I hate theifs! My boy backed the truck up to the trailer, then came and got me "Hey Dad, somethings wrong here." Some theif went and stole the ballmount & pin from out of the reciever hitch on the back of our pickup. I went out and bought a new ball, a new ball mount & this time "A LOCKING PIN"! This had me somewhat bent because some jerk was to lazy to buy their own and stole mine. Anyway, for those of you with reciever hitches you may want to consider also buying a locking pin or just removing the ball mount & installing it only when you use it. I thought I would share this and pass it along to prevent others from the same thing. Has anyone else out there had their's stolen also?
I always take mine out when not in use, hate it when I walk past and bang my shin on it! Always some colorful expressions then! jerry
At work, on a busy street, in the middle of the day and surrounded by other businesses', a guy pulls up to the employee vehicles parked off street, but with the rear ends facing the street, and snags a co-workers hitch. He was seen doing it out a window but was long gone before anyone could get out there. Talk about nerve!
I keep my hitch inside the truck, but I have had two receiver plugs swiped; not a big thing, because they were just the stock rubber ones that came with the truck, but agravating, none the less because they cost some bucks.
I always remove mine and put it away some other place other than the van. That way if my car is in the trailer they will have a hard time taking the trailer with the van. Why roll out the red carpet for these low lifes. I also put the locking pin back in the van so they can't bring their own trailer ball. A freind who is a cop warned me how many trailers are stolen in my area that he patrols. Gary M.
I sell truck equipment and we recommend them big time. We also sell alot of drawbars and balls because crackheads swipe them.
Man I know it totally sux....but there have been several m/c 's and trailed cars stolen at rod and bike runs every year by this simple to fix problem..sounds like the cheap to learn this lesson..
I always use a lock pin, and have never had a problem. Sort of on the subject, I always put a bulldog coupler on my trailers. Well worth the expense. http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=22898&R=22898#productinfo
We found a crackhead trying to steal the pintle on the drawbar on my friends old truck. It had a standard pin, but this hitch has thwarted every attempt we have ever done to get it out, since it has not ever been removed in the 20 years he has owned it and has rusted into place. We were quite surprised at this guy hammering away, but let him wail on it for a full half hour until he got it out. We sat there with the police for the last 10 minutes watching him. As soon as it was out and he sat down to rest the cops grabbed him. Now we can put a normal ball on the sucker!
Here in the snow/salt belt, if you don't store it behind the seat you will never get it back out of the receiver due to rust. Ask me how I know?
I usually drive my daily to work, leave my truck at home in the garage with the hitch and ball in it. I drove it to work one day in the last three years. Went to hook up the boat a few days later, no hitch or ball. Now i have a locking pin.
A buddy of mine got back to the boat ramp after a day of boating and found some SOB had unhithched his boat trailer leaving it sit on the ground behind his truck and stold the hith ball mount out of the reciever. It is amazing what people will steel.
yep here in the salt belt they are rusted in never to be removed again. --- we dont even need a pin to hold them in! they can have them here if they get them out.
the big thing around here that i hear about is them taking the htch out and throwing it thru the windo and stealing everything inside the truck or the truck itself.
I leave mine in - with a locking pin - then when you get rear ended - you win for sure. It isn't a great idea to keep that projectile inside your vehicle - will not feel good on your head. I flipped my truck once - the hitch made exit
I always leave mine in the hitch. Got reaended once while I was stopped. The reciever helped save the ass end of the truck. Just had a slightly bent bumper.
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