hetman

Sitting at a stoplight in heavy traffic / hear and felt a fairly hard bang to my new truck / looked in the rearview but really could not see any car back there. Got out pissed off to the Ultimate Degree thinking some ******* ran into my 2 week old truck. Sure enough there is a old beater Honda accord IMPALED on my class 4 ball hitch . Dude gets out and we seem to have a problem talking ( no speak English ) except for 2 words I sorry / I sorry. Never got to the point if he had insurance & Drivers License or even a Green card. I got to crawling around & under the truck and could find no damage at all . So I jumped in the truck and pulled it forward about 3 feet - taking out about a 2 foot chunk of his front grill/ plastic etc. etc. Noticed his car was starting to leak oil - trans cooler I think plus a few other things. Checked my truck over again & still found no damage . I told him it was his lucky day as my truck appears to be ok and that I was not going to call the cops and lo and behold he learned a few more English words Thank you / Thank you .


**All I know is that Trailer Hitch will stay Forever in the receiver**


I may go check out one of the Super bumper that plugs into your trailer hitch and is guaranteed to destroy the front of who ever hits you from the rear.

Scuba_Dave

Too funny, I had almost the same thing happen to me 10+ years ago
I had a reversible hitch -pintle and ball hitch, massive hitch on my SUV
In rush hour traffic around Boston on the way home
Traffic slowing down, looked & changed into the lane to the right of me
Slowed down more, then traffic started moving faster
I was just accelerating when I heard a loud bang, no idea what it was
Looked around, pulled into the right lane & took the exit
Top of the exit I pull off the road to check out the SUV
I get out & look back down the expressway & there is a small car w/hood bent up & steam all over the place
I waited a while, no damage to my SUV...finally just left
Bet that's the last time that guy tailgates a truck w/big hitch

My hitch was stuck in the receiver after that -bent the pin

Tothemax

I always keep a hitch in the receiver for this very reason.

DavidKR

you should be careful with this, I hear lots of people say they leave their hitches in for this reason but keep in mind that is attached directly to the frame of the truck. I have heard cases of frame damage occurring from hard enough hits.

xlttune

I've been hit twice in my superduty and both times it sheared the receiver pin and bent the trailer plug harness bracket. I will always keep a hitch in and recommend it to everyone that I can.

GhostHunter

Thanks , i don't have 700 hundred miles yet. Going put my receiver on tomorrow.

Brian Bailey

Same thing happened to me in my old truck. Guy behind me wasn't paying attention and BAMM! Put a scratch on the bumper . Never got it fixed because it was a 160k mile truck. Collected the $1100 insurance check though. It is kind of funny having to drive off of these cars though. Glad no one got hurt man.

hetman

That tri- ball did a great job , I only had a single ball & his car did not look that bad but was still undriveable. A point some of the other posters brought up "check my locking pin to see if its bent or cracked.


het

PawPaw

Had the same thing happen to me but at close to 2K miles. Idiot in an old beat up Tundra hit the rear of my truck as I was turning. Knocked the bumper loose on the Tundra and he had to tie it back on with some rope. Lucky he had insurance and all I needed was a rear bumper...could have been worse.

WTF150

I've always heard this too and never sure if it was true or a myth. It makes sense in theory, with your hitch being directly mounted to your frame, whereas the bumper is designed to absorb and disperse the impact and energy. Does anyone know if there is any merit to it? That alone would scare me from leaving a ball mount in my hitch. That and I always knock my shin into it when walking around the truck.