Nearly had a towing disaster

[JASinIL2006]

We were getting ready to leave a week ago on a trip and we had planned to bring the boat. We were going to drive about 4 hours from here, around Chicago into northwest Indiana.

I haven't had the boat out yet this season due to Midwest flooding, so a couple of days before we left, I pulled the boat out of the garage with my pickup truck, so I could start the boat on muffs. All was well, so we put the boat back in the garage.

The morning we planned to leave, I backed the truck up to the boat trailer and noticed the hitch looked odd; the bar and ball hitch were angled downward slightly. At first, I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me, because the front of the truck was a bit higher than the rear. As I looked more closely, though, it was clear something was wrong. I crawled under the truck and found that the the receiver hitch was totally rusted through! The part of the hitch that runs parallel to the bumper (to which the receiver tube is welded) was about 90% rusted through, which explained why the ball hitch was angled downward. Even worse, the attachment point for the safety chains is connected to the same structure, which means the chains would have done nothing if the whole hitch gave way.

I keep thinking of the 'what-ifs'... what if I hadn't pulled out the boat a few days ago to make sure it would start... what if the hitch gave way when we were driving at highway speeds in 8 lanes of traffic going around Chicago... what if the hitch had failed last summer when we were crossing the Mackinac Bridge... We are so lucky to have avoided any kind of tragedy.

This wasn't an inexpensive add-on hitch, but was a factory installed and came with the truck. I've added one more thing to my annual 'prep the trailer' checklist, and that is to give the entire hitch assembly a thorough check.

Just wanted to share this in case anyone else is pulling a boat around with an older vehicle.

 

[MTboatguy]

Glad nothing happened. I inspect my hitch several times a year, some of the stuff they use on the roads in the winter around here will eat them up, during the winter my hitch on the back is a winch mount for my 12,500 pound winch in case I get stuck, than I can pull backwards and get out. They also started putting in a couple of car wash places here that you can use to clean the undercarriage of the vehicle and it uses a special soap designed to get rid of the road grime from winter.

 

[Toyelectroman]

My parents Ford expedition hitch rusted really to where i had to use my truck to pull his boat because he was too cheap to buy a new one

 

[dingbat]

It happens.

Took a hammer to the hitch on the Tahoe last fall. Broke thru the tubing.

Good excuse to replace the vehicle...so I did

 

[its_shaun12]

Glad to hear nothing happened but along with the other comments would be curious to know how old your truck is and hoping that it isn't too new otherwise that would be even more concerning.

 

[sycostang67]

That happened to a friend of mine pulling his boat with an old blazer. One side of the hitch let go and went down but didn't disconnect entirely. He managed to get pulled over and ended up using rope to tie the one side of the hitch back to the frame to limp his way home.

I have a 2001 Ram 2500 as my tow rig, not to long ago a TSB went out that some of the OEM hitches were cracking along the bend that connects to the frame. I make sure to check it all the time now, will be replacing it soon, but still solid as of now.

 

[porscheguy]

Was it an older suburban/Tahoe? They’re known for the factory hitch rusting out.

 

[dingbat]

2001 Tahoe

 

[JASinIL2006]

My truck is an ‘05 F150. I was hoping maybe the frame would be rusty enough to force me to get a new truck, but no such luck. That is probably a good thing, since we still have two kids in college…

 

[jimmbo]

Thank your Politicians for allowing Calcium Chloride to be used on the roads

 

[dwco5051]

I have a 2002 GMC and had to replace the factory hitch last year. A patch of what looked like surface rust that I was able to push my thumb through. Good advice to check your hitch often when your vehicle gets a little long in tooth.

 

[Scott Danforth]

when you get the new hitch, hit it with some spray on bed liner as the cheap e-coat on them just makes it shiny enough to make you go ooh and aah when you get it, however fails quickly as a coating.

 

[dingbat]

Thank your Politicians for allowing Calcium Chloride to be used on the roads

We don’t get enough snow for road salt to be a problem.

In my case, blame Mother Nature.

As an avid surf fisherman, the truck spent a good part of its lifetime running up and down the beaches of DE, MD, VA and NC.

 

[jimmbo]

It’s also used on gravel roads to keep dust down

 

[MTboatguy]

Actually spray can undercoating is a better alternative than the spray in bed liner if you choose to coat the hitch. Normally what I do is inspect, brush any surface rust areas and use black hammerite spray paint on mine and have got better life out of my parts over the last 20 years of living with road deicing. Another thing they do around here in the summer to keep dust down is a fuel oil road coating, that actually is a mess, but does help keep down the exposure to the road salts once it gets on the bottom of the truck.

 

[mike_i]

Thanks for posting, we can all learn from other's experiences.