Trailer Hitch Failure

[Tom Bender]

Anyone have a hitch let go and catch on the safety chains?

How did that go?

[John K Jordan]

Anyone have a hitch let go and catch on the safety chains?

How did that go?

Just curious, what was the reason for the failure? Did the coupler on the trailer break, the catch come lose, failure of the hitch at the vehicle? Did something bounce loose on a bumpy road?

I haul trailers a lot - this week I pulled one 1000 miles to pick up some equipment. I would like to learn from this.

I use locks on the coupler and receiver and usually an extra steel cable. My big trailers all have electric breaks with battery-operated breakaway boxes that can prevent some disasters when pulling heavy loads.
Not much scarier than a trailer failure with a load. Last summer I had one of the four tires blow out when hauling 150 bales of hay, on the interstate at the worst possible place to get off the road. Took me hours to fix it and get moving again. I bought all new tires the next day.

JKJ

[David Lageman]

I can share what happens when the driver doesn't bother to attach the safety chains...lol. Just a few months ago I was sitting at a four way intersection when a guy pulling a 40+ foot center-console went to make a right turn and the trailer and boat decided it wanted to go straight. Luckily it had started to turn before coming loose and skid right across the intersection missing me by mere inches. Talk about a helpless feeling as there was a car to my right and I had no where to go except jumping aboard. Turns out it was a brand new boat the guy had picked up after a potential client had taken it for a test drive. He was just going around the block and didn't bother to fasten the safety chains. Apparently he didn't bother to affix the hitch either!!!

[George Yetka]

Make sure you dont drag those chains or when the ball pops they dont work so well. The Worst I did was leave the Jack down. The first speed bump let me know.

I do know a guy whos boat passed him on a down hill. He said it was pretty surprising seeing a boat that looks just like yours with no one towing it pass you

[Brian Elfert]

I forgot to latch the coupler on my trailer and went down the freeway about 20 miles that way. The coupler came off when I was exiting the freeway. The chains kept it behind me. The tongue went under my vehicle (no damage) when I stopped at the top of the ramp. I knew something happened and I got out and was able to get the trailer reconnected.

[Ole Anderson]

My dad borrowed my van to tow his boat, probably about 1980. He must not have secured the ball on the hitch properly. While crossing the drawbridge in Manistee he hit a bump and the hitch came off the ball. Saved by the safety chains. Plus I had fabbed a step below the receiver made from 4" channel. As he braked the winch support hit the step leaving a long lasting dent.

[Matt Day]

Curious why you’re asking?

[Lee Schierer]

Anyone have a hitch let go and catch on the safety chains?

How did that go?

Assuming the chains are crossed and not too long, the trailer hitch is supposed to land in the Vee between the chains and prevent the hitch from hitting the ground. The brake safety cable is supposed to pull the brake pin and set the brakes on the trailer, while the driver slows to a stop without using the vehicle brakes while pulling to the side of the road. You see a lot of trailers that are not hooked up correctly with either no chains, chains that are too long, or not crossed.

Chains do work as evidenced below.
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[Tom Bender]

Like John, I pull a trailer sometimes and want to learn from others' incidents.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Like John, I pull a trailer sometimes and want to learn from others' incidents.


I have a simple rule. The DRIVER HITCHES the trailer! This way if there is a problem, no matter what, it's the driver's fault! No pinning the blame on someone else. Always add a latch pin or lock to coupler bail.

[Dave Zellers]

I have a simple rule. The DRIVER HITCHES the trailer! This way if there is a problem, no matter what, it's the driver's fault! No pinning the blame on someone else. Always add a latch pin or lock to coupler bail.

A classic rule for life. Or at least trailers! I'm going with both. :D

[Bill Dufour]

Rented a uhaul trailer recently. They hooked it up and took pictures to verify correctness in case of accident. used serial numbered zip ties to prevent me from unhitching and rehitching.
I saw a picture. Hook chains to the hitch bar on the vehicle. not the ones welded to the bar that holds the ball. The ball mount weld snapped off the bar. chains were attached to the removable ball mount portion and stayed with that half.
Bill D

[Warren Lake]

have a reese heavy duty adjustable and load equalizers. Never tow without that even on single wheel trailers the equalizers still on. No issues in forever. 92 wallywagon most of the time tow vehicle.

Driving to LA once drove past a nice pickup and house trailer. Windy day driving was annoying. Stopped to get some stuff., Back on the road came up the pickup, it was upside down flat to the hood, air bags out the windows. House trailer was on its side off the side of the road steep and down. I guess the wind flipped the house trailer and that flipped the pickup. No sign of humans, worst towing accident ive ever seen.

have the ones for side to side sway as well but havent tried them so far. Never had a thing come loose dont see how it would be possible, crossed chains below it as well with locking ends.

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[Jason Roehl]

I once was jarred awake on my couch by an awful screeching sound. The living room window was about 20 feet from Main St. in the town where I lived. I peeked out the curtains to see a guy pulling a trailer loaded with a backhoe...by the chains. The jack was scraping along the ground. He got stopped safely, but as memory serves, he did not have the chains crossed.

I had my own experience with a trailer coming loose. I borrowed a large, tandem-axle flatbed to haul some stuff off a job. I pulled into the driveway across the street to get the trailer lined up with the driveway of my customer. The driveway into which I pulled had a very short, but somewhat steep section by the road. I heard a little thump, but didn’t think much of it. Then I started backing up, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t go anywhere—neither forward, nor backward. I get out to find that the thump was the hitch coming off the ball, and I had backed onto the tongue of the trailer, raising my rear (drive) wheels off the ground, with the trailer blocking the road. Luckily, the trailer was empty, so I jacked up the rear of the truck and shoved the trailer out from underneath manually (probably had help). Lesson learned to check the hitch...

[Jim Becker]

I have not had an incident where something I was towing came loose, but I'm also very anal about the process of attaching my trailer which includes reinstalling the lock once the ball is engaged and crossed safety chains that are the correct length. (many folks have chains that are too long and close to dragging and I've seen way too many people towing lately without even a simple locking pin to insure that the hitch can't get bounced open and release from the ball)

[Jerome Stanek]

I have had a hitch fail It was a Reese that the welds broke at the mounting pieces. Lucky I only had my small trailer on. Just made it to the job site when it let go. I was 500 miles from home and had to replace it without all my tools. Switched to a Valley hitch that was all I could get out there.

[Warren Lake]

Jim you lock it, I run a 1/4" bolt through, drilled a hole through it, wind the nut down then a piece of wire. Same on the load equalizers. Dont trust some of the trailer hitch place simpler to put on things.

[Kev Williams]

with all due respect to a lot of nice people here :) -- on a standard non-EQ hitch connection, simply crossing chains won't keep the trailer tongue from hitting the ground if the hitch/tongue connection fails. It's not possible. Why? Because one end of the chains are connected to the falling tongue! EQ hitches can keep the tongue up as long as the support bars hold. If the tongue is dragging the ground at speed, whether or not the chains are underneath won't matter much. What WILL keep the tongue off the ground is IF the brake cable applies the trailer brakes AND the driver doesn't apply the tow vehicle brakes very hard, if at all. And the only way the brake cable works in a disconnect situation, is if there's enough slack in the chains to allow the trailer to fall back far enough to tighten the brake cable. If the chains are too tight, no trailer brakes...

[John K Jordan]

...the only way the brake cable works in a disconnect situation, is if there's enough slack in the chains to allow the trailer to fall back far enough to tighten the brake cable. If the chains are too tight, no trailer brakes...

I don't understand - what kind of brake cable is this? All my big trailers (both gooseneck and tag-a-long) have a breakaway cable that pulls a pin out of a box causing a switch to apply the electric brakes, powered by a separate battery on the trailer. The breakaway cable can be just long enough to make the turns. Do some brakes function with mechanical brakes instead of electric brakes with an in-cab brake controller?

[Ronald Blue]

with all due respect to a lot of nice people here :) -- on a standard non-EQ hitch connection, simply crossing chains won't keep the trailer tongue from hitting the ground if the hitch/tongue connection fails. It's not possible. Why? Because one end of the chains are connected to the falling tongue! EQ hitches can keep the tongue up as long as the support bars hold. If the tongue is dragging the ground at speed, whether or not the chains are underneath won't matter much. What WILL keep the tongue off the ground is IF the brake cable applies the trailer brakes AND the driver doesn't apply the tow vehicle brakes very hard, if at all. And the only way the brake cable works in a disconnect situation, is if there's enough slack in the chains to allow the trailer to fall back far enough to tighten the brake cable. If the chains are too tight, no trailer brakes...

I'm glad I'm not the only one scratching their head trying to figure out how crossed chains would serve any purpose other than to possibly take up excess slack. I was prepared to hook my trailer up and see if I was missing something. Thank you for confirming my own thoughts.

John I agree that the break away cable will work if the length is correct. To long and it's probably of no use unless the chains fail or weren't hooked up. One of our company trailers came off because someone didn't lock the pintle hitch down. It stopped it with no damage. I don't know if the chains aided the situation or not.

[John K Jordan]

I'm glad I'm not the only one scratching their head trying to figure out how crossed chains would serve any purpose other than to possibly take up excess slack. I was prepared to hook my trailer up and see if I was missing something. Thank you for confirming my own thoughts...


I thought the reason for crossing chains was not to hold the trailer tongue off the ground in the event of an accidental disconnect but to allow turns with shorter chains in normal use, otherwise turning in one direction can tighten and put too much tension on the chain on the opposite side. The reason for shorter chains is to keep them off the ground but crossed chains can be placed on top of the trailer tongue instead, but at the risk of scratching paint or damaging wiring and such. Straight chains can also contribute to swaying in the event the trailer comes loose from the ball.

While on the subject of trailer chains I make sure to use hooks with latches. IÂ’ve seen too many trailers (some I bought) without hook latches. It might be unlikely but conceivable an unsecured hook could come loose in some extreme situation. Heavy duty replacement hooks are not expensive.

[Brian Elfert]

Crossed chains could potentially keep the tongue of a trailer with no brakes off the ground if still moving forward and the tow vehicle is not braking. My thinking is that the breakaway cable is only if the trailer is totally separated from the tow vehicle. I know when I tow a trailer with brakes the breakaway would not pull out if the chains got tight.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Make sure you dont drag those chains ...

Not sure if this has been mentioned (didn't read them all), but in addition to weakening them, out west at least, dragging chains is a fairly common cause of grass fires.

I was always taught to twist the chains to shorten them; enough that under typical driving-down-the-road-at-better-than-25mph-conditions they NEVER drag the pavement. The occasional driveway, dip, or speedbump does no harm.

Crossed. Not crossed. Brake cable. No brakes. All factor into the geometry of the hitch. Know your vehicle.

On a slightly related cautionary note:
Crew truck pulled into one of our job sites to hitch up a equipment trailer. They do the EXACT same thing dozens of times a day. Spotter got out, but was distracted momentarily. Helpful and eager young man hopped out and went to the rear of the truck to rotate the hitch to proper size ball. Driver backed over him - tragically fatal.

Trailer?? Use a spotter! Always.

[Ole Anderson]

IMO it depends on how long your chains are and how far apart they are attached to the trailer. If long chains originate from a common bolt, little value. but if they are fairly short crossed chains originating from either side of the trailer tongue, they are more likely to work as advertised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsw0-q4oo_4&ab_channel=BoatUS

[Lee Schierer]

Do some brakes function with mechanical brakes instead of electric brakes with an in-cab brake controller?

There are hydraulic surge brakes which are activated by the trailer pushing against the hitch when the tow vehicle slows down quickly.

[Jim Becker]

There are hydraulic surge brakes which are activated by the trailer pushing against the hitch when the tow vehicle slows down quickly.

Inertial/surge brakes are standard on UHaul trailers that have brakes as well as many boat trailers and Euro horse trailers, for example. (Required in Europe because they don't depend upon a connection to the tow vehicle that can fail, etc.) They can be pretty practical for utility trailers, etc., as they work well within their design. For heavy towing, electric brakes are a little more versatile because behavior can be changed on the fly to suit changing or unusual situations.

[Kev Williams]

I don't understand - what kind of brake cable is this? All my big trailers (both gooseneck and tag-a-long) have a breakaway cable that pulls a pin out of a box causing a switch to apply the electric brakes, powered by a separate battery on the trailer. The breakaway cable can be just long enough to make the turns. Do some brakes function with mechanical brakes instead of electric brakes with an in-cab brake controller?

John, your electric brakes are using something similar to this,
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in a breakaway situation the cable, which is attached to the TV same as the chains, will tighten and disconnect from the controller, and the controller then applies 12v power to the electric trailer brakes. For these Ebrakes to work, as you know, the trailer must have its own battery--

"Surge" brakes are another trailer braking system, which hydraulically activates the brakes just like a car or truck.
This is a surge brake hitch setup:
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Under the canopy is a typical hydraulic master cylinder to activate the brakes. This setup is 2 separate pieces, the main frame that's welded/bolted to the trailer tongue, and the hitch proper, which is hinged, and 'floats'... When the TV is under braking conditions, the trailer's kinetic energy pushes the hitch forward against the hitch ball, the floating hitch moves backward putting pressure on the master cylinder's plunger, which applies pressure to the trailer brakes. Very simple and works well! The brake cable's purpose on a surge unit is the same as with electric brakes, except rather than pulling a switch connection apart, this cable pulls on that lever it's connected to, which depresses the master cylinder plunger to apply the trailer brakes. The lever, depending on model, has one or more locking detents to lock the brakes on...

Both systems rely on correct cable and safety chain length! If the chains tighten up before the cable, there will be no emergency braking...

[John K Jordan]

J...
in a breakaway situation the cable, which is attached to the TV same as the chains, will tighten and disconnect from the controller, and the controller then applies 12v power to the electric trailer brakes. For these Ebrakes to work, as you know, the trailer must have its own battery--
...

Yes, the batteries are mounted on the trailers and are charged from the aux 12 line when the trailer is connected to the vehicle. Mine have a charge test button.

My neighbor had a travel trailer with surge brakes but I never even looked at it closely.

[Ronald Blue]

One drawback to surge brakes that might not be an issue if you never leave paved surfaces is that off the road when backing up the brakes try to apply if much resistance is encountered in the ground. Although backing uphill would give the same effect. This can be a problem and can end up getting you stuck. Even though if it's a drum style brake you will still have the brakes trying to apply. I researched it a little and it sounds like newer trailers have a lockout feature. Either mechanical or electric. The electrical is tied into backup lights which makes sense. IT also means you won't be using a 4 pin connector. That would be the best way because then you wouldn't forget to activate them again.

Whether they still do or not but fertilizer buggies used to have surge brakes for the benefit of the tow vehicle (usually a pickup) when being delivered to the farm loaded. Of course this is a little used method on the farm these days. Either floater trucks spread the fertilizer or they load the buggies at the field from a bulk delivery truck.

[Kev Williams]

Surge type DISK brakes usually have and definitely NEED a reverse lockout. Surge DRUM brakes however, because of their design have very little reverse-braking resistance...
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This is a RIGHT side surge brake shoe setup- unlike automotive drum brakes that apply pressure to both shoes, notice this wheel cylinder only presses on the FRONT shoe. Also notice the rear shoe's brake lining covers a much larger area of the shoe than the front does, and the front shoe's lining doesn't extend above the plunger very much if at all...When the plunger extends, the front shoe contacts the drum, which rotates the whole shoe assembly clockwise (on a right axle), which forces the rear shoe into the drum. When reversing, the pressure on the front shoe rotates the shoes CCW,which pulls the rear shoe away from the drum. With no pressure applied to the bottoms of the shoes and with little to no brake lining above the cylinder plunger, very few square inches of shoe are actually contacting the drum with significant force. There IS braking action when backing, but very minimal.

Disc brakes, which work like vice-grips against the rotor, they don't care which way the wheels rotate ;)

[Roger Feeley]

The crossed chains was new to me. Many thanks to all the smart creekers!

We had a travel trailer when I was a kid. We also had a nice utility trailer. My dad never crossed the chains. I’ve had little trailers over the years and never heard about crossed chains.

[Ronald Blue]

The bottom line with surge brakes is they are better than no brakes at all but not by much in my opinion. They make them with dual wheel cylinders as well. Probably heavier capacity trailers. The worst thing is they are useless if your on a hill facing upwards. A trailer can drag you down a hill backwards. DAMHIK

[Jason Roehl]

The bottom line with surge brakes is they are better than no brakes at all but not by much in my opinion. They make them with dual wheel cylinders as well. Probably heavier capacity trailers. The worst thing is they are useless if your on a hill facing upwards. A trailer can drag you down a hill backwards. DAMHIK

I had to do the opposite once—drag the trailer down the hill. We had rented a trailer-style man-lift, the kind with four outriggers, and no self-propulsion. It had surge brakes, and when I returned it, I had to drive down a fairly steep hill. Even with a 6000-lb, 3/4-ton truck, it would have held me on the hill, so I just had to give it some gas...

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

To answer the OP question, I have never had a hitch fail, but my wife is a member in very good standing of "The Church of the Horse"--i.e. she rides horses. Her Facebook feed is full of pictures of people who have had some type of issue when trailing a horse, especially with a bumper hitch. Often these are accidents, but occasionally some type of hitch failure will show up. About 3 weeks ago, one of her acquaintances had a weld fail on the the tongue and the trailer dropped when they were going down the express-way.

[Jim Becker]

Todd, having been a member of the "Church of the Horse" for quite a few years, I was really, really surprised at how many folks didn't really do proper maintenance on towing things as well as frequent opting for used stuff. Some folks were towing with truly ancient vehicles, too. But that was because the horse(s) ate the money I suppose...;)

[Ronald Blue]

Todd, having been a member of the "Church of the Horse" for quite a few years, I was really, really surprised at how many folks didn't really do proper maintenance on towing things as well as frequent opting for used stuff. Some folks were towing with truly ancient vehicles, too. But that was because the horse(s) ate the money I suppose...;)



And I thought they only burnt oats and hay.

[Jim Becker]

And I thought they only burnt oats and hay.
LOL!

Seriously, lots of hay (which is expensive these days)...not many get fed "oats" anymore, however. The grain is pelletized and in different formulas, depending on the age and other needs of the specific horse. That said, they "eat money" in so many ways, It's the healthcare/vet bills, insurance, the tack and equipment, the same for the riders, the truck, the trailer, the monthly board bill if one can't keep them on their own properties, etc. Oh and folks that show, spend boatloads of extra money on top of that. it makes our woodworking endeavors look darn inexpensive. LOL

[Rick Potter]

When my son was a teen, he took our boat water skiing with friends quite often. One time he forgot to snap down the lock on the hitch. The boat came unhitched a block later, when he slowed at the first turn at the end of our street. The boat stopped just fine, but used the truck tailgate to do so. He now owns a small trucking company.

We also had a nice 5th wheel travel trailer that had a very short cable for the brake emergency switch. Twice, I found out that the brakes worked very well, and locked up when it is triggered. Both times making a right turn off a busy street, and the cable caught on the 5th wheel hitch. Luckily, my F250 diesel had the power to drag the trailer with its locked brakes out of the road before an accident happened. Hard on the tires.

PS: On one pickup I had, the receiver framework was 2" square tubing, and the hitch would store in the end of the tubing under the truck, so it was always available if I needed it. I don't like to leave the hitch attached...too many scars on my legs from walking into it. I drilled a half inch hole in the side of the tubing and used the hitch pin to secure it. On the hitch pin, I like to drill the hole for the hairpin spring keeper out big enough that I can put a padlock on it rather than the keeper. Cheap anti theft setup.

[Bruce King]

GMC and Chevy 1500 truck hitches from several decades ago till possibly now have complaints and one death blamed on the factory hitch from the RV crowd. Not sure what happened about the lawsuit. What did they do about the 1500 hitches, Nothing. They reinforced the hitches on the 2500 trucks. We have a 2003 GMC that we used to tow an RV with. The first two things we did was replace the factory hitch and get an Equalizer weight distribution add on. Once you remove the factory 1500 hitch and hold it you will say, are you kidding me. Disclaimer: I don’t know when or if they ever put a decent hitch on the 1500. Post a picture of aft and underneath and I can tell. Some knowledgeable hitch guys volunteered to inspect hundreds of hitches at an RV rally once and found an alarming number with cracks.