The weak link hitch

   / The weak link hitch #1  

Treemonkey1000

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2008
Messages
1,894
Location
Renton, Washington
Tractor
Kubota L3750
Driving down the freeway the other day a guy had one of these Mini's on a nice dual axle trailer. He was using a late 90's Ford 2500 pickup. As I passed him I looked over to see what kind of hitch the tilt trailer and truck was using. It was one of those hitches that have holes in it so that you can adjust the ball height. It was flexing up and down and traveling about 1.5 inches from the bumps in the freeway.:eek: It looked like a combination of that particular drop hitch being a little light weight and maybe how the receiver was attached to the truck. Either way that seems like a lot of flexing for a mini Excavator and trailer. He did have the Safety chains on. :) Normally I don't pay much attention to that stuff. It was weird to see that hitch flexing that much.
 

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   / The weak link hitch #2  
Sounds like way to light on the tongue, with my pintle set up, the combination of of the play in the ring and the play in the receiver tube would probably allow for a couple of inches of movement.

With those longer drops or longer extensions, it would multiply any play between the components.

After following alot of these threads on trailering, I notice I'm more aware of what other people are doing on the road. Noticed a bunch of overloaded trucks, no crazy trailer nightmares though. Although on my own dump trailer I lost the brakes briefly just due to a dirty 7 pin connector, made me realize that can happen at any time.

JB.
 
   / The weak link hitch
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Losing them trailer brakes should raise the pucker factor I would think.:D I was thinking the same thing on how he had that thing loaded as well. The trailer was more than long enough for that Mini. It was tied down to the trailer nicely. It would have been no fun to have that hitch break loose at 65 mph. After reading some of the postings I am way more cautious about towing anything.. So thumbs up for TBN!
 
   / The weak link hitch #4  
Our local rental now insists on delivering their equipment, doesn't matter if your float and truck have a yeller sticker or not. Won't even let you rent their float to pick up their mini's behind your vehicle. When they first got into the mini rentals they just let me hook the float up to my Grand Cherokee and head for home- a long time ago. Now we both know better.
 
 
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