Please remove your hitch

[bedell]

Yesterday my wife hurt her knee on a hitch on the back of someone's pickup in a parking lot. I don't know if it was a TT owner's truck but the lesson was clear. We need to be considerate and remove the hitch after we are done towing.

[Dog_Folks]

dewey02 wrote:

ROBERTSUNRUS wrote:
🙂 Hi, two more points.

If you must leave the hitch in your receiver, maybe you could paint it fluorescent orange so people could more easily see it. Or put a red cone on it.

And when the hitch becomes too heavy for me to remove it, and re-install it, maybe it's time to stop towing. Might be time to turn in your license and stop driving altogether.

What an arrogant comment!
I suppose no disabled person should be allowed to drive, since they might not be able to remove a hitch?

X 100 I am one of those disabled full time RV'ers that cannot remove my hitch any longer.

May be if removing the hitch for those that can't watch where they are walking, is so important then ROBERTSUNRUS could follow me from campground to campground, and take it off and put in on for me?

My hitch has never been off in almost 9 years of full time travel.

It has been walked into only once, by a young lady on a cell phone.

Not a large danger to the average person. Enough said.

[TomG2]

dave54 wrote:
I leave it in if I will be unhooked only one night. Otherwise I remove it. Not for any safety reasons -- I figure that is another 40 pounds or so my truck does not need to be carrying. Yes, I have bumped into it a few times. For some reason I never blamed the hitched.

If I walk into mine a dozen times, it will not hurt as bad as if I injure someone else.

[dave54]

I leave it in if I will be unhooked only one night. Otherwise I remove it. Not for any safety reasons -- I figure that is another 40 pounds or so my truck does not need to be carrying. Yes, I have bumped into it a few times. For some reason I never blamed the hitched.

[coolbreeze01]

I remove the hitch because I got tired of washing my blood off.

[dewey02]

ROBERTSUNRUS wrote:
🙂 Hi, two more points.

If you must leave the hitch in your receiver, maybe you could paint it fluorescent orange so people could more easily see it. Or put a red cone on it.

And when the hitch becomes too heavy for me to remove it, and re-install it, maybe it's time to stop towing. Might be time to turn in your license and stop driving altogether.

What an arrogant comment!
I suppose no disabled person should be allowed to drive, since they might not be able to remove a hitch?

[TomG2]

If the old folks find it too difficult to remove a hitch, how do they handle the other chores when RVing? I hope it is someone else's granddaughter who visits the emergency room for stitches and not mine. I understand those who have a big fear of some little Honda destroying the rear end of their pickup, but I am not one of them.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

🙂 Hi, two more points.

If you must leave the hitch in your receiver, maybe you could paint it fluorescent orange so people could more easily see it. Or put a red cone on it.

And when the hitch becomes too heavy for me to remove it, and re-install it, maybe it's time to stop towing. Might be time to turn in your license and stop driving altogether.

[GMandJM]

I'm sorry to hear your wife was injured.

Those hitches can be a pain to remove since they are so heavy. And then there's the issue of where to store them while they're off. They can't generally be stored on the TT since they're so heavy -unless one has a jack or stand to hold it up. And you might have to worry about it "walking away" from your campsite, as well.

That said, after running into our own TT hitch a time or two and getting ball grease all over me, I did cover the it with a plastic Target bag. Maybe that would cause someone to see it more readily and not run into it. Worked for me, anyway.

-J-half

[toedtoes]

I don't have a hitch.

I would never think to blame the owner of a parked truck for walking into their hitch, anymore than I would blame them for my walking into their side view mirrors, bike racks, storage racks, winch, lowered tailgates, etc. It is my own personal responsibility to watch where I am going.

If I am walking around a parked vehicle in tight quarters, it is MY responsibility to make sure I don't run into it. When the vehicle is in motion, it is the driver's responsibility to make sure they don't ram the hitch into a stationary object.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

dodge guy wrote:
For those that like to leave it in place......you do know that with the thinking of "it will protect me if anyone rear ends me" is ridiculous! I work in a body shop and have seen frames damaged because the hitch acts as a lever and makes it very easy to fold a frame down when rear ended! many of them were totaled because it costs too much to replace a frame.

I remove mine whenever it`s not being used. it protects it from the elements, and it keeps me or anyone else from running into it with their shin! plus it reduces potential damage to my truck in case of an accident. and it won`t rust in place!

And yes sometimes it`s necessary to walk close to some ones truck, so don`t get upset when you are told it is unnecessary to leave it in place!

🙂 Hi, I have worked at new car dealers since 1968 and I have posted this on several forums, but people still don't want to believe me. I, too, have seen several vehicles that were rear ended with the hitch still in the receiver and it bent the frame down. For sure, this is not what anyone would want to happen to their tow vehicle especially when camping / traveling three states away from home. Also when walking on a sidewalk, or in a store parking lot, you don't expect to see a hitch sticking out about a foot behind someone's truck.

[The_Texan]

What ever happened to "personal responsibility" instead of trying to place the blame on someone else? Have I walked into someone's hitch? You darn right I have and did I run tell them that they were to blame, NO I knew who was at fault and cussed him out. Suck it up and put the blame where it lies, NOT on everyone else.

[ScottG]

2oldman wrote:

rbpru wrote:
I know from experience that my hitch is not afraid of me.

Yah, I still have scars from walking into my insert.

Plus I've lost track of how many jeans I've ruined with grease (and blood) getting on them from smacking into the hitch. And then there's the theft factor. Imagine how bad it would be to have someone swipe it during a trip.
I always take it out.

[2oldman]

rbpru wrote:
I know from experience that my hitch is not afraid of me.

Yah, I still have scars from walking into my insert.

[GWolfe]

I remove mine because I had one stolen at a campground once, I also don't like the way they look. Mine is a non WDH so it isn't too heavy to deal with.

If someone rear ends me without the hitch in their insurance will buy me a new bumper. If someone rear ends me with the hitch in I will worry about the stress put on the hitch/frame and the unseen damage that may occur.

But to each is own, if you want to leave your hitch in thats your choice, after banging my shin on several over the years I just pay attention to where I'm walking.

[dewey02]

Would it be nice and considerate for people to remove their hitch? Yes.
Is the vehicles owner in the wrong here? No.
I am sorry she ran into it, but it the DW's fault.

And for the posters who were chastising the vehicle owner for the me first and the it's all about me attitude, I'd say that applies even more to the DW's situation. Instead of putting the blame where it rightly belongs, it must be someone else that caused all their problems.