Stupid mistake nearly cost me

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