Ever had a hitch pin or lock fail?

   / Ever had a hitch pin or lock fail? #11  
Had a friend with a truck-pup rock hauler setup. The pup attached to the rear of the truck with what I call a pintle hitch attached to the truck frame, the hitch had a curved bottom part with a flat top that lifted to allow for coupling.

Have no idea as to how many miles were on his truck but the pup carried 10 yards of whatever plus the weight of it....probably about 40k# loaded or thereabouts. Several hundred thousand is probably an accurate number. He came home one day without his pup. So I mosied over there for a little socializing and was curious anyway.

He showed me what was left of his hitch. It sheared between the hitch part and the flange part that touches the truck. It is a casting, and I have noticed castings and some parts made from powdered steel (ball bearing races) will just disintegrate if hit repeatedly for a time. His safety chains saved what could have been a tragic mess. The pup and the truck were constantly banging against one another so this hitch got a lot of serious pounding over it's life.

So, I suppose it is not a bad idea periodically to replace one if it gets a lot of serious banging on it.

Mark
 

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