You want to avoid this....Broken hitch!!!
 

We drug the boat down to Long Beach last weekend for the SCOPE poker run. When we got back I was cleaning the truck and saw the hitch looked a little slanted. I checked under the truck and saw this!!!!!:eek:

Thank GOOOOOOD it didn't come completely off while towing. I checked with our local trailer place and to slap a new hitch on it'll be 4 hundred. Not bad, but sh!t, I don't want to shell out 4 hundo for something I don't (or didn't) need!:rolleyes:

My wife (god love her) said, "hey, call the hitch manufacturer and see if they'll cover it" due to her structural steel background and noticing the mounting points looked weak. I was like, yea right! they're going to tell me to pound sand. Hitch is at least 2 years old and there's nothing saying I didn't violate the load rating except my word.

Spoke to them (putnam hitches) and they were SUPER cool (so far) guy said they've updated their hitches to guseted hitches instead of bent steal (exactly what my wife was talking about) due to past failures. Guy helping me said, I would get a call back to confirm they'll send me a new hitch but he was locating the hitch closest to me to send to me. So, knock on wood, so far so good. We'll see.

It's nice having a wife thats smarter than me SOMETIMES:D:D

I figured, upgraded class V hitch 15k carrying 16k dist weight and 1700 tongue weight. 1 ton GMC dually crew cab 4 wheel drive. You'd think I was well covered! NOT!:rolleyes:

Let this be a lesson to all of you....GO CHECK YOUR HITCHES!!!

Good catch!

On a side note, my Rover's hitch is actually part of the frame.

you're a lucky man....

Tank,
I had a ball snap on me once and dropped the trailer w/ boat (29 Kryptonite) at 55 mph. The scariest 30 seconds of my life. The safety chains held and I collected the tongue of the traier under the rear axle of the truck and limped to the shoulder. I probably would have lost it if I didn't have a 3500 dually! When I looked at the hitch all that was left was the stud. There must have been a defect in the ball itself. Only minor damage to the trailer, the boat and truck were fine.

WOW, very lucky! I have the newer gusseted hitch, and they are stronger unit than what you have there. While you are replacing, I would go with all new Grade-8 bolts and associated hardware as well. The WD hitch was not a savior for your case, but it probably would have been a lot worse had you not been using such a setup.

Wow ! You ever hit anything or been hit from the rear ?
Looks like from the rust in the separation that it's not brand new . Definitely a good idea to keep checking .
When I tow my Top Gun it never seems like the hitch is working too hard . But an impact could do damage .
Good Luck Paul

Damn, that's scary!

the breaks are rusty......looks like its been like that for awhile:eek:

Might have been the cheap hitch Tim bought for it. :violent-smiley-045:

Tank next time bring in the professionals. you write the tickets and I'll tow the boats

i was towing a bobcat with all the implements(9000lbs) in a brand new dump truck with factory hitch through the saddle bunch keys (about 12 miles north of key west ) and it got to feeling funny,pulled over and all the welds were broken except fo a one inch weave,this was above the safety chain hooks, i had dreams of the bobcat passing me on the road(hey, that looks like ours)