Bent Trailer Hitch Ball

[jjlhampton]

Made the jump from hybrid trailer to a Jayco 267BH in May and have had it out about 14 days. Towing with a 2012 Ford F-150 with the max towing package so I haven't been concerned with being too heavy. This last weekend as I was getting ready to hook up to head home I noticed that hitch ball was bent. Not only did the ball shaft appear bent but the area around where it attached to the hitch also appeared to be bent. I didn't notice it when heading out and didn't back into anything. The hitch and ball setup is between 5-7 years old. Any insight on what you think may have occured would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking at getting the truck and trailer into Camping World to see if I did something incorrectly or if they notice an issue.

[RinconVTR]

Hannibal wrote:
Reese and Drawtite are the same. Manufactured by Cequent.

http://www.cequentgroup.com/Brand/All/

Same parent company...not the same product.

[EstorilM]

Hannibal wrote:
Reese and Drawtite are the same. Manufactured by Cequent.

http://www.cequentgroup.com/Brand/All/

True, but they aren't distributed the same way. I can buy every cheapo reese class III hitch from walmart to advance autoparts all day long. Those are the ones I had QC issues with (the welded / poorly painted 5000/500lb ones)

Just an observation that the solid forged class IV I found online was a nice draw-tite unit.

[Hannibal]

Reese and Drawtite are the same. Manufactured by Cequent.

http://www.cequentgroup.com/Brand/All/

[EstorilM]

Scary stuff - when I got my first horse trailer (for my first horse - though I've been riding for ~20yr) it adds an entirely different dimension to tow safety.

It's a pretty light ~3200lb aluminum Featherlight 2h Xwide Xtall w/ changing room. Technically I could use those 5500lb uhaul and reese hitches you can buy locally, but I wanted something OVER the max of my tow vehicle so I'd never have to think about it again. I pulled in behind my gf one day in the driveway and noticed her reese draw bar / ball were "bent" - turns out the welds were off, the thing was made crooked! You'd think that would be an easy jig to make?

Anyways I got the draw-tite 16,000lb forged one-piece drawbar and a 12,000 ball.

Honestly the funny thing is, I probably only paid $75 for both on amazon.

Best peace of mind ever, and they (better) last me for the rest of my life!

[RinconVTR]

deltabravo wrote:

stevemorris wrote:
second those equalizer bars look kinda light too, and the safety chains are too small

Ditto on the bars being way too tight.

It's not how they look, its how they transfer weight. Those are not square bars, they are round and will visually bend more.

That said, that is a tell-tale sign the bars are UNDERWEIGHT. (Precisely what I have previously stated)

Too little bar for a lot of tongue weight, to get the required weight transfer, the bars look like that!

[mobeewan]

mrw8i wrote:
Wow. This is the 2nd time I've seen where CW allowed someone tow a trailer out of their parking lot in an unsafe condition. Same thing on both 2" ball. The 1st time I saw it was a neighbor of mine. Not even a WD hitch in that case. I was going for a walk and he and another neighbor were staring at the truck/trailer combination hooked up and wondering what they could do to level the trailer and truck - it was a significant "V" shape with the rear of the trailer very high and the front of the truck very high. He had just got back from his first 200 mile camping trip. It was so bad, he was loading the rear of the trailer with weight. He was talking about air bags - I informed of WD hitches. I had a used (two year old) WD hitch I was no longer using with 1200 and 1000 lb bars. I sold him the setup - same as the OP, with the 100 lb bars then helped him install it. That's when I found he had a 2" ball.

I spent the afternoon helping him setup the WD hitch. Had him test drive it. Talked about weight distribution in the trailer, safe speed, swaying, level of trailer, etc. How full tanks could change the dynamics, as you use water it moves from the water tank to the gray/black tanks - possibly upsetting the weights in the trailer. By the end of the afternoon he was happy with how much better it drove.

Not just Camping World. The idiot who set up my WD didn't tighten the nut on the hitch ball. When I unhitch the trailer at home I saw the ball wiggle. Drove right back to the dealership after that and had them check every nut on the hitch.

[mobeewan]

I would have somebody look at the couple just to make sure there's no damage to it or the coupler latch due to slamming back and forth against the undersized hitch ball.

[RPreeb]

Just plain fortunate that the OP noticed that something didn't look right. My TT is 1500 lbs lighter than his, and it uses a 2-5/16 ball. I have the Husky Centerline TS with 800-1000 bars. Easy to hitch and unhitch, connects my Jay Feather X213 to my F-150 quite nicely.

[deltabravo]

stevemorris wrote:
second those equalizer bars look kinda light too, and the safety chains are too small

Ditto on the bars being way too tight.

[napadan]

I use a Blue Ox Sway Pro, and I like it. Easy to hitch up. Nice ride and tow.

[Community Alumni]

Ralph Cramden wrote:

proxim2020 wrote:
I would definitely look into a more heavy duty hitch. I would load up the trailer and run it across a scale to see exactly how heavy it is. Chances are you're already at or over capacity of your current hitch since it appears to be slightly bent. A safe bet would be to calculate your tongue weight at GVWR of the trailer and purchase a hitch that has at least that capacity. This would be the heaviest tongue weight the hitch would ever carry. Look at what's stamped on the coupler, but chances are you should be using a 2 5/16 ball.

The hitch he has is rated for up to a 10K lb trailer. The 800 lb bars he has (which is all that saved him a ton of grief by holding the entire mess together) may, or may not be heavy enough, but as in my earlier post 1000lb bars for that model Curt hitch are only $130 or less. The 2" ball let loose, and the head flange bent as well, because the trailer was banging back and forth into it. I would bet more than the farm his trailer has a 2-5/16" coupler. Probably good he had the Curt as the head is plate steel. If it would of been cast like the Reese it may have cracked right in half at the ball.

Why does he need a more heavy duty hitch? Nothing wrong at all with a conventional round bar WDH. There are literally millions of them in use.

The specs online said the hitch had a 800 lbs tongue capacity. I took that to mean well that the hitch had a 800 lbs tongue capacity. The picture of the OPs label makes more sense.

[dodge_guy]

Glad you got it all figured out. Ide go with a Reese Dual Cam system in an 800 lb rating. That will be more than enough for your current trailer.

[Airstreamer67]

Sizing weight transfer bars too high can damage the vehicles and create harsh rides.

My 27-foot trailer has a sticker on it warning against bars heavier than 1000 pounds. It has a 900 pound hitch weight and I use 800 pound bars. Perfect for me.

Some trailers have been damaged by bars too heavy, with cracked frames, popped rivets and wrinkled bodies not to mention the buck-wagon ride.

I've been told that most properly sized weight transfer bars are designed to be used with the "bend" in them. This provides a spring action that is good for the ride.

Yep, too much medicine is not what the doctor ordered.

About the ball size: this is the most elementary mistake that can be made. Where are the "professionals" getting such "help?"

[mrw8i]

Wow. This is the 2nd time I've seen where CW allowed someone tow a trailer out of their parking lot in an unsafe condition. Same thing on both 2" ball. The 1st time I saw it was a neighbor of mine. Not even a WD hitch in that case. I was going for a walk and he and another neighbor were staring at the truck/trailer combination hooked up and wondering what they could do to level the trailer and truck - it was a significant "V" shape with the rear of the trailer very high and the front of the truck very high. He had just got back from his first 200 mile camping trip. It was so bad, he was loading the rear of the trailer with weight. He was talking about air bags - I informed of WD hitches. I had a used (two year old) WD hitch I was no longer using with 1200 and 1000 lb bars. I sold him the setup - same as the OP, with the 100 lb bars then helped him install it. That's when I found he had a 2" ball.

I spent the afternoon helping him setup the WD hitch. Had him test drive it. Talked about weight distribution in the trailer, safe speed, swaying, level of trailer, etc. How full tanks could change the dynamics, as you use water it moves from the water tank to the gray/black tanks - possibly upsetting the weights in the trailer. By the end of the afternoon he was happy with how much better it drove.