Anyone ever broken a trailer hitch or ball?

[lug nut]

While looking for a cheap 2 5/16" ball to use for moving my g/n trailers around the yard, I noticed that the cheaper, chrome balls were only rated at 5,000 lbs. That got me thinking about the second-hand g/n hitch that I put in my truck last year. It came with a chrome ball already in it.

After heading home, my curiousity led me to inspect the ball in my truck. Sure enough, it was a 5,000 lb rated, Chinese made chrome ball. I think I will upgrade before I pull my 28' dual tandem axle trailer with my tractor on it or my horse trailer again.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I broke the factory hitch on both my 2004 F-250 Powerstroke, and my 2006 F-350 Powerstroke. You think I would have learned the first time. I did the first one with my boat on my F-250, it weighs in at about 16,000# going to the lake and about 1,800# on the tong weight. I cracked the F-350 hitch with a large 3 axle trailer pulling around 25,000#, not sure on the tong weight. I know all you who are going to say I was way over the tow limit and I know. Anyway I replaced both trucks factory 2" hitch with the new Ford 2.5" hitch and no problems. I have since towed the 25,000# trailer 6 times a total of about 400 miles with no problems. Never broke a ball but I always use 25,000# balls and weld them on after I tighten down the nut good. I have also bent a few draw bars on the old 2" hitches.

Chris

 

[jayhaitch]

I cracked the F-350 hitch with a large 3 axle trailer pulling around 25,000#...Chris

25,000 lbs ?!!! Dare I ask what you were hauling?

 

[Skyco]

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...

 

[skipmarcy]

I made a serious mistake by trusting a used truck salesman (imagine that !) when I bought my 2000 F250 in 2004. I had him check with a Ford dealer to make sure the truck was rated to haul my tractor/trailer which weighs-in right at 10k. He assured me it was rated to haul 12,500 and I thought I was good to go. Well, I hauled my tractor around Florida for a year with no problems then I went to buy my 12k dump trailer and the dealer refused to hook it up to my 5k rated Ford hitch !! I finally talked them into hooking it up since it was an empty trailer and got online as soon as I got home and started shopping for a Class 5 hitch. It was my mistake for not checking my equipment myself and could have cost me dearly - I was just lucky. I bought a Draw-Tite Class 5. I was already using properly rated mounts & balls since I had to purchase them myself. As Skyco states, the balls aren't chrome plated. My 20' equip. trailer is a 2" "bumper" pull and I had to shop around for a 10k rated ball for it. The dump trailer is 2 5/16" "bumper" pull and wasn't hard to find the proper ball for it. The guy at the trailer dealer said he had seen some truck frames mangled from an underated hitch many times. I don't think mine would have made it long either if I had been up here in the hills of Tenn.

 

[Diamondpilot]

25,000 lbs ?!!! Dare I ask what you were hauling?

I haul a 38' SeaRay boat for a friend every spring and fall. It is 42' long on the trailer. It is about 40 miles each way. The hardest part of hauling this boat is the width and height. It is 13.5' wide and 14.5' tall on the trailer so we have to take a out of the way route to get it to the lake to avoid bridges and such. It has a triple axle trailer with electric brakes. I use 4 low on the ramp and get over-wide permits to haul it, on a phone call and $50 in Indiana. I also hauled a single wide mobile home about 3 miles for a friend when he bought a piece of property and he was giving the home to a needy family.

Chris

Chris

 

[john_bud]

Must be nice to have a buddy like you!

You may want to read some of the recent threads on DOT numbers and goofy stuff like that. In some places they are cracking down and would possibly ticket you for far more than just being overweight. That would be a bummer, especially if you are just helping a needy person!

jb

 

[Renze]

I once cracked open a trailer hitch and bent the ball stud.

How ? i pulled a crappy old trailer with 2 allmost flat tires and a load that shifted the center of gravity to the back when the front gate bent over.
The car and trailer jack knifed, i saw the underside of the trailer in my rear view mirror when it turned over, cracking the hitch.
The ball stud bent when the car bumped its rear into a tree and came to a stop. The trailer was 15 meters ahead, upside down in a ditch.

 

[lug nut]

I got a 25k rated ball from Tractor Supply. I put it to the test this weekend by putting 23 round bales of hay on my trailer. Everything worked fine, once I finally managed to get unstuck from the field the hay was in.

 

[JB4310]

I've never broken one but just this past week when I was picking up something at a welding shop there was a receiver insert broken in 2 pieces on the bench. The inner tube where it is welded to the flat plate were the ball combo was attached, it was for a camper set-up with the load transfer system on the sides.
Broken right in two, the cheapest weld you have ever seen, definitely china/india crap, shiny black and chrome, I've seen heavier welds on bicycle frames.
Like the welder guy said; imagine how many of those are going down the road!!!