My Hitch Won't Let Go Of My Ball

[DallasSteve]

I just picked up a new 36 foot Jayco trailer. The tow vehicle has a 2 5/16" ball. I took it off the lot and towed it to my first campground and I/we had a devil of a time unhooking the hitch. Since I was a rookie the park manager sent over their maintenance guy to help. We raised up the electric jack (after he undid the latch) and it raised and raised. Pretty soon it was raising the back end of my truck. We tried my putting it in reverse for the smallest of movement. He tried jumping on the bumper. He called over another friend who lives in a trailer there and he sprayed it with some WD-40. Finally he said the jack was running up to its limit so he brought over some blocks to put under the jack. We tried again and it did a great job of raising the truck, but the hitch held onto that ball. Finally he jumped on the truck bumper again and it wiggled free.

Has anybody else had this problem? Is there a solution we were missing? Is it dangerous to be raising the back of the truck like that to either the truck or the electric jack?

[2oldman]

LITEPHIL wrote:
The truck either has to roll back slightly or the trailer forward since the ball is pushed forward into the coupling when latched

He did that.

[Grit_dog]

90% chance you had the truck and trailer in a bind. It happens. Just another learning curve thing.
Be careful if you attempt to pull the pin on the receiver and drive out of it. That works well “if” you know what to look for or get lucky and don’t have it jacked so out of sorts that it binds in the receiver. You risk dragging the trailer if bound up.

[LITEPHIL]

Release the parking brake. The truck either has to roll back slightly or the trailer forward since the ball is pushed forward into the coupling when latched

[ferndaleflyer]

I have a hitch, part that attaches to the truck, that is bent forward just a little and it causes the same problem. If I use it and it decides to stick I have a pry bar to get it loose.

[Horsedoc]

We have a flatbed utility trailer with small lever/clip that locks around part of the 2 5/16 ball. Sometimes it will not unlatch when disconnecting and I have to hold it up and back as the tongue is lifted off the ball. Have no idea why it only happens sometimes.

[JRscooby]

You said you used fluid designed to disperse water, have you lubed it?

[NamMedevac_70]

When everything else failed I chocked all wheels to the TT and pulled the holding pin on the ball shank in the Truck hitch and slowly and gently pulled forward and out came the ball shank. Then I was able to move the ball shank in different directions by hand until it popped loose from the TT tongue and fell to the ground. Safely worked for me but may not for others with no common sense.

Only had to do this a few times that was due to no choice parking location on uneven rough ground with binding on tongue and ball. Be careful your feet are not underneath the hitch ball when doing this and you are good to go. Yes, for the critics I did use ball grease and other standard stuff and it was still a no go. Electric jack trick did not work. Fishing and life is good. Cheers

[ScottG]

My last two new TT's were like that. I used the electric jack to force it.
They both got better with a couple of seasons worth of use and I had no trouble after that.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Check the preload on the tongue of the hitch. I would unscrew it and pull the tongue of the hitch out to inspect it. If you don't find anything, then install it with less preload.

Yes you could. Electric jacks are not meant to jack up that much weight. One guy at a shop burnt my jack out by changing the spring on my trailer by putting jack stands on my rear bumper and jacking the wheels off of the ground with the tongue jack.