Hi Everyone! Just wanted to update this thread a little bit. Today I phoned Wade at the Hitch Depot in Red Deer, AB since it was his company that initially installed the hitch into the truck. I asked him if he would have a look at the hitch head for me and tell me whether or not it was damaged, if it could be repaired and would it still be able to perform to the standards and specifications for which it was designed. He asked, of course, what had happened to cause my angst and ask these questions. I explained as clearly as I could the events leading up to our RV leaving the hitch head. After my tale of woe he simply said that the hitch had been exposed to much greater force that it was ever designed to handle. He explained that just towing through soft ground can greatly increase the amount of pin weight on the hitch head. He said that when the forces were exponentially increased by dragging the truck and trailer sideways and even deeper into the ground by lifting the front end of the truck in the air that the pin weight would have been far greater than the design of the hitch. He said that he would gladly check out the hitch and asked that until then that I not use it to pull anything, regardless of weight. I am taking the hitch to him early next week.
I took a couple of pictures that show how deep the RV wheels were sunk into the ground as it was being pulled out of the soft ground. As far as being able to drive it out of there myself, please note that I have not driven a 4WD vehicle since my 1979 FORD BRONCO, which I sold in the early eighties. MY new to me F350 was new to me by three days. I didn't even know that these trucks had an "Electronic Locking Differential". It does explain the little ">" symbol under the 4WD selector switch though. I am still not convinced that even with the diffs locked I could have driven it out of the mess that I was in. Even if after the fact I have started to re-read the entire manual, with an open mind, so that I can learn all about the nuances of owning and driving such a magnificent, electronic wonder.
The first three pictures are of the ruts that were dug by the RV tires
These pictures were of the general carnage caused by the truck while being pulled. I only included these to give you a perspective of how deep we were.
Cheers!
Mike
