SAFETY WARNING FOR TOADS

looks to me the failure was casued by excessive torque where the hitch is bolted to the frame. This torque could come from overloading the hitch weight or from a sudden stop while towing with a drop down hitch. Say the toad brakes were not adjusted properly and you have a 5000# toad pushing on even a slightly dropped hitch ball, that can produce a heck of a lot of torque at the hitch mount point and easily exceed the torque max spec determined by weight and distance. Even though everyone thinks they don't overload their hitch, I bet they do occasionally.