Hitch pin broke
Hello all, Going from the Los Angeles area up to Reno, NV. Got 1 mile from the end of the ride when the hitch pin broke and the Fiat Abarth driver's side hit the passenger side of the MH. Luckily we ...
Forum Discussion
I was wrong in thinking it was ok. It was not. I know little but my other half is an engineer and saw what was wrong. I was going off what little I know to start. It was a locking hitch pin that sheared at a point making it like ok to me, not to someone who knows what to look at. The whole assembly came apart from the tow away from the MH. As a consequence the car hit the back end of the MH since the only thing holding it were the safety cables. After towing 400 miles that is what happened.
THEN on the trip home we were ok'd by the insurance company it was ok to tow back 400 miles to fix what damage they saw. The brakes apparently had been damaged and were dragging and caught on fire. Yep the car was on fire 20 miles down the road. Well a combo of the collision and the fire damage and the car was totaled by the insurance company, actually the axle had been damaged in the collision but the fire did not help in the cost. So instead of just selling our Harley when we got back we are now using the bike as part of the purchase price for our next vehicle.
All just bad luck. The others that have looked at the parts were quite surprised that that particular hitch pin sheared like it did as they are supposed to be extremely well made, better than the ones in that picture in this thread. You could tell from the hole it went into that it had stressed that hole too as it was also compromised. If we had been able to get the pin off the highway we would have to send it to the manufacturer for analysis but it was on the off ramp. We knew the approximate location of where it might have sheared at so we were looking but traffic prevented us from getting it off the road.
Just double check all parts as you never know what might go at the wrong time.
THEN on the trip home we were ok'd by the insurance company it was ok to tow back 400 miles to fix what damage they saw. The brakes apparently had been damaged and were dragging and caught on fire. Yep the car was on fire 20 miles down the road. Well a combo of the collision and the fire damage and the car was totaled by the insurance company, actually the axle had been damaged in the collision but the fire did not help in the cost. So instead of just selling our Harley when we got back we are now using the bike as part of the purchase price for our next vehicle.
All just bad luck. The others that have looked at the parts were quite surprised that that particular hitch pin sheared like it did as they are supposed to be extremely well made, better than the ones in that picture in this thread. You could tell from the hole it went into that it had stressed that hole too as it was also compromised. If we had been able to get the pin off the highway we would have to send it to the manufacturer for analysis but it was on the off ramp. We knew the approximate location of where it might have sheared at so we were looking but traffic prevented us from getting it off the road.
Just double check all parts as you never know what might go at the wrong time.
