Reese head loose on shank

lamopar wrote:
Hannibal I am not out to prove the tech wrong. I understand his opinion on the slop and that is why I have not worried about it for a couple of years. What I see is a bent bolt and pulled threads. I have checked other peoples hitch in the parking lots and noticed they do not have the movement mine does. I agree with him that the movement is not going to shear off the bolts allowing my trailer total freedom on the highway but, I really don't think adding more movement to the hitch assembly is good. I am planning on doing what you did and stop the rattle and hopefully reduce the overall movement.

My purpose for the message initially is to determine if the movement in mine is the same as everyone else's or is mine different. It seems you had movement and put in a shim and stopped it. That will be my goal as well.

I’d bet lunch if you called Reese or sent an email, they’d send you a shim or two and a new couple of nuts and bolts. The slop is normal but most folks expect the yoke to clamp down on the shank when the bolts are torqued down. I did as well and called Reese to inquire. Even with one shim in, mine’s not tight to the shank. But it’s enough to prevent movement or rattles. The tech also said I could use any 2” shank. It doesn’t have to be the cast Reese shank. If anything, I wish I’d have held on to my very short welded Quality S trunnion style ball mount. The head was right up against the receiver.