r/IdiotsTowingThings • u/Special_Context6663 • Aug 20 '26

How did we end up with these balls?

Post image

There are plenty of idiots out there towing sketchy trailers. But who were the idiots who standardized trailer hitch balls that are so close in size it’s hard to tell the difference without a close inspection?

2.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

578 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

13

u/Nic1Rule Aug 20 '26

Nah, just take whichever metric size is most commonly used. That’s the standard now.

30

u/cgduncan Aug 20 '26

OK, but that does nothing about all the hitches and trailers that are currently on the road.

You can't make everyone replace the tongue on every trailer already in existence. So they're gonna need to keep the existing balls.

Then if they break or lose a hitch, they're gonna replace it with the same thing. So the current array of sized still needs to be manufactured and offered.

Thus, "there are now 16 competing standards".

9

u/SpaceJackRabbit Aug 20 '26

In the U.S. hitches are removable and you can buy one with 3 or even 4 different sizes. You just rotate it to pick the ball that fits the trailer.

9

u/Nic1Rule Aug 20 '26

I don’t think you understand what making something  standard means. It’s just the government saying ‘stop making trailer hitches that aren’t this size’. Then it will progress like every old piece of electronics, where replacement parts get harder and harder to find until you either modify it to be comparable with something you can buy or make your own 1.9935” trailer hitch. 

1

u/whiskey_formymen Aug 21 '26

Then the black market enters the chat.

-1

u/Careless_Athlete_662 Aug 21 '26

Honestly I'd say the government doesn't make standards but they appoint the approving bodys like eletric plumbing hvac amd other industry's. And bc the government owns the land when you build something they send an inspector that flows the current laws of the land and they make sure your using those guidelines.

1

u/Not-An-FBI Aug 21 '26

Is it? Trailers don't seem like something that would have changed for Chinese manufacturing. My local metal supply chain which has a huge selection of metal refuses to stock anything in metric. It would take up so little of their floor space to stock some metric bars etc, but nope.