Infro. on OEM General Mortors Trailer Hitch

[devildog1]

Just passing on some infromation that a fellow RV'er told me a day ago. Please take it for what is--- just Infromation. Man was towing tripple axle Airstream with 2004 Suburban GMC when G.M. oem hitch failed, welds broke. A close call for sure.He did a google serch on line and had many hits of failure for broken welds on hitch. This is a copy of what I found below.
GM TRAILER HITCH PROBLEM, DEFECT, CLASS ACTION, LEMON LAW
Hitch problems have been reported on the Chevrolet Silverado, Suburban, Sierra, Yukon and Avalanche vehicles.
CHEVROLET / AVALANCHE 2500 2002

CHEVROLET / SILVERADO 2500 2002

CHEVROLET / SUBURBAN 2500 2002

GMC / SIERRA 2500 2002

GMC / SIERRA 2500 HD 2002

GMC / YUKON XL 2500 2002

Manufacturer : GENERAL MOTORS CORP.
Component :
TRAILER HITCHES

Date Investigation Opened : May 14, 2007
Date Investigation Closed : Open
Summary:
ODI HAS RECEIVED FOUR CONSUMER COMPLAINTS ALLEGING THE FACTORY INSTALLED (OEM) TRAILER HITCH RECEIVER FAILED. TWO OWNER REPORTS ALLEGE BENDING/DEFORMATION OF THE PIN BOX AREA WHILE TOWING. ONE OWNER REPORT ALLEGES WELDS FAILED AROUND THE PIN BOX AREA AND ANOTHER REPORT ALLEGES COMPLETE WELD FAILURE OF THE PIN BOX LEADING TO A FULL SEPARATION OF THE TRAILER FROM THE TOW VEHICLE. IN THIS LAST REPORT, THE TRAILER SAFETY CHAIN AND THE EMERGENCY BRAKES WERE NOT ACTIVATED AS BOTH SAFETY FEATURES WERE STILL ATTACHED TO THE TWO OPENINGS IN THE PIN BOX THAT BROKE OFF WITH THE TRAILER. NO CRASH OR INJURY RESULTED AS THE VEHICLE AND TRAILER WERE MANEUVERING

 

[Bikewanderer]

Just passing on some infromation that a fellow RV'er told me a day ago. Please take it for what is--- just Infromation. Man was towing tripple axle Airstream with 2004 Suburban GMC when G.M. oem hitch failed, welds broke. A close call for sure.He did a google serch on line and had many hits of failure for broken welds on hitch. This is a copy of what I found below.
GM TRAILER HITCH PROBLEM, DEFECT, CLASS ACTION, LEMON LAW
Hitch problems have been reported on the Chevrolet Silverado, Suburban, Sierra, Yukon and Avalanche vehicles.
CHEVROLET / AVALANCHE 2500 2002

CHEVROLET / SILVERADO 2500 2002

CHEVROLET / SUBURBAN 2500 2002

GMC / SIERRA 2500 2002

GMC / SIERRA 2500 HD 2002

GMC / YUKON XL 2500 2002

Manufacturer : GENERAL MOTORS CORP.
Component :
TRAILER HITCHES

Date Investigation Opened : May 14, 2007
Date Investigation Closed : Open
Summary:
ODI HAS RECEIVED FOUR CONSUMER COMPLAINTS ALLEGING THE FACTORY INSTALLED (OEM) TRAILER HITCH RECEIVER FAILED. TWO OWNER REPORTS ALLEGE BENDING/DEFORMATION OF THE PIN BOX AREA WHILE TOWING. ONE OWNER REPORT ALLEGES WELDS FAILED AROUND THE PIN BOX AREA AND ANOTHER REPORT ALLEGES COMPLETE WELD FAILURE OF THE PIN BOX LEADING TO A FULL SEPARATION OF THE TRAILER FROM THE TOW VEHICLE. IN THIS LAST REPORT, THE TRAILER SAFETY CHAIN AND THE EMERGENCY BRAKES WERE NOT ACTIVATED AS BOTH SAFETY FEATURES WERE STILL ATTACHED TO THE TWO OPENINGS IN THE PIN BOX THAT BROKE OFF WITH THE TRAILER. NO CRASH OR INJURY RESULTED AS THE VEHICLE AND TRAILER WERE MANEUVERING

I had one of these and saw what I consider to be an excessive amount of deflection in mine when towing only moderate loads.

That pipe hitch needs to be changed out for anything heavy, IMHO.

 

[Diamondpilot]

While I have not been impressed with the GM hitch for quite a few years since they started supporting if off the bumper I have not seen one fail. I have seen quite a few of the 90's GM hitches fail due to internal rust. These were the ones that consisted of a large 4x5" tube or so going across the rear of the truck. The metal was thinner and weaker on these.

The only hitch I have had fail personally was the factory hitch on my under a year old 2004 F-250 4x4 Powerstroke. It started to fail at the welds on a 300 mile trip but I caught it before it failed totally. It was overloaded by nearly 9,000# for the non WD rating so it was my fault. I replaced it with a Reese Titan and have had zero issues since pulling that load and more way heavier.

Chris

 

[FlaDon]

Still have my original hitch but mine is a year older and on a 3500.

 

[Bikewanderer]

Still have my original hitch but mine is a year older and on a 3500.

It's the same hitch - I had a 2006 3500.

I also never saw a broken one except on the internet, but I can see how it broke. It's just kind of a flimsy design. On mine if I had a bunch of tongue weight without bars it would deflect quite a bit. Once I saw it move up and down at the ball a few inches when the trailer was connected (The hitch was actually bending and the ball was lower than the reciever).

That does not happen with the same trailer and load on other vehicles.

 

[tommu56]

I bent mine on my avalanche while backing a dumb trailer up a steep hill
done the same with many times after that with my ram 2500 and it has been fine

tom

 

[brokenot]

I see bent/deformed hitches all the time, and in 100% of those cases it's been operator error.

Hitch capacity ratings are there for a reason.

Right after repeatedly exceeding rated capacities, these are #2 in my book as far as bending/tweaking receiver hitches is concerned:

People that use stuff like this to tow anything other than an extremely lightweight utility trailer must have failed science miserably.....or perhaps they missed class the day things like "levers" were discussed.

This is positioned as a dropped hitch, but I also see 'em flipped up to create the "raised version" as well. Guys come in to rent a piece of equipment, and they're towing a pintle hitch-equipped trailer that was built with the intention it would be towed behind a dump truck. Since a dump truck's hitch point is higher than a pickup truck's, well....we can "convert" the pickup's hitch to a more correct height by sliding in a 12" or so raised hitch assembly.

It's a lever. No matter what we do as we're towing, (accelerating, braking, backing, turning, etc.), we're putting considerably more "torque" on the truck's receiver hitch than we would be if we were hitched directly in line with it.

 

[firefighter jim]

We've never had any problems at all with any of our 3 GM vehicle hitches. People abuse equipment, don't follow the hitch ratings, and then blame the manufacturer when something bad happens.......................

 

[lostcause]

while it may not be an ideal condition to see, the hitches that are more susceptible to flexing from the load are probably less likely to see the failure types noted here.

we all can agree that even if you put a 10000lb trailer on a 7500lb hitch and the vehicle just sits in the driveway, then it won't ever break. failures are generally going to occur when under the greatest stress - bumps, potholes, braking, etc. my opinion would be that the flexing acts as a slight shock absorber and works to take some of the strain and impact off of the pin/tube and welds.

this type of condition is often called fatigue loading, and some items built from steel are designed with an area that may fail by bending to avoid something else failing by breaking. if the hitch is extremely rigid then it's likely that the pin/tube and welds are seeing the lion's share of the abuse. granted, they still should not fail as they did, but i have seen cases with steel where what looked like a lighter design proved to hold up better under abuse than an overbuilt rigid one did. at the same time you don't want anything to flex to the point of deformation, where it won't bounce back to its original shape.

 

[Builder]

Sort of reminds me of the heated windshield washer fluid wiring that was supposed to catch my tahoe on fire and cause all kinds of other mayhem or death. Turns out l a few people had a small amount of smoke and melted some wires, while the other 1.3 million of us seem to be doing just fine.

Dealer offered to disable mine for free and give me $100 for my trouble. I told him to stick it up his ____ I'll keep mine. My insurance company confirmed they will make repairs even if I refuse the recall. Love the heated WW fluid, so I'll take my .003% chance that it malfunctions.

If it happened on 1-of 1,000 vehicles, I might think differently, but 4 out of 1 million??????.....naahhh.