Nut backed off ball caused accident

[iamalienru]

I was heading up to santa cruz ca. in my 40' american eagle I had my motorcycle in tow on a utility trailer. Before I left I had tighten the nut on the ball with an air impact driver the kind that you take lug nuts off a car or truck it was tight lock washer in place. safety chain hooked up all was good. traveling down the 101 near north Hollywood ca. I saw the trailer jumping in my rear camera as I slowed the trailer let loose breaking the safety chain and hitting another car. what a mess. I have never had this happen before but the nut from the ball was laying there on the freeway. now I am having insurance issues on the trailer and coach it was the vacation from hell and it's not over. The only type of ball I will use from now on is one with a cotter pin going through the bottom of the shaft. Uhaul carries them. Sorry for the sad story but i hope this will help others. I still do not understand why that nut backed off

[Passin_Thru]

I bought a stock trailer in OK. An Old Man owned it and did'nt cross the chains. The hitch broke the tongue gouged into the pavement and threw a horse right out the front partitions of the nose into the bar ditch. Another guy came and said, "That horse will never load again." but they grabbed it by the ear, loaded it in another trailer and went to the Vets. The Vet wanted to know why they were bothering hin because the horse did'nt have any mark on it. I still have the trailer.

[down_home]

We get a lot of rain around here. Half the pickups you see have rusty hitch balls. They never grease them. They only tow to the lake or job site but I bet a few loose their trailers.
That lock washer that comes with all the hitch balls, I've seen is hardened and has the ends where split at a sharp angle. The balls all have a hard small ball bearing in the bottom. Together with the lock washer, it should never come loose. The cheap zinc plated balls are worse about rusting. Given enough rust the coupler can put a lot of torque in all directions going down the road.
I'm amazed that no one cleans the inside of the coupler or the ball and greases them.
It should never come loose when installed in proper sized hole and torqued down to crush the washer and inbed the ball bearing into the metal of the tow bar. A little red Loctite which is for permanent attachment and it will never come off.

[emonkemeier]

I still can't believe he found the nut on the freeway after all this. I drop something on the floor in my shop and it takes me 10 minutes to find it.
Ed

[fly-boy]

This very same issue happened to an employee of mine this Summer- Lost his boat and trailer on the way to Havasu. Fortunately the chains held or it would have been a lot worse.

I always use a lock washer and tighten in a vice. The other thing I do is grease the ball (just takes a little bit) every time I hitch up. When I unhitch I wipe it off. Way too many people (most) don't grease the ball ever. Big mistake!

[BurbMan]

Yes, I learned about fastener technology from a few of our resident engineers!

[rhagfo]

spike99 wrote:
Hi iamalienru.

Thanks for your "warning" post. Sorry for your accident. Hopefully, nobody got hurt! Yes, I can see an insurance company fighting this one. Especially since a certified auto mechanic didn't tighten down the ball nut. Ya, they look for many different excuses not to pay. (very sad face).

Going forward, I will check my draw bar's ball / nut tightness as well. Will also add pea size of white grease to its ball and trailer tongue's under size matching coupler. And, ensure both crossed safety chains are at proper "grade" of steel….

Thanks for warning others that "it too can happen to anyone".

Pea size will not do much good, the ball needs to be covered, worried about the greasy ball get a cover for it!
I can't believe the number of people on this forum that don't grease the ball or pin of their hitch! These are moving parts they need grease.

[spike99]

Hi iamalienru.

Thanks for your "warning" post. Sorry for your accident. Hopefully, nobody got hurt! Yes, I can see an insurance company fighting this one. Especially since a certified auto mechanic didn't tighten down the ball nut. Ya, they look for many different excuses not to pay. (very sad face).

Going forward, I will check my draw bar's ball / nut tightness as well. Will also add pea size of white grease to its ball and trailer tongue's under size matching coupler. And, ensure both crossed safety chains are at proper "grade" of steel….

Thanks for warning others that "it too can happen to anyone".

[rhagfo]

iamalienru wrote:
Thanks for all the responses. I have been towing for a long time and never had anything like this happen before. The Saftey chain came with the trailer and I was only hauling an 800lb bike. The bounce when the trailer let loose must have cut the chain thats all i can think of. I made this post for poeple to know no matter how safe it looks or feels things can happen. double up on the safety chains and make the ball has a cotter pin. Many of you know how to tow properly but maybe someone can get some value out of this post

Iamalienru, just need to ask, you refer in all post to the safety chain in a singular, did you only have one chain?
The other question I don't see asked or answered is did you grease the ball?
Other than that sorry for you troubles, and hope all comes out well for all involved.

[LarryJM]

iamalienru wrote:
As far as the negative comments I really don't take them as such. I think this kind of talk is helpful for anyone who reads this. Accidents can happen to anyone awarness and preventive measures reduce the chance of occurance. This post is a form of awarness.

WOW we often don't see someone that actually takes the comments in what I believe are the true vein in the way they are meant. We too often become defensive and take the often viewed negative or contrary comments as condescending or personal instead of in the proper context. As you so correctly stated everyone can learn and should have all views presented for them to make whatever decision they feel comfortable with and call it good.:)

Larry

[down_home]

Locktite blue and it will take quite a bit of effort to get it off.
Locktite red and it won't come off with anything short of dynamite.
Sorry you had the accident. Good luck sorting it out.

[2500_Grunt]

Here's another tip: Don't ever put the cotter pin in the hitch lock on the trailer unless it is hooked up to the TV. I was always losing them while un hooking the hitch and equalizer bars etc so I stated to re install them when TV was disconnected so I would not lose them. Once I forgot to unclip the cotter pin and backed up the TV and pulled back the trailer hitch clamp/coupler over the ball with pin already in and lowered the hitch on the TV hitch ball and drove away. Didn't get far and thanks for the safety chains. Even with the pin in place I can still somewhat raise or release the hitch jaws but not far enough so the tongue can release from the ball. Don't be in a hurry!

[calewjohnson]

One other thing to check....lock the coupler once the trailer is on. I forgot once, I was doing more talking than paying attention and forgot to put it down. Luckily it was an unloaded U-Haul trailer, so when it popped of the ball pulling into a driveway, the safety chains kept it attached. Now, I put a locking pin the the lock and it is a checklist item.

Cale

[Fordlover]

iamalienru wrote:
I was heading up to santa cruz ca. in my 40' american eagle I had my motorcycle in tow on a utility trailer. Before I left I had tighten the nut on the ball with an air impact driver the kind that you take lug nuts off a car or truck it was tight lock washer in place. safety chain hooked up all was good. traveling down the 101 near north Hollywood ca. I saw the trailer jumping in my rear camera as I slowed the trailer let loose breaking the safety chain and hitting another car. what a mess. I have never had this happen before but the nut from the ball was laying there on the freeway. now I am having insurance issues on the trailer and coach it was the vacation from hell and it's not over. The only type of ball I will use from now on is one with a cotter pin going through the bottom of the shaft. Uhaul carries them. Sorry for the sad story but i hope this will help others. I still do not understand why that nut backed off

Sorry for your troubles, what a mess!

I was pulling a Uhaul cargo trailer several years back when I started noticing increasing noise from the back of the TV. When I stopped to investigate, I found the nut backed way off of the ball. Luckily I was able to hand tighten the nut back snug, and drove slowly to a service station where they tightened the nut with a big ol wrench. In my case the coupler was turning the ball, so a bit of grease prevented it from happening again.

[iamalienru]

69 Avion brought up an interesting point. I have a neighbor that I have had issues with a long time. I mean it's really pretty bad..I had left the trailer hooked up to the coach on the side of the house for 2 night while we loaded and got it ready for the trip. I alway do a pretrip inspection and every thing looked fine. It would not take much loosing to make that nut back off. Anyway i have no proof that the neighbor did anything like that but they are crazy. I just feel that everything was right on departure and I can't explain what happend. I mean you would think with a the nut backing off, the trailer would moving all over the place traveling down the road. It did not I continually check the camera for issues with the tow. I didn't see it move until it poped off. As far as the negative comments I really don't take them as such. I think this kind of talk is helpful for anyone who reads this. Accidents can happen to anyone awarness and preventive measures reduce the chance of occurance. This post is a form of awarness. I have towed a boat,car dolly, utility trailer with motorcycle for many years without issue. this time it caught up with me. Thank you all for your comments