What happens when you are distracted
Before: After (when you have a friend that can "Buff that right out"!):
Forum Discussion
TomHaycraft wrote:
That could have so easily been me last weekend!
New (to me!) truck with a long bed. I pinned the Reese Sidewinder required for my prior SWB truck (and removed the wedge) and tried to use a lube plate. Seemed to hitch fine, jaws closed, button on front of Reese R16 hitch pushed out, maybe not quite as far as before, hitch handle swung (mostly) into the lock position. Two red flags I didn't fully investigate.
Pull test was fine. I got it out from under the covered parking and on to level ground. Stopping to check level and give it another look-over. This time I saw that the arm of this hitch wasn't all the way into the locked position. Feeling under the hitch head, I found how little was caught and up in the correct position.
The thickness of the lube plate caused the king pin to ride a bit high. I unhitched, remomved lube plate, got out my grease, hitched back up.
I was lucky.
Last time we hitched up we too had problem with the lube plate preventing a complete lock on the hitch head. Since we were only going a short distance, we removed the lube plate, hitched, and locked and headed home.
