Quote:
Originally Posted by Hhaywoodjr
I called Reese yesterday and explained my situation. They said if the king pin pulled out of the hitch it would cause major damage to the hitch and my trailer. I had neither. I took the truck and hitch to a local hitch doctor and he could find no problem with the hitch. He's believes it was high hitched. I did the pull test after hooking up in Tennessee. I don't understand how I could drive over 500 miles high hitched and only have a problem on my property. That could have ended very badly!!! Are there any illustrations out there of a high hitch situation? Very puzzling to me!!!
|
I drove trucks for around 45 years and hooked and unhooked multiple times each day, sometimes as many as 20 or 30 a day. I high hitched once early in my career and drove about 50 miles to my destination where I discovered it.
If you look at your hitch you will notice that the jaws are a half inch or better below the top plate. Even on a RV trailer you will have 2,3 or more thousand pounds of pin weight. It takes a major bump to cause that much weight to lift the front of your trailer off the hitch. A sharp incline or decline however, will cause your hitch head to rotate fore and aft allowing a high hitched pin to simply slip off. That is why the kingpin has a recessed area where the jaws wrap around it.
As mentioned previously, you always want to see your pinbox rise slightly when you slide your hitch under it. An half inch is plenty. Then ALWAYS DO A VISUAL INSPECTION to make sure the jaws are fully around the pin and the release lever is fully locked in the travel position. Bet you never high hitch again
PS. Saw multiple instances of dropped trailers where the driver blamed it on the hitch, however mechanics always found the hitch to be operating correctly. Truck put back into service with no further issues.