Ridecamp: [RC] Nick Warhol- Very scary story, please go check your hitch!

nick Warhol nickw@xxxxxxxxx
Hi everyone- I have a very scary story to relate that happened to a friend
of mine a week ago or so.  She has a 1993 Ford F-250 truck she bought a few
years ago that came with a standard class three, Drawtite hitch, bolted on.
She tows a Logan two horse slant-load trailer that she likes very much, and
uses several times a month.  When she got the new trailer, she took the
truck and trailer to a U-haul place to have it wired up and inspected.  They
got her all set up with a plug, electric brakes and an overall safety
inspection.  She has towed without incident for about three years now, until
recently.  She loaded up her two horses and took them over to the Sunol
regional Park, one of the jewels of trail riding in the Bay Area.  After a
15 mile freeway drive from her barn to the park, she drove the 3 miles of
windy road that leads into the staging area.  She stopped at the kiosk to
pay the ranger his parking fees, then started down the little road to the
parking area.  About a hundred feet from the kiosk, at about 10 miles per
hour, the whole right side of the hitch came loose and went crashing to the
pavement!  There are usually six bolts that hold the hitch to the frame of
the truck, all but one, on one side, had either broken or had come loose.
Needless to say the whole rig came to a sudden and quite violent stop.  She
jumped out and found the horses were fine, they just got bounced around a
little.  They unloaded the horses and after dragging everything off the
road, they went for a ride before getting everything towed home.  Good for
them.

The thing that she can't quit thinking about, is what if that had happened
at 65 miles an hour on the freeway, or right at the apex of one of those
sharp turns on the drive in with a hundred foot cliff, or on the steep hill
leading up to her barn. Who would ever think that the hitch would come off
the truck, I mean completely off?  She could have had the worst experience I
could ever imagine, yet escaped with a ruined hitch and a severe case of
jitters.

I happened to have a spare class three hitch from when I upgraded my truck
to a class five, so I installed it for her with a few modifications.  I
drilled out the small bolt holes and used oversized Grade 8 hardened bolts,
lock washers, and red locktite on all the threads.  The red stuff is the
permanent thread sealer, designed to be used where you don't ever want to
remove the bolt.   The blue locktite is for securing bolts you want to be
able to remove in the future.

I also got some validation to the thing I learned the hard way once a long
time ago- hook your electric brake breakaway wire to the bumper of your
truck, not to the hitch.  If the hitch had come off on the freeway, the
breakaway wire would have not done anything, since it was clipped to the
hitch itself.  Most hitches have a nice little spot to clip the wire to-
don't use it.  In this case the safety chains would have not done a thing
either, since they were hooked to the hitch.

The action item we need to take from this close call is for everyone to go
out and look at those bolts that hold your hitch on. Yes- even the people
who use the fifth wheel hitches, bolts hold those on as well.  I have to
admit that I have never inspected my hitch bolts, but I sure did last week,
and know what?  They were tight.   I hope yours are too.

Nick Warhol
Hayward, Ca.


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