Storing ball hitch

dedmiston wrote:

Wow!

I pull more than 1 trailer, and always leave ball mount locked in coupler. The right one is there when needed. And most important to me, when I pull the ball out of coupler, put it on TV I know the coupler is open. Can't set the latch on top of ball.

schlep1967 wrote:
Think about all the pressures exerted on that coupler when towing the trailer down the road. Braking, accelerating, torque when turning and even bumps/pot holes. Letting the ball hang in there ain't going to hurt a darn thing other than your shins if you forget to turn it back under the tongue.

Bingo...if the ball hanging off the trailer damages it, something was already faulty.

Doesn't NY State have a rule about the hitch not remaining on the vehicle when not towing?

I used to get rear-ended all the time in my old truck when we had a bumper-pull. That hitch was a godsend. I never had so much as a scratch on my bumper. I can remember most of the collisions pretty well.

* Very attractive woman in a brand new BMW in traffic. Her bumper was destroyed and mine was fine.

* A friend of mine coming down a hill near home. I was looking in my mirror and saw him coming down the hill in his company's van. "Oh hey, here comes Dave... Oh no, Dave's going to hit me.... Aaaand Dave just hit me." We pulled over and caught up on each other's family stuff and then I left him to make that tough call to his boss.

* Somebody hit me in a junker sedan in traffic and I was already running late. I waved to him and he waved "sorry", and then I kept going. He looked pretty relieved to not have to swap info.

* A teenage kid in a sweet new red Mustang hit me pretty hard after I'd just driven down to the Valley to have a new tooth implant fitted. He hit me hard enough to knock out the tooth and I jumped out of my truck like a mad bull. Then I saw it was just a kid and saw he'd destroyed his front end, so I shook his hand and told him the owner of the car was going to be way madder than I was, so I wished him good luck and sent him along.

So yes, I would leave the hitch in the receiver. It's one more layer of protection for you and one less thing to deal with when you come and go from your trips.

Don't you find it more difficult to hook up?

Do it all the time!! Locked, swung back against the jack shaft. No problems, and no grease on knees!!

Think about all the pressures exerted on that coupler when towing the trailer down the road. Braking, accelerating, torque when turning and even bumps/pot holes. Letting the ball hang in there ain't going to hurt a darn thing other than your shins if you forget to turn it back under the tongue.

I wouldn't think you'd want to do that, but I suppose you could.

Skipg wrote:
Does the weight of the ball hitch hanging on the trailer ball lock cause problems ?

Nope.
But I prefer having a trailer hitch tongue ON the back of all our trucks all the time. Sure helps when you get rear ended and the other guy's car is munched and your biggest issue is pulling his bumper cover off of your trailer hitch!

Leave it.