The latch pin on my B & W turnover will not stay in the out position. I have tried twisting it clockwise, counter clockwise. Tried pushing it towards the cab, away, etc. Any Ideas or has anyone had this problem before? It is bolted correctly - how the instructions show it... What exactly does it catch on when you rotate it to keep locked in the out/unlocked position? Thanks for your help.

Push the lever towards the cab and there is a hole near the pivot point of the arm. Actually, I think the pin just goes thru a hole in the gray base, not the arm itself. You insert the hitch pin thru the center most hole (the hole nearest to the center line of the hitch) to hold the hitch open or released. Pull the lever to the rear and insert the hitch pin thru the outermost hole, both arm and base, to lock in the closed position, the one you would use when going down the road. Open the hitch fully and you will see that hole that will allow you to hold the arm forward with the hitch pin.

I thought B&W would have a great picture of this on their website, but I can't find one. I'd send you a picture of mine, but it's about 1500 miles from me.

I have the same problem with mine. After re-reading the downloaded install guide numerous times, I'm still at a loss of why it's not catching in the open position. Now I use a bungee cord.

Mine stopped catching after about a month. I think road grime gets built up on the spring so it doesnt compress as far to get it completely out of the latching hole. I looked at a display at a dealer and basically all it does is pull and twist out of the latch hole and rest on the frame of the hitch. I can get mine to catch sometimes if I pull hard.

my dads does that and like said above it looks like it just doesnt get pulled far enough out of the hole to rest on the edge of the hole

Alot of times it is because when the hitch gets installed people tend to leave the bolt and polylock nut loose on the locking pin and handle. They think this allows it to move freely and such. Often it loosens up with use as well. This is wrong, you want the fit to be just slightly snug. When you pull the handle out and try to slide it forward, if it's sloppy it wont pull the pin over far enough to keep it open. If it's snug it can pull the pin over to lock open position when asked to. Make since? Like I mentioned it can loosen up after some use, best is to check once a year and at the same time also inspect the hitch. We forget that were asking that ball and hitch assembly to do alot for us. Also it can fill with dirt and gravel road grime and keep the pin from sliding over easy.
B&W is by far the best hitch out there and a really good company with old fashion values.

i've had the same problem with mine sine it was 6 months old probably.

Alot of times it is because when the hitch gets installed people tend to leave the bolt and polylock nut loose on the locking pin and handle. They think this allows it to move freely and such. Often it loosens up with use as well. This is wrong, you want the fit to be just slightly snug. When you pull the handle out and try to slide it forward, if it's sloppy it wont pull the pin over far enough to keep it open. If it's snug it can pull the pin over to lock open position when asked to. Make since? Like I mentioned it can loosen up after some use, best is to check once a year and at the same time also inspect the hitch. We forget that were asking that ball and hitch assembly to do alot for us. Also it can fill with dirt and gravel road grime and keep the pin from sliding over easy.
B&W is by far the best hitch out there and a really good company with old fashion values.


Could not have said it better myself. I have to fix a customer's B&W hitch for this exact reason tomorrow! He had the hitch installed at another local shop and I have had to fix a few of their "mistakes" in the past as well. B&W is a great company for sure. I'm working on becoming a direct dealer for them as we speak.

Thanks everyone for your input. I think the spring was just caked with grime. I just got after it and it locked out. Did it a few more times right after that no problem. Yes, I agree that B & W is the way to go not only for the best product but the company itself is awesome. Super friendly over the phone and I read an article that since they are slow instead of laying people off they kept on full time and are having them work around town cleaning and maintaining the place. Pretty neat in my opinion.

It's warmer today so I went out and jerked the living :sick: out of the latch, and now it catches in the open position. Just goes to show sometimes you got to get mean with things.

Thanks for the tip guys!

One more thing to always check is to make sure the pull handle is installed on the cab side of the tab coming off the b&w hitch. i know many times, this is the issue as well when the installer installs the pull handle on the rear of the tab. It will not allow movement of the pin to stay out and locked.