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2022-08-12 10:58:53 By : Ms. Norah Zhai

There's more to towing than buying a truck with a 10,000-lb tow rating

It was the running lights of the trailer that first caught my attention. They flashed in the side mirror for a brief second – odd, because usually I can’t see them like that. Odder still, the running lights were then replaced by a spinning tire. Floating in the air, several feet away from the asphalt it was supposed to be firmly attached to, and then, the tire disappeared too. Replaced by an angry grating sound and a shower of sparks.

That’s how I learned the first of 5 towing lessons that I learned throughout my first year of towing. The hard way.

The lesson here is simple. Never tow a trailer empty – especially not in high winds.

Funny thing, wind. If you give it a large enough surface area it can carry just about anything away with it. In this case I was transporting my 9-foot high, 10×5 trailer to a friend’s place for off-season storage. Empty.

I was doing 80 km/h down a highway when my shiny new race bike trailer was picked up by a 60-km/h gust of wind and knocked on its side.

The resulting damage was thankfully quite minor. Beckner Trailers use the same aluminum A-frame on their smaller, single-axle trailers like mine as they do on their much larger units. The same 2-1/5” hitch ball as well. That meant that the force of my 900-kg trailer twisting was transferred entirely to my hitch bar. It twisted with the trailer mount, but left the hitch receiver on my truck, and the trailer frame, completely straight.

Had I left some weight in the trailer, like the four cinder blocks I removed right before setting off, or even my race bike, that weight would have sat nice and low in the chassis, on the floor. Even a hundred or so pounds would have been enough to keep my trailer from going backside over tea kettle.

Wind: 1. Trailer: 1. Draw bar: Zero. Jacob’s Ego: -1 million

The hitch ball is mounted to the hitch bar, the hitch bar to the hitch receiver, the whole thing joins the truck and trailer and that’s how you haul your stuff.

Draw bars, tow balls, couplers, A-frames and all, the towing lingo is sometimes overwhelming. I know that what I used to call a hitch, is actually a hitch receiver. For example.

So, a quick crash course:

The A-frame is the bit on the front of the trailer, shaped like an A. It is attached to the chassis of the trailer at one end and supports the coupler on the other.

The coupler is the bulbous nose of the trailer, into which the tow ball joins. Once connected, the coupler lock secures the coupler to the tow ball. The coupler lock is the spring-loaded lever you need to pull up and back before hitching your trailer then push down and forward when connected to lock. If you forget to push down the lever, the coupler won’t be locked onto the hitch ball, and the trailer will bounce free.

The tow ball is mounted on the hitch bar, which is plugged into the hitch receiver on your vehicle, usually with a locking pin called a hitch pin.

Pro Tip: It is “illegal” to install the hitch pin wrong.

This one is not necessarily true, but it is something I’ve heard a lot from folks at rest stops. I couldn’t find a single piece of legislation to support it, so let’s call it an urban myth. Albeit one with some basis in truth.

Most pros will tell you to install the hitch pin from the driver’s side. The reason for this is that the curved end is the last piece to give way, that means if the trailer breaks free it will fall to the passenger side, aka the curb side, and be less likely to give way and careen into oncoming traffic.

Class I, II, III, IV and V are all code for a certain gross tow-weight (GTW) rating and tongue-weight rating:

Because we all did Math, we know that the tongue weight is usually 10 percent of the gross tow rating. The Gross Tow Rating means the total weight you can pull – that means the weight of the trailer, its load, and even the hitch bar itself. The tongue weight is the downward pressure on the hitch ball, the weight of the tongue of the trailer (aka the A-Frame).

The easy way to tell what class hitch receiver is on your car is by the opening size. Class I and II receivers have a 1 ¼” x 1 ¼” opening. Class III and IV a 2×2” and Class V a 2 ½” opening. Most pickup trucks have a Class III or IV receiver. Most mini vans and small SUVs have a Class I or II receiver.

Literally everything that connects your trailer to your truck (or car) is keyed to fit one specific class. For example, most Class I and II hitch bars have hitch balls of 1 7/8” diameter. This hitch ball will not fit a coupler that is larger, the trailer will simply bounce free.

From there, it gets more complicated. Because hitch balls come in 1 7/8”, 2” and 2 5/16” sizes. Those balls could be used on any thing from Class III upwards. You need to make sure any accessories you buy, hitch bar to coupler matches the ball size of your coupler.

Ball too big – you can’t get the coupler lock engaged and the trailer will bounce free.

Ball too small – the coupler lock just slides off, and the trailer will bounce free.

Towing companies make all sorts of adaptors and extenders for hitch bars and receivers, making it physically possible for you to connect a Class III coupler to a Class I or II hitch receiver and hitch ball. But you never, ever should. Each of those adaptors and extenders come with vivid warnings, letting you know that using them halves your tow rating instantly.

Worse, it halves the tow rating of the lowest link in your system – meaning your Class II hitch just dropped to a 1,750-lb tow rating and 175-lb tongue weight. These adaptors are mostly there for you to use to connect a hitch-mounted bike rack or cargo caddy. They are not for towing.

Pro Tip: If you realize that fact after you’ve bought them – you can’t return them.

Even if you were at least smart enough to Google “Is a tow adaptor safe to use” before installing it, you’re now left with a $150+ piece of scrap steel. I got $15 for mine.

Tow Company: 1. Credit Card Company: 1. Jacob’s Wallet: -$135

If you own a trailer, tipping a trailer on its side is frustrating, but if it’s a good strong one, the repair cost is only as high as your vanity wants it to be. My trailer was a bit beaten up, but otherwise good to go. No harm no foul. Except that by “my trailer” I mean, “the one I was borrowing”. Hence the lesson: Don’t borrow a trailer.

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