I just took my newish Logan 2 horse BP in to my trailer guy to have him put on an equalizing hitch-had thought about anti-sway bars too, but I think this will do the trick. However, I do want to pass this along at the risk of sounding like the absolute (but lucky) moron that I am…
It turns out I was using the wrong sized ball on my stinger, and am damned lucky that the whole shooting match didn’t come off the ball and go another direction, with my beloved horse and all!! 
I am a timid trailerer, and have gone overboard on the whole safety thing (ie the new hitch, which is overkill with a 2001 3/4 ton truck)…but this scared me, and FWIW I decided to post this in hopes that if it reaches just ONE person who also is/was a clueless as I was, then it will be worth the public humiliation, and perhaps it will save a nasty accident which could easily have been prevented. My trailer guy had never needed to unhitch my rig, so he never knew—so, just a word of warning…check your balls ladies 
and make sure they are the same size as your coupler…WHEW…
NEVER a good thing to see your tire go past you!!!
Check your e-mail!!!
trailered today with the horsie in his spot-wow, does that new hitch work great! But, whew, it is one heavy mother. I am giving my husband the old cotter pin to use with the stinger that fits the ATV trailer…and I might just leave the weight distributing one one with my locking pin too. I love how you all think like I do-LOLOL…whenver anyone drives up my butt, I think…do ahead, ram into my hitch ball…now with the this new one, whooo baby, I bet that sucker would take out the front end of a Saturn!ROFLMAO…hey, stupidity should be painfulG.
I noticed too the trailer guy put white grease all over the ball (as well as the arm thingies for the weight dist hitch…wow, no noise now. I think the sound I used to hear when we went up our gravel hill and stopped then started again was NOT the chains…it was the ball probably getting ready to jump out of the coupler. So, someone smiles down on dumb people…thankfully.
FWIW, we had a great XC school, and my little black horse didn’t blink an eye at the water jump…our goal at this event is to not have so many time faults…(we felt fast…my pinny was flapping in the wind…LOLOL)…aimee
I hate taking off and on the equalizer hitches. After ruining a couple pairs of jeans and breeches with the grease, I finally went out and bought a locking cotter pin. They seem sturdy because it is so thick. But, I think, if anybody really wanted my equalizer hitch they will figure out a way to steal it off of my truck. I’ve had it 3 years so far, and it’s still there. I think it cost me about $20.
the other day we were hauling our horses to a show and we stopped to get gas. My sister went back to check the trialer lights and noticed the trailer hitch looked funny. Well nobody opened the hitch thing for the ball to fit in, the hitch was just sitting on top of the ball. We were so lucky to notice it. I don’t want to even think about the damage it would have done to the bed of the truck if the trailer fell off the hitch.
I just took my newish Logan 2 horse BP in to my trailer guy to have him put on an equalizing hitch-had thought about anti-sway bars too, but I think this will do the trick. However, I do want to pass this along at the risk of sounding like the absolute (but lucky) moron that I am…
It turns out I was using the wrong sized ball on my stinger, and am damned lucky that the whole shooting match didn’t come off the ball and go another direction, with my beloved horse and all!! I am a timid trailerer, and have gone overboard on the whole safety thing (ie the new hitch, which is overkill with a 2001 3/4 ton truck)…but this scared me, and FWIW I decided to post this in hopes that if it reaches just ONE person who also is/was a clueless as I was, then it will be worth the public humiliation, and perhaps it will save a nasty accident which could easily have been prevented. My trailer guy had never needed to unhitch my rig, so he never knew—so, just a word of warning…check your balls ladies and make sure they are the same size as your coupler…WHEW…
Yes, I have one too (got tired of donating hitches to the unwashed masses of South Florida 
), the latest version has been on the hitch about 3+ years (the first one got sold with the last truck). It’s the same as a cotter pin, possibly thicker. I have seen them for sale in Dover’s and I bought mine at Wal Mart (I’ll give you 2 hints where it’s cheaper 
)
here’s one that I forgot until today…Back in 1978, I was with a friend who was hauling to an event at Whidbey Island Washington. It was early on a Sunday morning and I was like 16, she was in her early 20’s. We were listening to some whacked out talk show about scary people when along side us drives some people gesturing wildly…well, we were freaked from what we were listening to, so we attempted to ignore them…finally they held up a piece of paper to their window and drove along side of us…the note said “YOUR TRAILER IS ON FIRE”. Well this got our attention. Turns out we had a flat (and we had no clue obviously!) and the back was dragging on the road. This was back before some clever person invented those trailer aid thingies-and this moron of a TB was not a loader, much less on a freeway…some good samaritan with a hydraulic jack saved our butts by changing the tire. That was also the trip where the car overheated in eastern washington, and there we were, driving in mid 90’s heat, with the heater in the car blasting…memorable after all these years! 
trust me - you aren’t the first person to have had that happen to! And for all those people that were comfortable with their 2" balls - oops, a few trailer manufacturers have switched to 2 5/8"
But if you want one even scarier incident, a few months ago I was taking my horse to UGA for surgery, and I hitched up the trailer and loaded him on it, with plenty of time to get to the vet school. I went down the road, thankfully at a crawling pace since it was rush hour. I get about 2 miles down the road, and I just don’t quite like the sound the hitch is making… It pulls just fine, but I keep hearing a “KERCHUNK” every time I start or stop…
Pull into a gas station and look at everything… Just fine. Get on my knees to inspect where hitch is attached to frame, and happen to glance at the underside of the ball attachment… which seems to be MISSING the washer and nut I cannot describe how slowly I drove home, and how badly my hands were shaking!!!
And of course, I regularly checked the tightness of that ball the first 6 months I put it on the receiver, but the damn things just wait until the worst possible moment to give you problems!
So ladies, check your nuts and balls, please
The locking cotter pins work great. Our weight distributing hitch is never taken off.
I did take it off when I had the truck in Manhattan. I was afraid the parking lot attendent would back it through any cars parked behind it. He had a hard enough time dealing with the truck alone.
Hitches are not the only thing to double check. When I was returning from an inspection with my mare,we loaded up, and were just about onto the highway when the trailer stared lurching all over the place-with banging and bouncing. I screamed for my husband to stop-and we pulled onto the shoulder.
The noises coming from the trailer clearly indicated an emergency-and when I opened the front escape door, I discovered that the metal partition had come down on top of my mare, and she had panicked and gotten her front end over the top, twisted it, and the rest was under her back legs!! Here we were on the road-far from home (and no cell phone). Thank God my mare has sense, and trusts me-because I did the really stupid act of the century by crawling into the trailer underneath her and the tangled partition.My husband held onto her head through the door, and I managed to get her legs back over one by one, and push the partition to the side where we took it out the back. She was very heavily wrapped (another thank God) but did manage to tear out a huge chunk of hoof, and get some minor scratches.
Turns out-someone had removed the pins that hold the partition in (we didn’t find a one-and they were there when we arrived). Ever since then-the INSIDE of my trailer gets a once over before departure now too…
Scared the living bejeesus out of me.
when I related my scary story to my friend, she too had that happen-the screw was loose and she was about to lose the ball…
On another note that the trailer guy warned me about was the theft of the equalizer hitches-that puppy ran me over $400, and I guess since they are heavy, a lot of people neglect to take them off the rig that they drive around. He said that thieves make it a habit to snag them, so be warned…I am going to tkae it off and just leave it in my dressing room so it’s always WITH the trailer (don’t you just hate getting out to the barn and realizing you don’t have the whole hitch?)…I love middle age.
Thanks for the warning…(ps, the guy said"didn’t you hear it making a sound?"…well, since I had never towed before, who the hell knows what it is & isn’t supposed to sound like?)egad…
LOL - I like to keep mine on - want to make sure anyone who rear ends me, REALLY pays for it!!
As I near my first trailer purchase, I’ve already worried myself to death about checking to make sure the trailer is going to stay with the truck but now I will do double duty and make sure the inside stays as it should also!
[This message was edited by JB on Jul. 29, 2001 at 12:23 PM.]
DMK, same thing happened to me. But fortunately I hadn’t left the property yet. I usually pull my receiver hitch off and store it in my truck.
I am seriously considering the locking hitch pin instead of the cotter pin and maybe even that “pretend ball” thing that you can lock into the trailer hitch itself. Just so noone “borrows” it. I hate having to lock every darn thing, but I think it is coming to that.
And never feel like you are the dumbest one. We were all loaded up FINALLY to leave for a show. The trainer had her rig in the shop getting serviced and the wiring redone. We load 2 horses and head out the drive, over the speed bump. The next sound we here is the hitch wheel hitting the ground and the yank of the safety chains. NO ONE CHECKED THE HITCH THAT THE “MECHANIC” HAD HOOKED UP FOR US. Trailer jumped the hitch and tore out all the wires from the plug.
Needless to say we didn’t get our early start that day. I have learned to always do a full walk around and test each and every door, tire and finally that the hitch is latched, before we hit the road.
“The older I get, the better I used to be.”
Okay, you guys are beginning to scare me. How did the washer and nut disappear? Through wear and tear and it loosened on the road, taken off, or was the ball swapped?
WOW. You guys are scaring me! I will go out and do a thorough check (as soon as it stops downpouring…)
I know what anti-sway bars are, but what is a weight equalizing hitch? Anyone know of a web site with a picture?
Several months ago I was bringing a freaky 3 year old home from the vets. The vet had helped me load her and had closed the hind end of the trailer. I leave and about 2 miles down the road the horse starts trying to come out through the roof of the trailer. I pull over and jump out and see that one of the upper doors was not closed completely — it had swung open and was banging open an shut as I wound my way down this back-woods road…
I fix it and finally get home (with flashers on, going 20 mph the whole way because now, ANY bump or noise sets the filly off again). I got her out and cooled off and in her stall – then I looked at the trailer. She had sweated so much that it looked like I had hosed down the inside of the trailer — running streams of sweat on the floor.
That was my scariest trip to date, but now I know to NEVER start up without double checking doors etc.
We had the sway bars put on with the equalizing hitch and found it made for a much nicer ride. We have towed on windy stormy days and found that we still got a nice smooth ride. We have a 3/4 ton also.
DMK, I was driving through the drive thru at Dunkin Donuts getting coffee and some lady behind me was so eager to get her donuts and coffee that she rear-ended me. I had my equalizer/weight distribution hitch on. Her Saturn was totally destroyed. Plastic bumper crumpled, front radiator gushing, front end of the car crumpled. I don’t think she could have been going more than 5 mph. My truck didn’t have a dent. All the damage was caused by the hitch. I couldn’t believe how much damage was caused by just the hitch.
I was ready to tell my insurance company to give me a discount for this $400 damage prevention device for my truck!!
Elghund2, the only time I take my hitch off is to go into NYC as well. Where do you park that allows trucks??? I usually have to park on the street and I take off the hitch just so I can fit into a parking space. You know about NYC parking and the braille method
go to www.hitchsupply.com and they have a picture to give you an idea what the weight distributing hitch looks like…the bars are not for sway control, but to lift up the trailer…mine is adjustable height on the stinger that goes into the truck…about $400 plus having someone weld the thingies onto the trailer…but what a differenceG
