Stupid mistake nearly cost me

Glad you were not hurt.

You do know that if you crank up your trailer tongue higher, you can get those weight distribution bars on without using any tools at all. I've had a Reese (with the bars and chains and the lift that raise up and down with a cheater bar), and also now an Equal-i-zer, where the bars rest on an L-bracket. I've never had to use the cheater bars. Just crank the tongue up high enough and you'll be able to slip the bars on (or the chains on), or the lifts on, without any tools. When you lower the tongue, you'll get the tension on those bars.

If you can't raise your trailer tongue high enough, but a block under the tongue jack so it will raise higher. I keep a 6 inch block under mine all the time so the trailer tongue will lift higher. Been doing this with 3 different trailers now.

I always use a check off list, so I do not forget anything such as disconnecting the safety chains or anything else, I use one for hook up too and this includes setting chocks in place. (This I learned the hard way). Glad it was not worse than it was..

DutchmenSport wrote:
Glad you were not hurt.

You do know that if you crank up your trailer tongue higher, you can get those weight distribution bars on without using any tools at all...

Yep, works great unless you pull a bonehead move like I did and forget to disconnect safety chains before raising the tongue :S

hbrady wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
Glad you were not hurt.

You do know that if you crank up your trailer tongue higher, you can get those weight distribution bars on without using any tools at all...

Yep, works great unless you pull a bonehead move like I did and forget to disconnect safety chains before raising the tongue :S

That's OK hbrady!

I once unhitched everything completely, except the safety chains. (oops). When I pulled the truck forward, wanna guess what happened? Well, that trailer jack wasn't sitting on top of the 6 inch block any more! That much I'll admit!

It could have been worst that bar could have flew off and hit your head or chest and killed you!!! Thank God it didn't. Thanks for posting it's a reminder to all.

hbrady wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
Glad you were not hurt.

You do know that if you crank up your trailer tongue higher, you can get those weight distribution bars on without using any tools at all...

Yep, works great unless you pull a bonehead move like I did and forget to disconnect safety chains before raising the tongue :S

I don't quite understand this statement. If you are raising the tongue with the coupler still attached to the ball this will raise both the back of the truck and the tongue of the trailer. Doing this will take the pressure off of the WD bars so the snap-up brackets are very easy to release or hook up. The safety chains should move right along with the tongue and truck so there should be no additional tension on them as far as I can see.

I have a feeling you were trying to raise the tongue of the trailer AFTER you released the ball coupler since you said "...and raised jack enough to take most of the weight off the hitch". This would have the effect you are talking about on the safety chains and it would also INCREASE the amount of tension on the WD bar chains and snap-up brackets. This would explain the huge amount of force that tore the pipe extension out of your hands.

Next time, leave everything hooked up and just raise the back of the truck with the tongue jack. The higher you raise it the easier it is to get the chains done. :) Once the chains are loose then you lower the tongue so there is pressure on the ball and then you release the ball coupler and raise the trailer off the ball.

There are TWO up and down motions of the trailer tongue when doing this. One to release the chains, and the second to release the ball coupler. This is one reason so many of us have power tongue jacks! :B
Barney

Pain increases the chance of a lesson learned and not repeated. As mentioned, let the jack do the the work twice and skip the hurt.

You can figure out who was whispering to you, right? ;) He cares about you!

Your chains are that tight? My safety chains are loose whether there is tension on the bars or not. I have never, ever seen my safety chains under any kind of tension. you called them safety chains but did you really mean the weight distribution bar chains?

An excellent reminder to slow down and check everything twice.