Nut backed off ball caused accident
I was heading up to santa cruz ca. in my 40' american eagle I had my motorcycle in tow on a utility trailer. Before I left I had tighten the nut on the ball with an air impact driver the kind that you...
Forum Discussion
So back to the hitch ball....rather than relying solely on torque to hold the fastener in place, why not use a safety mechanism? Instead of a torque-only spec of 400+ ft/lbs, why not a more attainable 150 ft/lbs with a castle nit and cotter pin?
For the same reason we don't put a castle nut or cotter pin in a rod bolt or head bolt. A properly torqued nut is more than just holding a nut on.
If it was just for holding the nut on I could skip all the rod torqueing nonsense and just use Loc-Tite on them.
If you don't torque a rod bolt properly the rod will fail in short order. And not because the nut fell off.
If you do not torque a hitch ball to the proper spec it "can" fail for the same reason as the rod.
The reason we torque fasteners has VERY little to do with them coming loose.
