B&W fail or Operator Error?

fj12ryder wrote:

Likes to tow wrote:
B&W hitches are very good but if you don't get the handle all the way back and pin it correctly this can happen. Also if you get the kingpin over the jaws this can happen. A pull test should have caught this. Now I'm worried about my B&W pulling a trick like this!!

The handle doesn't need to be pinned if it's in place. When you hook up, and the handle comes all the way back, the hitch is secure. You can pull out and the trailer will not come loose, even if you haven't pinned the handle.

You cannot put the kingpin over the jaws, unless you're blind. If you can't see a couple inches of clearance above the hitch head, then you probably should give up driving. :)

This was operator error, pure and simple. I read about one guy that dropped his trailer with a B&W hitch, and it turns out he had pinned the hitch jaws open and forgot to remove the pin when hooking up. The jaws didn't close, the handle didn't move, and he still pulled out.

The guy just messed up. Happens to the best of us.

New to fifth wheels and I can confirm you don't need to pin the handle. Been there done that and it won't happen again. Towed 3 hours to the next fuel stop when I did my stop check and just about @#$ myself that this happened to me, but it did and fortunately nothing really horrible happened.

All this seems like operator error to me too. I do visual and pull check just to be sure and still can't figure out how I missed the pin.

Rob