Do Trailer Hitch Pins Bare Weight of Trailer When Towing

Question:

So the debate continues. There was a recent tragedy where someone tried to recover a vehicle by the hitch and it failed, killing the driver of one of the vehicles. The comment always comes up just remove the hitch and use the hitch pininch to which I heavily disagree with, as the shear rating is different when there is no support across the center portion of said hitch. The accident involved an F350 buried to the frame in wet mud, and a static strap was used so the shock load was high. Multiple unsuccessful attempts and not having a kinetic rope/strap only worsened the situation to the point of hitch failure. Regardless of that, am I wrong to think the hitch pin doesnt carry the same shear rating when used with a recovery or tow strap across the inside of the 2inch receiver? Thanks,

asked by: Philip M

Expert Reply:

A hitch pin used as a recovery point would not have the same weight capacity as the hitch of the truck when used for towing. This is due to fact that towing a vehicle would have much less resistance than moving a stuck vehicle and also there's no ball mount involved. So when towing the tongue weight of the trailer pushes down on the ball mount which pins it against the hitch tube creating a enough friction that the trailer is towed from that and now the hitch pin. So without the ball mount creating that friction the hitch pin is taking on all of the weight and why it would be more likely to fail.

A better option would be to have a Curt Tow Strap Loop part # C45832 to attach the tow strap to.

expert reply by: Jameson C