B&W Hitch - Top Bolt
Has anyone ever taken off their B&W hitch and found that you can take out the top bolt or broken it off while removing it? What would cause that to happen?
Forum Discussion
Alley Fox wrote:
If the bolt broke off, there's several reasons why that could happen: 1) It was cross threaded when installed, 2) It rusted in place, 3) The bolt was replaced with one that had the wrong thread pitch or had a non-threaded shoulder that was bottomed out or 4) The bolt was torqued way too high. When I install my hitch, I always inspect the bolts. The top bolt, when torqued to the required 40 Ft/lbs, does not get drawn down to contact the post, there is always a gap between the post and the hitch frame. That bolt only serves to preload the hitch contact to the bed, the "U" bolts are what secures the hitch.
Agree with all but #4. If you over-torque it, you'll bend the hitch base crosspiece. Mine has a bit of a ripple in it from mis-reading the instructions and torquing to 80 on the draw-down instead of the u-bolt.
Lyle
