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dickandlois

5 TH. Wheel trailer bed hitch

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Just had my first encounter with a neighbor who did not get the trailer Pin locked into the bed hitch. 

The hitch was not lubricated well enough. When the driver moved forward, the trailed dropped down onto the truck bed and damaged the tail gate; big time.  

Think this is a must do item to have on the to do list.

Rich.

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He messed up big time.  You supposed to test it with tailgate down and jack slightly raised.  That way if it came loose no damage is done.  Also looking at the release handle he should of known the position that handle was in.  Yes you must keep everything lubed but there is other factors involved.   

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This case involved a tight turn when pulling out off the pad. Everything  went well until the trailer got in line with the truck . The pull angle and lack of grease, apparently offered enough resistance for the Fiver to fallow the truck.

 No way to move strati forward with the jacks down. 

Rich.

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I always taught it this way; pull the emergency breakaway cable cord, tail gate down for a tug test. This also checks the emergency breakaway to make sure it functioning properly and the brakes are adjusted properly. 

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Worst scenario I ever have seen...my buddy was pulling his new Terry, 28 foot, 5'er over the Old Galveston Causeway bridge, when the pin came out and before I could hit my Air horn, the trailer hit the Bridge railing, flipped and landed in the Intracoastal  water way...shut down the I-45 Freeway for about 8 hours!  No damage to truck..:P

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33 minutes ago, manholt said:

Worst scenario I ever have seen...my buddy was pulling his new Terry, 28 foot, 5'er over the Old Galveston Causeway bridge, when the pin came out and before I could hit my Air horn, the trailer hit the Bridge railing, flipped and landed in the Intracoastal  water way...shut down the I-45 Freeway for about 8 hours!  No damage to truck..:P

The pin came out, broke or what?  Mechanical failure I would think at that point.   

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We had a Husky 5th wheel hitch we used to pull a 16k Montana.  The Husky did not have jaws, it had a bar that slid behind the pin on the trailer.  Once the bar was behind the pin, no way it could come loose unless there was a serious failure of equipment.

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We will never know...last seen, was over 100' above the water and Hurricane Rita came thru a week later.  We saw debris on the surface, but no trailer!  :(

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