinding operations after final heat treatment can induce hydrogen absorption especially if sparking occurs in a moist environment (Source Omega research, Inc.)

As long as the chrome plated parts are baked right after plating (AMS-QQ-C-320 states within 4 hours) for the right time and temperature hydrogen evolved in plating can be successfully relieved (driven out).

 

[Northstar9126]

Several winters back a school bus got stuck while making it's rounds. A guy stopped with his truck to pull the bus out. He hooked a chain to the front of the bus and wrapped it around the ball on his truck hitch. He gave it a yank, the ball snapped off, flew back, hit the bus driver in the head and killed him. As I said it was years ago but I think about it every time I go to tow something

 

[jsborn]

These are all very good reasons to use Pintal / Military Type hitches when pulling heavy loads. They can fail too but not as likely to.

Just my 2cents

 

[ultrarunner]

Somewhat related...

I bought one of those 3 in one trailer ball setups about 15 years ago because I was tired of constantly having to carry wrenches to change trailer ball sizes between 1 7/8, 2 and 2 5/16 every time I switched trailers.

Never had a problem for years until one day I lost my small utility trailer on the freeway. The small retaining pin holding the ball on the shank was no where to be found and I can only assume the pin had slipped out of the ball prior to hitching the trailer.

When the ball came undone, the trailer tongue hit the road bed and the the front angle iron of the trailer frame hit a section of raised road bed and snap the single safety chain on the 4 x 5 utility trailer... only luck prevented what could have been a disaster as I watched the empty trailer bounce across the lanes...

The next day, I switched the tongues on all of my then trailers to 2 inch and bought a 12,000 lb 2 inch ball. Later I bought an additional draw bar for the 2 5/16 ball.

 

[Blk88GT]

ultra, that's a prime example of the importance of safety chains too.

 

[lug nut]

Somewhat related...

I bought one of those 3 in one trailer ball setups about 15 years ago because I was tired of constantly having to carry wrenches to change trailer ball sizes between 1 7/8, 2 and 2 5/16 every time I switched trailers.

I have a 3-ball hitch for that very reason. It was not cheap, but it is worth the money to not have to worry about switching back and forth to pull different sized trailers.

 

[ultrarunner]

ultra, that's a prime example of the importance of safety chains too.

Absolutely... but the way everything unfolded, something had to give and the chain was the weak link.

I walked back to take a look to try and understand why the safety chain failed. The impact was so severe it knocked loose a large concrete corner of the road bed. The trailer is small with a raised tongue so it was the trailer frame and not the tongue that hit the road.

All lanes of traffic stopped and I was able to wheel the trailer over to the roadside. I was extremely lucky in more ways than I care to count

 

[sandman2234]

Safety chains are just like wifes. They can only stand so much before stuff hits the fan!
David from jax

 

[Renze]

He gave it a yank, the ball snapped off, flew back, hit the bus driver in the head and killed him.

Some people dont understand that they have to pull the cable straight before they stomp on the gas....
Years ago when i was a little kid, we had 2 trucks of which 1 was stuck. The other truck driver stomped the gas and broke the steel cable, smashing the windshield of the truck. Luckily it was safety glass so it stopped the cable.
Both truck drivers got away with it with just a dirty grin...