2 5/16” hitch ball for my Blue Ox Sway Pro states to torque to 450 ft-lbs. Seems crazy. At home I have no way to do so. Called blue ox and they said not to worry about that and getting it as tight as I can is enough. Haha ok?

I got it to 150 ft-lbs and then some. Has a lock washer and I used blue locktite. I painted a red strip through it so I can see if there’s any movement.

Is anyone actually getting them to 450 ft-lbs?

 

Yop.

even got a 100-600 lb-ft 3/4” drive torque wrench to confirm it that I use.

 

It sounds crazy to torque the ball to only 150lb ft., and then some.
Note, your wheel lugs (6 of them and a 14mm stud) are 150lb ft. Your 9,000lb RV trailer may laugh at 150 with the size of shank you are trying to tighten.
Swing by a U-Haul or trailer facility to have them get it as tight as they can for you.

If you and a child walked in to the customer service area and the sales person said "get it as tight as you can", would you prefer to do it or have an 8 year old do it? "As tight as you can" is sort of a useless piece of info in this case. For your wheel lugs, sure go ahead and get it as tight as you can. I may not trust my wheels to stay on if an 8 year old got my lug nuts as tight as they can. I know it's silly but you can see my point.

 

450 is nothing for a 1/2" impact driver, air or cordless. Many of those will hit around 1000 pounds.

 

My trailer is 4000. No where near 9000 but that’s not the point. I’ll get a new lock nut and call to se if u haul can do that.

ive read a lot of posts on different towing forums. Some act like it’s the end of the world not to go to 450 ft-lbs, just as many say getting it as tight as you can is enough. That’s why I made the post.

 

Good idea to mark it.
I used a 4' cheater bar and put a good 110 lbs of force on it. Remember you need 450lbs of force with a 1 foot bar, only 45 lbs with a 10 foot bar

 

I never knew there was a torque spec. I’ve always just used a 1/2” drive breaker bar real tight or more common a large crescent/open ended wrench and a dead blow hammer lol.

 

The point of the high torque is to “clamp” the ball to the mount as the bolt or stud is not to be subjected to shear forces. So if it is not tight enough the bolt or stud will be taking the force and fail. One would likely find the shear off nut/bolt with the red line in place.

Good articles out on the purpose of nuts and bolts and clamping

Thats the theory… though I always worry about the hitch pin…

 

Cheater pipe, FTW.

 

2&5/16” ball for a 4000# trailer?
overkill, maybe?