Wow,

I never knew posting a picture would have caused so much debate. Must be winter.

To elaborate futher on my post. For the towing of my personal boat, I only use a solid steel draw bar like the one below. I do have a 4" aluminum draw bar that I used with my old truck to tow my 20 footer and I feel it was more than adequate for that job. It was their old "wide body" design rated for 1200/12000 with a 1.25 shank. You have to match to tool to the job and I have always believed in overkill.

I was eyeing the adjustible set up for mainly lawn trailers and smaller boats around the boat yard that I tow for on occasion and it would keep me from having to keep a wide assortment of balls and drops in my bed box. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now back to the debate.

Gee, I wonder how much steel is in a Boeng 747 or a B52 or a f16? Maybe we all better stop flying because of all the aluminum.

That's ridiculous. I hope you're kidding.

There's nothing wrong with aluminum. It's great in fact.
However, the ultimate tensile strength of typical high strength aluminums is approximately 70,000 psi., and that's a fact. Don't load it past that stress level and you'll be okay.

The problem is that in the coupler I have analyzed and pictured a few posts back is undergoing nearly 120,000 psi stresses. You can do the math.

120,000psi is a typical mild steel's strength. Grade 8 bolts are 180,000 and steel super-alloys can have strengths as high as 300,000 psi.

There's a place for everything and everything has a place.

By the way, a typical 747 contains about 16% steel by weight, used In areas of concentrated loads where aluminum would be simply inadequate.

Nice!.....this place ain't boat freaks.....right scarab j?

Case in point. Please refer back to my other post where I stated they work fine for their intended purpose.

I too missed the part where we were towing dozers and heavy equipment with these things.

I think everyone is missing the functionality of the product in question for everyday use.

If one uses a half ton truck to tow a 16' flat bed trailer with a couple of four wheelers on it are they risking there own lives and everyone they come in contact with? I think not. Therefore why would it be an issue to tow a 5k trailer with an aluminum ball mount rated for 10k vs a steel ball mount rated for 10k? You're still within the limits of the product!!!!!



Buck

I have used the billet mount now for 5 years no problems, also the billet one piece mounts are rated for 15000lbs.

I guess I'm just getting too old and cranky for these conversations. It just seems to me that some of this stuff borders on silliness. Is it truly that important to have some billet-aluminum bobble back there in your receiver SOMETIMES when towing smaller trailers? Is it so unbelievably inconvenient to remove a cross pin- whether secured with a hitch pin or a locking one?

If you answered "yes" to those, have at it. More power to you.

Chris,

It's not about having a piece of shiny aluminum on the back of your truck. It's about having an adjustable ball mount with different balls on it for the convenience of it. And it just so happens that one of the products that offers this convenience is a shiny piece of aluminum. That's all.

I have multiple trailers of different sizes for different purposes. Some use a 2 5/16" ball, some use a 2" ball. Some are low to the ground, some sit high. I have ZERO desire to keep as many as four different ball mounts in my truck and or with each trailer to fit the ball and height of each trailer so I can tow it with my truck at a proper height. Why should I own multiple products when one will meet my needs. When you look at it like this, it's not as easy as removing a cross pin.

No reason to read anything else into it.

Buck

Something else to argue about.

Click to see animation.

I bought one of those...great idea..nothing more than flopping junk....towed a small ditch witch....all flopping around on the bumps.....forget it....Good for small stuff I agree...not a boat of any size....Buck...how much is that turd rated for....??