Check your tow hitches

[gzecc]

I bought a class 3 hitch about 7 yrs ago for my xterra to pull my flatbed trailer and my enclosed 6x10.
I noticed a new squeek and a different angle to my hitch last time I pulled into my driveway.
It is pulling a part.
I am quite surprised. I think I am pretty conservative with my loads. Could have been a disaster.
Don't assume its ok. Check them occasionally.

 

[bogydave]

Lucky you found that
Could have been ugly!

 

[StihlHead]

My class 3+ receiver bolts to my rear frame along beams, so that kind of break cannot happen.

But geez Louise. Not good.

 

[gzecc]

My class 3+ receiver bolts to my rear frame along beams, so that kind of break cannot happen.

But geez Louise. Not good.

This one bolts to the frame also along the beams.

 

[Jack Straw]

Too funny, there is an ad for hitches above your post.

 

[StihlHead]

This one bolts to the frame also along the beams.

No, what I mean is that my receiver has beams on either side that are bolted to the frame in 3 places (along 3 feet of frame). The hitch is larger/stronger than the frame.

 

[ScotO]

I don't like those tube-type receivers......because of that very reason. The mounting tabs, IMO, are way insufficient to be pulling any kind of big load......

My receiver is like Stihlheads.....two brackets with three 1/2" bolts each, the cross tube (heavy rectangular tubing) slides into each one of the brackets and is bolted in place with (4) 3/8" bolts. One of my bigger fears when hauling a big load of logs to my buddy's mill is that hitch failing. I don't EVER want that to happen, so I made certain I had a good receiver.....

Thank God you caught that failure....that could have been catastrophic.

 

[MasterMech]

Big bad hitches are fun and all but we're talking class 3 hitches (not class 5) and mid-size SUV.

Good catch BTW!

 

[Highbeam]

I chucked the factory ford hitch and bought a new curt super heavy duty hitch with none of those WDH requirements. I was very impressed with the curt quality.

Do you have a corrosion problem in your location? With so much salt and metal disintergration you folks always have to be ready for the dang things to fall apart on you. If not the hitch then perhaps your main frame would fold up.

 

[TMonter]

Makes me love the PNW and our lack of salts most places even more.

 

[StihlHead]

Big bad hitches are fun and all but we're talking class 3 hitches (not class 5) and mid-size SUV.

Good catch BTW!

Mine is a class 3 hitch, and fits the Sequoia SUV as well as the Tundra PU, though it is designed like a bigger badder class IV & V, and is built like Scotty's description.

I looked at a lot of receivers out there, and got a Surepull. The frame is likely to come apart on my truck before my hitch system does. Actually Tundra has a recall for frame rust, but that is only a problem where they salt the roads and the frames are rotting out. No salt on the roads in Oregon, except a small section southeast of K-Falls. Last time I was in Boston I was amazed at how many newer cars were completely rusted out.

 

[Highbeam]

On the wet side of WA, the politicians have decided to salt the bajeepers out of our roads in the last few years. It is looked at as a liability issue. If one person slides off the road on a patch of ice and asks, "where's the salt?" then the road department is responsible for the wreck. AKART, all known and reasonable technology must be applied.

They use vast quantities of liquid deicer (salt) here anytime the temps are expected to dip below freezing. It is ruining our wheel finishes, and wheel well rust has begun to pop up.

 

[ScotO]

On the wet side of WA, the politicians have decided to salt the bajeepers out of our roads in the last few years. It is looked at as a liability issue. If one person slides off the road on a patch of ice and asks, "where's the salt?" then the road department is responsible for the wreck. AKART, all known and reasonable technology must be applied.

They use vast quantities of liquid deicer (salt) here anytime the temps are expected to dip below freezing. It is ruining our wheel finishes, and wheel well rust has begun to pop up.

It's been ruining our cars for decades out this way. One flake of snow, one drop of freezing rain, out come the salt trucks...

If you own a car that you want to keep clean and rust-free, you don't dare drive it in the winter around here. One or two winters and the undercarriage has rust issues....

 

[Ashful]

They wait for the snow in central PA? Around here, they start salting the day before, if there's a 20% chance of snow in the forecast. They like to spray brine now, which actually works quite well, but it's over-used in almost all cases. Causes far more damage than it prevents, IMO.

 

[ScotO]

They wait for the snow in central PA? Around here, they start salting the day before, if there's a 20% chance of snow in the forecast. They like to spray brine now, which actually works quite well, but it's over-used in almost all cases. Causes far more damage than it prevents, IMO.

recently they have started the pre-emptive method of deicing around here as well, Joful.......

Or in the case of my street, which is an overlooked dead-end that gets forgotten about when the township is doing maintenance, they sometimes come with the plows and salt trucks almost a week after the storm!!

 

[StihlHead]

On the wet side of WA, the politicians have decided to salt the bajeepers out of our roads in the last few years. It is looked at as a liability issue. If one person slides off the road on a patch of ice and asks, "where's the salt?" then the road department is responsible for the wreck. AKART, all known and reasonable technology must be applied.

They use vast quantities of liquid deicer (salt) here anytime the temps are expected to dip below freezing. It is ruining our wheel finishes, and wheel well rust has begun to pop up.

Yah, liability issues with a little liquid applied on the palms of the politicians by the auto industry.