Well I lived through another humbling lesson again.

I thought I had latched my hitch securely on the ball , I went to ride my rancher into the trailer,(also always before I walked it in) and in an horrifying instant, the front of the trailer reared up and the safety chains I"d attached earlier were all that daved me from disaster.

I will not rush hooking up any more, I learned to respect things all the more, my F150 has a newly scared tailgate,and I have some more gray hair.
I hope someone (besides me) learns from my mistake.

 

I had somethig similar happen. I had just had the hitch put on by a "professional" and had to remind him the ball was included. He mounted it, I hooked up my trailer loaded the King and drove from Connecticut to Michigan.

As we were nearing my mom's I noticed a clucking when accelerating and stopping. I did think much of it jus thought it was slop in the drawbar.

While after I got to moms I decided to unload the trailer. No I normally drive the King on and off but for some reason, I decided to just pull it off on the ramps. Well when i did the next thing I new the tongue was up in the air held there by the saftey chains. Luckily the only damage done was a minor scratch to the door of the van.

Apparantly, they used a ball with a 3/4" shaft mounted in a 1" hole, so it must have vibrated loose over th 800+ miles.

When I put the new ball on the hitch I ensured it was tight, use a breaker bar, then drilled a hole through it and put a cotter pin through it to ensure the nut would not come off. This is in addition to the lockwasher. It is not going anywhere now.