A cautionary hitch?

[stan_deezy]

I was aksed to look over a trailer and do a "nuts and bolts" check......<br /><br />Trailer is ten years old, mild steel box construction. Poor design due to no drainage holes in it, no jockey wheel and allowed to sit down at the bow always.<br /><br />I thought the hitch didn't seem to be sitting quite right and this is what I found.......

<br /><br /><br />I've photographed the hitch with a bolt of similar size sitting beside it for comparasion.<br /><br />One bolt had already sheared off the other snapped with no effort the minute the socket wrench was put on it <br /><br />When was the last time you checked your hitch bolts?

 

[JB]

Re: A cautionary hitch?

 

[Triton II]

Re: A cautionary hitch?

Whoa! Goes to show you NEED a safety chain!

 

[monoshock]

Re: A cautionary hitch?

Dang!!

 

[Braxton]

Re: A cautionary hitch?

well i know what im doing today after lawn work. thanks for the reminder!!

 

[ALAG3]

Re: A cautionary hitch?

I found a similar problem on my trailer where the left and right rails meet the tongue rail. There is a single bolt there that looked mildly rusted so I decided to change it. It snapped off pretty easily and what I found was that the shaft of the bolt, which was inside the tongue rail and out of view, was really rusty...glad I changed it!

 

[Realgun]

Re: A cautionary hitch?

Mine was rusty and I changed the whole hitch and bolts.

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: A cautionary hitch?

Thanks for the responses guys: it did shock me when I saw this. A lot of it came down to the fact that the design was very poor; there was no drainage in the trailer and no flushing facility either. The construction used box section which had been welded shut at both ends. The only holes in the trailer were in the spine to drop the keel rollers through (about 1 and a half inch dia) and that is obviously where the salt water had filled the box section.<br />Also discovered that the bearing buddies had been used wrongly: grease pumped in until resistance was felt: both rear seals were confetti <br />One nine inch angle grinder has solved the problem: that trailer is never going to be a near road again, apart from being taken to the dump in bits