I hope this is in the right section, if not, please move. Had tickets to a dodgers game. On the way down, we had the pleasure of getting rear ended by an unlicensed uninsured motorist. My baby was only 39 DAYS old:mad:. Now that I got that off my chest, my question is how strong is the receiver? We were only going about 20-25mph or so. The receiver took almost all of the impact, and the other car was a mustang. All the welds look good, and there is no paint chipping over the welds. Everything looks good to me, but we are going camping this weekend and I just want to be sure everything gets there at the same time, and safely. Hopefully someone can ease my mind a little. Thanks, Jerry.

I would say that since the paint didn't chip, you should be good to go...:)
Something tells me the mustang's front end doesn't look too good though, huh?? :D

An unlicensed uninsured motorist in CA no way aren’t we giving those away yet, no worries you should be good to go.

i had the same thing happen back in jan! the hitch is stout! i need a new one because it broke the welds for the plug! other than that its fine!

Bet it is stronger than the Mustang!!!

He's really lucky you didn't have a big WD hitch ball hanging off of the reciever. You would be picking pony guts out of your hitch for months. ):h

Hey yamaha I got plenty of those hitches setting on the rack at work. I will send you one free if you pay the shipping.

Hey yamaha I got plenty of those hitches setting on the rack at work. I will send you one free if you pay the shipping.

Why would you have plenty of those at work? Do people have you replace them with aftermarkets? Some people on RV.net say the stock hitches fail regularly. Is this true??

We have upgraded many of the 2500 and 3500's and put 10,000lb hitches on them. There is quite a bit of difference in the hitches from stock to 10,000lb.

We have upgraded many of the 2500 and 3500's and put 10,000lb hitches on them. There is quite a bit of difference in the hitches from stock to 10,000lb.

Just upgraded mine to the big Drawtite. I was unable to properly set up my WD hitch with my travel trailer with the stocker. The receiver just kept bending and flexing, rather than transfering the weight like it should. I set it up last night with the new hitch, and all is now well. What a difference, to put it mildly.

Weak GM Receivers

GM recievers will not hold the weight of many larger travel trailers without equalizer bars even though the truck springing is more than adequate! I tried to tow an Arctic Fox 30U. The problem is the receiver on my '02 Chevy 1 ton Dually twisted! Nothing cracked or broke but the round tube construction twisted and the ball hieght went down about 3 inches! The trailer was level when it starte bending so I'm not sure the equalizing bars would have really helped! I wouldn't trust it with the equalizer bars! I had to stop and spend money out of my pocket to put on a Reese 2 1/2 reciever in the middle of a trip! After that no problem! I sold the trailer to a guy with a Dodge 3/4 ton and he hauled in away with no problem! Thanks GM! How about putting a heavier receiver on your trucks! Building a receiver that will hold 1500-1700 lbs hitch wait is not rocket science! You know people buy them to tow travel trailers! A 30 ft trailer shouldn't be out of it's range of towing! Later I found RV owners on websites calling them junk and recommending immediate replacement unless your'e towing a small travel trailer!

Just so you don't get suprised!

I've been truck pulling for a while now with the stock hitch, and no problems.
sled= 40,000lbs, tongue weight, 2000+lbs? without spring clamps, suspension is just about completely bottomed out. I do have to say though, my receivers seem to fit a bit sloppy now.

I went through two stock recievers,(warranted), with my Arctic Fox and weight distribution set up. They both bent untill the welds started to come apart! Went with a Draw Tite class4 to cure that.

I have towed my 10,000# TT more then 14,000 miles in 3 years. I always look everything over before, after, and at stops a long the way. And so far, it still looks nearly new. And many of the miles have been on back roads, including gravel, dirt, and mud roads.

I have towed my 10,000# TT more then 14,000 miles in 3 years. I always look everything over before, after, and at stops a long the way. And so far, it still looks nearly new. And many of the miles have been on back roads, including gravel, dirt, and mud roads.

Maybe they had better factory hitches 3 years ago. My '05 factory hitch was a pile of junk.

Yes, there was a big change in the factory hitch from the old body style to the new body style. The nbs hitches are total junk. My factory one was failing in different areas and was replaced before I lost a trailer or someone got hurt or worse.

Check around on the rv.net forums, the discussion is never ending over there regarding failed or failing hitches.

I still don't understand how you guys are bending your receivers? Truck pulling puts way more stress on the receiver, than even pulling even the largest of trailers. I haven't even tweaked mine a bit. For those of you who have failed a receiver, is it bolted to the bumper?

Equalizing hitches can put tremendous force on a receiver. If you substitute equalizer bar preload for the correct springs or airbags, you can bust nearly any hitch made. Usually the situation goes like this: Trailer has way too much tongue weight because it's not loaded or balanced right. Owner notices his headlights are pointed up so high, that even aircraft are flashing their lights at them. So instead of balancing the trailer correctly or beefing up the rear suspension of their truck, they decide an equalizing hitch will do the job. It does not even dawn on them when they must tighten the bars up to the last link to get the truck to ride right, or heck, find fatter bars!!

Like above, you can drag a 40,000lb sled through the dirt with the stock hitch. No, it's not the strongest hitch on the market, but calling it flimsy isn't quite correct either.

One reason I bought a dually is so I wouldn't have to use the stinkin' equalizer/stabilizer bars on my 32' Terry!:grd:

I hardly even know it's back there:)









Gary

A 2000 model year Kit 5,000 lb camp trailer, properly loaded, that worked perfect with my '90 Ford F250. Same hitch, no changes to camp trailer. 800 lb & 1,000 lb bars, I have both. Didn't matter if I had the ball height correct, with the trailers hitch height, or the angle of the ball (which changes the bar tension), when the bars were loaded, the hitch stinger would actually flex the hitch reciever UP, as in pointing upward at an angle towards the rear of the truck. Now, my old Ford hitch didn't do that, the older yet Dodge hitch didn't do that, and my new Drawtite hitch doesn't do that. In fact, the more I loaded the bars with tension, the more the damn thing flexed, WITHOUT RAISING THE LEVEL OF THE TRUCK AND TRAILER! That, my boys, is a peice of crap hitch. how many do you want, for free, you pay the freight? There is a stack of them at Barton's Hitch service in Boise...............he can't give them away.

Sledman--:exactly:

Exactly! Due to this situation and the pin hole elongating, I had to replace them on my 01 2500 Suburban and my 04 Dmax.

My truck tows SO much better with the new hitch, spending the money is a complete no brainer. Those that think there factory hitch is just fine just don't realize how much better it can be.

Couldn't there be some kind of liability on GM if the hitch fails especially if you are under warranty and below limits? I would hope they would make it stronger than what it is rated for. Jerry.

For what it is worth, I have personally cracked one of these hitches, and they are junk. The hitches do not distribute the weight even on the truck when towing. It appears that it does, but when you start traveling and bucking on the road, that is when the distribuiton means the most and that is also when your tongue weight is increased sometimes double. Its a cheap thing to replace, under $150 and a couple of hours of your time. Why chance it with your family or freinds or the insurance company.

I have seen this Hidden Hitch. I would like to install a hitch that fits and forms like the stock hitch. I like the way it tucks up under the truck. I really don't want a big square tube hanging down under the bumper. I found the Class V Hidden hitch looks stock. I wonder how much better it is than the stock. They look the same. http://www.etrailer.com/images/HH/HITCH/81586.jpg

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one to have problems.
I am ashamed to say that I backed my work trailer into a tree Tuesday. It was a pretty good wack but it did not do any damage to the trailer. Today while walking out to my truck I noticed that my hitch and bumper are leaning down enough to drop the front of my trailer 1.5" lower than the rear. It rode level before this.
I can find no cracks in the paint or any cracks in the welds. It looks to me that this little bump caused my hitch to "twist" down. This is ridiculous.
I personally will be going to the old heavy duty square tube design tomorrow. It may not be as pretty but I never had a problem with those.