What a tragedy

[oldpilgrim]

A VT state trooper is telling you about Ma state law, and my 70 years here makes MY knowledge irrelevant. How about my son being a MA cop or is that irrelevant too?

 

[Btown]

Got that tidbit from my neighbor. He is a VT state trooper (Captain) I took it for fact, maybe something like dingle balls hanging from the mirror. I doubt you time of residency has anything to do with it.

Like I said earlier. I have never heard of this law. There may have been one in the legislature at some but was not passed. It is not in the Mass General Laws (MGL). But if it fell off a vehicle here in MA they can cite you for it.

 

[George2615]

There were rumors of NY passing a law to remove the hitch when not in use but that's all it was, rumor.
Personally I remove mine when not in use because 1) They are too easy for someone to steal if you don't have a locking pin. I lost two to theft. 2) Mine are higher tow rating and they are too expensive to replace if stolen and 3) Less chance of walking into them with your leg and getting grease on your clothes.

 

[Btown]

There were rumors of NY passing a law to remove the hitch when not in use but that's all it was, rumor. Personally I remove mine when not in use because 1) They are too easy for someone to steal if you don't have a locking pin. I lost two to theft. 2) Mine are higher tow rating and they are too expensive to replace if stolen and 3) Less chance of walking into them with your leg and getting grease on your clothes.

I hear you on theft. Someone took the pin from my weight distribution hitch. I went and grabbed a small 9' landscape trailer and I heard a slamming. Got out to check. Everything looked ok. Kept driving and it made the slamming noise again. Looked a little better. Saw my hitch was sliding out of the receiver. Was about 1/2 mile from home. Slowed down and put the locking pin back in when I got home.

 

[CalG]

A VT state trooper is telling you about Ma state law, and my 70 years here makes MY knowledge irrelevant. How about my son being a MA cop or is that irrelevant too?

undies too tight?

 

[newbury]

On the subject of being hit by flying objects -

I may have posted this before but:
About 20 years ago I was driving my Dodge B120 van down to Kings Dominion for a fun day at the waterpark. I had three boys with me, from about 9 to 13.
We were in the middle lane, moderately dense traffic, about 65 mph.
A boat trailer in front of me lost a right wheel, one of two.

The darn wheel and tire flew up in the air, probably 30 feet high and coming directly at me. I couldn't swerve to either side without hitting a car. I floored it and hoped for the best, trying to get it so it would hit the roof instead of the windshield. Didn't have time to get scared, just time to react.

It hit dead center above the window frame and left a dent about an inch deep, bounced off and was someone else's problem.

It was just like heading a soccer ball.<snip>

And then in 2012:

I just had an accident with a U-Haul car dolly last Thursday. I was pulling a Honda Civic down from Alexandria, VA.
Driving about 55 on 72/20 in North Alabama the wheel and tire broke off the passenger side of the dolly. Luckily I was in the slow lane. Unluckily the wheel spun off and hit a house with minor damage.

As soon as I heard the noise I knew something was wrong and pulled to the side. My F350 was partially loaded

View attachment 285695


with about 1800 lbs of pallet rack and I didn't notice any "pull" on my dually until I got the tow dolly off the pavement and the axle stub started "plowing", even then it was only a slight pull. I first thought a chain or something had broke and was dragging, not the entire dolly. I left a groove in the asphalt about 50 to 100 yards long.

U-Haul is not maintaining their equipment well. I had to grease the ratchets to get the tire straps to work, the 4 wire for lights frayed and broke.

/edit - in retrospect a dually is nice.

So I've been on both the getting end and giving end of flying trailer tires.

 

[Pixguy]

undies too tight?

Admit your mistake and move on.

 

[GLyford]

I remove mine every time these days. On my previous truck, I had a tri-ball that I could only use one way...because it was too tightly rusted in to get out again and flip or stow. So not so much for everyone else (bumpers or shins or looks) as much as for me (I want the option of swapping which side is up, or switching to the pintle).

 

[mjw357]

Massachusetts law has it unlawful to have a removable hitch mounted when NOT pulling a trailer.

Stow that hitch!

Oh sweet molasses, not this again.

 

[TractorGuy]

I have always removed my ball mount when not in use. Leaving it in negates the design and function of the bumper. You could probably be liable for excess damage even if a car hits you from behind and is at fault. Receiver type hitches should be the only type hitch allowed and it SHOULD be against the law to leave the ball mount in when not in use.

On the unsecured loads discussion I had some friends that suffered a total loss on their F350 and partial damage of the trailer they were towing. An unsecured mattress came off a vehicle, got caught under their truck, caught fire and burnt the truck completely up. They saw the vehicle the mattress fell off of turned around and passed by but when they saw the burning mattress under their truck they didn't stop. They were too busy getting stuff out of the trailer and such to get the tag number.

 

[tractorshopper]

I have a triball B&W adjustable 10,000 lb hitch. I have a lock on it to prevent theft and it stays on my truck all the time unless I were to loan it out or put it on the Durango for some reason. I hear the arguments on here about bumping shins and more damage to whomever potentially rear ends me. I fail to follow them to the point of it should be a law though. It should be a law not to rear end me... Don't follow to close. Look where you're walking.

I look at my hitch as a tool like a 3PH on a tractor, etc. Why would I remove something that I use often? First, it's really heavy. Second, why would I waste my time and effort to remove and reinstall the truck's main tool? Third, my truck bed is pretty high and I use my triball as a step very often to get up into my truck bed.

If you legislate every potential could be problem, we'd no longer be allowed to do anything. Most foods would be off limits because if one person ate a certain dose or regularly enough, something could happen. Sports would be outlawed. Most work would be outlawed. Machinery of pretty much every kind would be outlawed, etc.

 

[TractorGuy]

In a perfect world people would care about other people and have enough common sense to act accordingly. In our world people don't give a rats behind about their fellow man and some don't even have enough sense to tie a mattress down before hauling it down the interstate. SOOOOOOOO we have laws.

 

[timswi]

In a perfect world people would care about other people and have enough common sense to act accordingly. In our world people don't give a rats behind about their fellow man and some don't even have enough sense to tie a mattress down before hauling it down the interstate. SOOOOOOOO we have laws.

That's true. Guessing either someone took the pin or the owner forgot to install it...Either way, it shouldn't have happened. My hitches come out the second I'm done..Too many shin dents to be lazy enough to leave it in these days. I keep the hitches in the trailer toolbox so no projectile risk..Just open the lid and install when needed. Have tool boxes on all my trailers. Only takes 30 seconds to install. If I don't have that much time available, I have no business towing anything.

 

[newbury]

In a perfect world people would care about other people and have enough common sense to act accordingly. In our world people don't give a rats behind about their fellow man and some don't even have enough sense to tie a mattress down before hauling it down the interstate. SOOOOOOOO we have laws.

In a perfect world where people care about other people and have enough common sense to act accordingly they wouldn't tail gate me so close at speed that they couldn't stop in time to NOT hit my hitch. And people would not walk so close to my truck that they could hit their shins.

I'd like to get a BIG pintle hitch to put back there

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

In a perfect world where people care about other people and have enough common sense to act accordingly they wouldn't tail gate me so close at speed that they couldn't stop in time to NOT hit my hitch. And people would not walk so close to my truck that they could hit their shins.

I'd like to get a BIG pintle hitch to put back there

Well said.

So, some people think I should take the hitch off my truck so that when I'm rear-ended by some idiot who's too busy texting to pay attention to his/her driving, the idiot's car won't be damaged as bad? :confused2:

 

[4570Man]

I don't care if other people hit their shins. Don't walk so close. I haven't ever hit my shins on someone else's trailer hitch. The trailer ball on the SUV is the only one we walk into so I take that one out.

 

[TMGT]

If I didn't have to occasionally change my BW adj. triball out for one of my trailers I'd weld it on!
The only time I tuck it under the truck is if I know I'm going to be parking in the city where I might have to parallel park.

When I had tow trucks there were parts that hung off the back, never heard anyone say anything about that being a problem, people would somtimes walk into the stinger on the rollback, if you can't miss that you should rethink your ability to walk.

 

[Howling]

As for having a tow ball on the back of your truck, I've been rear ended several times in stop and go traffic. The car hits my tow ball, bends up their plastic front bumper real bad, and there is absolutely no damage to my truck. For that reason alone, I love having my tow hitch in place.

I got rear ended last year. Car was off center so that my hitch went thru plastic bumper and hit end of frame rail. After her "sorry my flip flop slide off the brake pedal" realized my hitch was tilted down. It did protect my bumper. My truck went to body shop to get end of frame rails straighten and new receiver and hitch installed