Coupler repair/replacement

JRscooby wrote:

ls1mike wrote:

It does not look like I can remove the guts. I see no fastener. My complete life is based off submarine maintenance. So I am pretty good at keeping up with it. It is also parked inside. I think the spring is broke but I can't tell.

Gdetrailer wrote:


Sounds more like a typical cheap coupler choice from the frame manufacturer to me rather than accusing the owner of neglect and abuse..

Not ALL couplers are of good quality and/or construction.

Not ALL couplers can be torn apart and repaired or adjusted.

Not ALL couplers will live 50 yrs or more..

One must set expectations a lot lower now days as there is a lot of cheap couplers on the market compared to 20, 30, 50 yrs ago..

OP may have simply run into one of those cheap couplers and the fix most likely is to have the old one cut off and a new one of better quality welded in place.

Was it born in 1 piece? I would bet that somebody, somewhere has put it together. Now I can see it might be hard to take apart, because we don't want it to come apart in use. But if it was mine, and it did not work, I would put my back on the ground figure out why. Then I would try to fix it. After all, your working on a dead animal

As far as I can tell it is a Curt style 25200 and the assembly is inserted into the tongue then welded on.
According to Keystone and Curt their is no repair kit and the coupler must be removed and replaced. It is not the best design on the planet.
I found a Keystone forum, it would seem I am not only one who has had the problem, couple of folks with 2017's or better have the same issue.

I will mess with it some this weekend, but I cleaned it up and I can see the spring is broken. It still latches fine. It just does not have the spring action. They tell me that is not an issue, but lots of underways on submarines have given me a bit of the OCD and it will drive me crazy.