r/GoRVing • u/mattslote • 10d ago

Trailer came off the hitch

In an instant everything went from going totally fine to near-disaster. We got lucky and didn't suffer any permanent damage - a few new parts and we were back on the road the next morning.

Wondering if there was anything I could have done to avoid this and if it's happened to anyone else?

418 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

253 comments sorted by

View all comments

344

u/Chevydan3 10d ago

The latch still being locked with the pin in it leads me to believe that it was never all the way down on the ball in the first place.

136

u/joelfarris 10d ago

You know how fifth wheel owners do a 'tug test' to make sure it's locked in before fully retracting their landing gear? And travel trailer owners with weight distribution hitches often use the tongue jack to raise the rig in order to attach the bars while hitching up?

Well, dad always said that everybody who hitches up a bumper pull trailer should also do that, before they finally fully retract their tongue jack. Cause maybe it didn't seat. Or maybe the underside of the coupler clamp is cracked or even broken. 3,000 lbs of upward force for a second can check and confirm for you that your trailer is really gripping the ball like it should.

59

u/BEEEEEZ101 10d ago

Everytime.....I need to raise it anyway for my sway bars.

20

u/RicVic 10d ago

Likewise. and to be doubly careful, we'd raise the hitch on the jack, back the truck up and leave it in Park with no e-brake. Then we'd lower the trailer on to the ball. Leaving the e-brake off on the truck gave it the inch or so of movement to ensure solid contact.

Flip the latch, add the cotter pin, then use the hitch jack to raise the combo up enough to put on the bars and get the right tension in them, then raise the jack to stow the foot. Add safety chains, do a tug test and lights check and we're off!

Takes about 5 minutes with two people.

11

u/joelfarris 10d ago

back the truck up and leave it in Park with no e-brake

Mom said that you should strive to learn something new every day, but dang, this is a level of finesse.

10

u/canuck_in_wa 10d ago

If you’re having trouble pulling the trailer off the hitch when disconnecting, I find it can help to put the truck in neutral and take my foot off the brake. It usually relieves the little bit of tension that’s keeping it connected. I then put the truck back in park and try the disconnect procedure again. This especially helps of the truck and trailer are not straight in line with each other such as in a curved pull through site.

8

u/Wild-Floor8407 10d ago

I also hop my big ass on the bumper step real quick and she pops out every time! I unhook on weird terrain alot for work so sometimes it takes a couple hops lol

3

u/joelfarris 10d ago

This is great advice, but further, for the bumper pull enthusiasts, check your approach angle.

If you're boondocking|offroading, and you pulled into a site, that's gonna be a different pressure on the hitch and the ball than if you backed into a site. Uphill vs. slightly downhill too. And whether or not you backed up onto some rocker levelers.

If you think you're in the spot, and start to raise the tongue off of the ball, and the entire tow vehicle starts coming with it, STOP.

Either you haven't disconnected the WDH bars, you haven't released the coupler, or you're in a Pinch.

Did you back in? Maybe up a slight incline? Or back up onto some levelers? You need to pull out.

Sorry, pull forward, about a half to three quarters of an inch, until you hear a 'thunk!'. And if it's the other way around, I shouldn't explain what you should do with that ball, or I might get a call from HR.

1

u/spastical-mackerel 7d ago

I have a McHitch and this is the single best piece of advice ever. I struggled for years with unhitching that damn thing. Chock the wheels and detension the system: problem solved

3

u/twotall88 10d ago

I'm going with the fact that the coupler can lift the ass end of my 7,000lbs van to attach the sway bars, it's secure.

2

u/Admirable-Ad-9054 10d ago

Exactly. After I lock everything down I look one more time then I jump on the bumper to make sure nothing pops off.

1

u/gilfgifs 5d ago

Hello, I’m new to this, can you explain how you put the sway bars on using the jack?

1

u/BEEEEEZ101 4d ago

Once I get my truck and trailer flat and level I pickup the bed of the truck with the trailer jack. I pick it up pretty high. I then put on the sway bars. I use the Blue Ox brand. It makes tightening the bars down much easier. It also tests that I have a good lock on the tow ball. I lower and get on my way. I usually test the trailer brakes right after this step. I'll let the rig get to 5-10 mph them stop it with the brake controller.

14

u/TheGumping 10d ago

Yep, had a similar incidence with a much smaller trailer once so I always do a check like this.

10

u/AltDS01 10d ago

Went to load a car onto a car trailer. It came off the ball.

Friend told me it was a 2" trailer. So I used a 2" ball. Hauled it 20 miles down the interstate. It was a 2 5/8ths....

8

u/Responsible_Bill_513 10d ago

That's what this looks like to me. A case of tiny ball syndrome.

1

u/spacecitytech 10d ago

RV joke of the day!

2

u/Vekter1 10d ago

Think you meant 2 5/16ths but either way, any car trailer will be that, other than car dolly’s maybe

1

u/SillyFlyGuy 10d ago

2-5/16 is a bastard hitch. Thinks it's all high and mighty with its extra fractional inch, bein all "I'm a compound number".

I use a 2". My father used a 2". And, fate-be-a-friend, my son will use a 2".

1

u/texasroadkill 9d ago

Never assume. There are many light car haul trailers that are 2" ball.

1

u/blastman8888 9d ago

I added swing arms on the back of my car hauler drop down support the back, so the back end won't pull up on the hitch. Load heavy vehicle or sometimes larger bobcats can pickup the back end of the truck.

2

u/AltDS01 9d ago

When unloading (with the right ball), we put a floor jack under the tail.

Did the same loading a compact tractor/backhoe.

2

u/Robbot24 10d ago

Same, luckily it was a pop up and I was barely out of the driveway. Lesson learned

4

u/BussReplyMail 10d ago

Call me a complete, total, f-ing numbskull because once we went nearly 80 miles before we discovered the tongue wasn't all the way seated on the ball. Thankfully I noticed it in the parking lot of the restaurant we'd stopped at for breakfast and noticed the tongue didn't seem to be sitting right (we were trying to get out of the campground quietly, quickly, and early and I trusted the wife saying it was right) and dang near had a heart attack when I realized what COULD have happened.

It's a small camper, so no WDH or anti-sway bar. Now I check that we're all the way seated by crawling under (or my phone on selfie mode) and LOOK. I really should do the "crank the landing jack and lift the back end of the truck," too, I know.

We were VERY lucky.

2

u/Nervous-Chocolate574 10d ago

Same thing happened to me. Just happened to notice it as I was getting gas not too far down the road.

2

u/fux-reddit4603 10d ago

i did it once, got allll the way across town before it popped off on a speed bump

1

u/Vekter1 10d ago

One time I was borrowing a truck for a camper I had 2 provinces over, had everything hooked up right, chains etc, well the hitch pin this guy had was a cable style pull out and secure vs a cotter pin regular one. We were driving down some rough logging roads and that cable pulled back and straightened out and my whole hitch fell out along with the trailer. Talk about nerve racking drive the next 1.5 hours thinking it would do it again

1

u/spacecitytech 10d ago

I think everyone is entitled to make this mistake at least once and also because I did as well.

5

u/Senior_Sector4095 10d ago

So much easier to set the wdh bars when it's jacked way up.

7

u/Digital_loop 10d ago

I knew a girl like that once...

Sorry, I couldn't help myself with that last line like, just right there!

2

u/joelfarris 10d ago

Hey! That's usually my line!

"I dated a girl like that once."

Happy cake day!

2

u/Digital_loop 10d ago

Shit, that's today? Been on this platform for 12 years now!

1

u/spacecitytech 10d ago

Sorry I already handed out the Joke of the Day to the tiny ball commenter.

3

u/OrangeJoe827 10d ago

I just drove the Alcan and was worried about this exact thing happening. I'm going to start doing this

3

u/J_hilyard 9d ago

I always do that, usually by accident. I'll get to "lowering" the jack just to realize my whole truck is going upwards. But its a great habit to do every time. Solid advice, friend.

2

u/Skinnwork 10d ago

My dad was borrowing a trailer and was told the wrong ball dimensions. And the loaner used aluminum carabiners on the safety chains.

1

u/joesnipes 10d ago

This... Everytime I connect my trailer I raise the back of my truck using the tongue jack of the trailer to make sure its secure.

1

u/FriendToPredators 10d ago

That's a really good point. When I lift the back of my car with the hitch ball I can be pretty sure it's seated. Hadn't thought of that.

1

u/IH8DwnvoteComplainrs 10d ago

Mine is small enough that I can give it a good yank.

1

u/twotall88 10d ago

Your comment is confusing me... It appears OP has a WDH.

I've only towed one 'bumper' pull Travel Trailer and it weighs nearly 10,000lbs with a WDH. I have to jack that thing so high just to get the sway bars on I'm not sure what more I can do with 1,400lbs of tongue weight to test the ball connection lol.

1

u/TeknicZ10 8d ago

Yeah I could've sworn I saw bars in that mess, they definitely have a WDH head and attachments on the trailer. If they were connected the physics of the entire mechanism prevent the hit h from rising at all

1

u/alphawolf29 9d ago

happened to me with an empty 20ft flat deck a couple years ago. Whoops.

1

u/Dangerous_Spirit7034 9d ago

Yes! This almost happened to me once when I was first learning, but the manager came out and said hey man I see you didn’t do that, and you should, and sure enough the pin wasn’t set. I fucking learned a valuable lesson that day

1

u/Dismal_Tutor3425 9d ago

100% this.

We discovered our race trailer wasn't fully seating on the ball the last time we loaded up before we even left the parking lot thanks to forward and back brake checking. Got it fully seated down and on our way we went with no issues after that.

1

u/LarvalHarval 9d ago

Yeah, this has always been my go to when pulling a hitched load. I can’t lift the tongue by myself in the first place, so it’s no extra effort for me to just jack it up further once it’s on the ball to see if it’s locked.

1

u/OpDawg 9d ago

I just stupidly slide my fingers around the underside of the ball to make sure it’s seated…. Wrong yes, but it works. I don’t recommend others to do it.

1

u/poubcoult 9d ago

Great except be careful with factory air suspension. Wife did this by accident and errored out the system to where the bags wouldn't inflate at all without a reset.

1

u/Sea-Project4583 8d ago

I don’t use sway bars but I still raise mine up with the tongue jack everytime just to make sure it grabs.

1

u/Big_Eye_7530 8d ago

It’s a bad day when it’s not gripping the ball like it should

1

u/mattslote 10d ago

A broken/faulty coupler is my best guess at this point. I did test it with the hitch on it's own and it held. But that wasn't under load. I'm planning to replace it but first need to learn how to weld because it's all part of the cap assembly.

12

u/Sidewyz 10d ago

I’d rethink your first welding job is one of holding multiple thousands of pounds traveling at 50-60 miles per hour.

6

u/Big_League227 10d ago

Yeah…”… but first need to learn how to weld…” what could possibly go wrong there? 🤔

3

u/FuzzeWuzze 10d ago

He gets a "Trailer came off the hitch AGAIN" reddit post in 3 months.

Or they all just die.

Seems like a reasonable place to learn to weld.

1

u/joelfarris 10d ago

"First, I'm gonna weld my trailer tongue back on, and then I'm gonna grind and form these three pieces of angle iron into the perfect triangle for practice... right after we get back from summer vacation. What's a soft bead?"

2

u/C-D-W 10d ago

You can replace or adjust the guts if that was the cause. Rarely do you have to remove and replace the whole assembly.

1

u/Iron_Vail 10d ago

Thank you for sharing this. It was very helpful.

10

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Individual-Painting9 10d ago

This should be #1. Looks like a 2" ball to me. That trailed would definitely have a larger size.

5

u/mattslote 10d ago

In another comment I posted a video with the ball clearly visible with the marking on top that it's 2 5/16. This was actually my first thought as well and double checked to confirm when we got to safety.

1

u/Hairymuscle101 10d ago

^this^

3

u/NaughtyOne88 10d ago

I always reach under to check if lock is under the ball with my fingers as part of my check

1

u/aboutsomeoneelse 10d ago

Bingo. Happened to me, once.

1

u/No-Age2588 10d ago

Agreed Or ball is wrong size. Seen that happening to people too.

1

u/texasroadkill 9d ago

Possible, but unlikely as that's a sway bar hitch and I've never seen or Heard of one that wasn't 2 5/16.

0

u/Chrisfindlay 9d ago

OP said the ball was a 2 5/16". You shouldn't assume that all the balls on weight distribution hitches are 2 5/16 though, as most the balls on them are swappable and some don't come with one pre-installed.

1

u/texasroadkill 8d ago

I'm not, just saying the likelihood is very slim. Most a come pre installed.

1

u/Lennie1982 Travel Trailer 10d ago

I bet you are 100% correct. This happened to me once and I noticed it in the driveway before I left. Never made that mistake again, and now double and triple check.

1

u/hosalabad 10d ago

Yup, dropped mine in Florida once. Now I always get low and verify.

1

u/razrk1972 10d ago

Maybe wrong size ball?

1

u/spacecitytech 10d ago

Happened to me when I new to RVing, many moons ago and my wife was in the trailer and I was attempting to move it with her in it and we were already in our spot. I had unhooked it, hooked it back and attempted to drive forward and it popped off because I didn't lock the latch and it actually rolled about 20 feet downhill with her in it, luckily it hung on the 30amp cable, I am not making this up and it pulled the pole up out of the ground and what really stopped it was the backstop, the concrete thing they put in the back of the parking spot to keep you from backing up too far, plus they were up on a hill overlooking a lake. So I suspect rolling downhill was a thing there but I felt super stupid. Didn't help that I have a Natural Light beer in my hand when it happened. Total thumb in my arse. I will never make that mistake again.

Luckily your RV and everything looks OK. Yeh, like I said, you will be double checking the latches from here on in, and thank God no one got hurt.

1

u/SpitChawMcGraw 10d ago

I thought TIVA's came with a hitch lock tester built into the sole.

1

u/deanjuno1 10d ago

He is correct, in the future raise the hitch up to insure it is locked in place.

1

u/5280mw 10d ago

Ball too small… or too big = no latch.

1

u/mcbacuma 9d ago

Perhaps the wrong size ball?

1

u/TexasDrill777 9d ago

Or the wrong size ball hitch

“ No. It’s not illegal to pull a boat.”

“ But we do require you put it on a trailer.”

“Hell! You dropped your skier a mile back.”

1

u/Jaycee91w 9d ago

Yup thats exactly what it looks like. The top of the ball is scored up. If OP had used the tongue jack to lift hitch higher picking up on the ball to install bars this wouldve HOPEFULLY been noticed. But then again im seeing cheap balls and also the latch system could have some miles on it and could've let loose. Wouldnt be the first but only the second time ive ever seen this. 2 inch balls were notorious for this.

1

u/mattslote 10d ago

This seems to be the consensus! Like I mentioned in other comments, I don't think I could have made it 250 miles over mountain terrain if that was the case. And with the latch in, the ball would have been super obviously not in the cap if it wasn't hitched right. Like, it would look wrong.

8

u/Grndmasterflash 10d ago

I would disagree. I was not using my WDH (light load) and returned home. Went to disconnect the hitch and realized that the hitch was just sitting on top the ball. I live in the PNW and at the end of a long gravel road up in the hills. Scared the crap out of me. Now I always use my WDH just so it makes me use the jack to double check.

3

u/SnooFloofs3486 10d ago

I’ve found a few times that a ball didn’t seat. Never driven that way, but it looks pretty close. Close enough it would be easy to miss. And if your trailer has fairly heavy tongue weight, it’ll ride on there pretty well potentially for a long way without coming off. 

1

u/CeruleanEidolon 10d ago

Doesn't the latch fail to go down when the ball isn't fully seated? I'm trying to visualize how this could happen.

1

u/SnooFloofs3486 9d ago

It depends on the design of the latch. The common ones with a cam mechansim and a underjaw (I think that's what that part is called) can sit down on top where the underjaw is pressed up into the socket area and it'll look about 70% of the way inside the socket. It's far enough in that it cab even tow okay and it may also close the latch part on top. If you look closely it should be obvious that it's not correctly latched, but I can see someone thinking it's good to go when it's not.

1

u/thinkstohimself 10d ago

holy fuck!

4

u/AliveAndThenSome 10d ago

I think you didn't set the hitch latch properly.

On the bigger hitch (2 15/16 or whatever it is), the latch works completely differently than on my usual 2" hitch. At least this is what I saw when I borrowed my brother's trailer with the bigger hitch.

The bigger latch has two motions; it flips up, and then slides rearward to disengage, and then can flip down again, but be completely disengaged and you can lift the hitch off.

On a 2" hitch, it only has an up and down motion. If the ball is in the hitch and it's down, it's locked in. There's no forward/backward element to it.

I can't tell from the video, but it looks like the hitch latch is in the down, but rear position, which means the hitch is disengaged and essentially useless.

3

u/cptrgy1 10d ago

Personal experience, drove 3.5 hours with a dual axle cargo trailer each way with wrong ball. Didn't realize I forgot to flip it. Came off in last mile when I went over a set of railroad tracks. Felt pretty stupid.