Another Reese 20K Hitch Failure
This post may comes a little late for one posted last April (see post from davidkelm "Dropped Trailer on Bed Rails Today")
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27647785.cfm but is very relevant. That's because it's still happening today...and I know first hand. I have a 32 ft. Alpenlite 5th and pull it with a 2005 Chev 350 Duramax Dually (love this truck). Bought the Reese 20K Pro which at the time came with an Elite head upgrade (they said), has a single clamp instead of "jaws". Generally has worked fairly good with the typical "hard to release" issues I've read about. But better too hard than too easy to come loose...right?
Well to help keep this as brief as possible, I was on short trip to a lake nearby (25 miles) pulling the 5th after doing all the proper checks and tests described by David as well. And it pulled just fine all the way to the lake. THEN...while maneuvering around some tight-ish terrain I had to veer right almost off the narrow road to allow another vehicle to pass. (Not an unusual situation I find) In doing so though the truck and 5th had to tilt and twist in opposite angles a few times (side-to-side) to clear the other vehicle, trees, boulders, etc., but didn't seem to hurt anything so I drove on slowly around a curve where I went over a pothole in the road...and then went into shock as I head a loud "cluck" and looked back to see the 5th resting on the truck bed. After a few choice "what the f--k's" I got out to see the damage. The kingpin was resting in the bottom of the bed after having torn up the bed-liner a bit, but it was still intact and did not appear bent in any way. Looking at the hitch, the clamp was still closed and the hitchpin still in place, but definitely NOT connected. What the hell happened? I still don't know but it would seem that the twisting and tilting that had occurred earlier had allowed the kingpin to somehow snap out of the closed and locked hitch clamp.
This Should NEVER Happen, no matter what, so long as the hitch and kingpin are properly aligned and correctly connected according to the manufacturer. (i.e. the user has not done something improper)
I have not yet contacted Reese or anybody else to assess my recovery options, if any (I know slim to none probably), but thought I would check with the experts (you guys) to see what you had to say first, you almost always have good thoughts of what happened and what to do.
Thanks
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27647785.cfm but is very relevant. That's because it's still happening today...and I know first hand. I have a 32 ft. Alpenlite 5th and pull it with a 2005 Chev 350 Duramax Dually (love this truck). Bought the Reese 20K Pro which at the time came with an Elite head upgrade (they said), has a single clamp instead of "jaws". Generally has worked fairly good with the typical "hard to release" issues I've read about. But better too hard than too easy to come loose...right?
Well to help keep this as brief as possible, I was on short trip to a lake nearby (25 miles) pulling the 5th after doing all the proper checks and tests described by David as well. And it pulled just fine all the way to the lake. THEN...while maneuvering around some tight-ish terrain I had to veer right almost off the narrow road to allow another vehicle to pass. (Not an unusual situation I find) In doing so though the truck and 5th had to tilt and twist in opposite angles a few times (side-to-side) to clear the other vehicle, trees, boulders, etc., but didn't seem to hurt anything so I drove on slowly around a curve where I went over a pothole in the road...and then went into shock as I head a loud "cluck" and looked back to see the 5th resting on the truck bed. After a few choice "what the f--k's" I got out to see the damage. The kingpin was resting in the bottom of the bed after having torn up the bed-liner a bit, but it was still intact and did not appear bent in any way. Looking at the hitch, the clamp was still closed and the hitchpin still in place, but definitely NOT connected. What the hell happened? I still don't know but it would seem that the twisting and tilting that had occurred earlier had allowed the kingpin to somehow snap out of the closed and locked hitch clamp.
This Should NEVER Happen, no matter what, so long as the hitch and kingpin are properly aligned and correctly connected according to the manufacturer. (i.e. the user has not done something improper)
I have not yet contacted Reese or anybody else to assess my recovery options, if any (I know slim to none probably), but thought I would check with the experts (you guys) to see what you had to say first, you almost always have good thoughts of what happened and what to do.
Thanks
