cougar

600 mile round trip from Sutton to Tok, AK and back with a travel trailer. A dirt road would have been smoother. Any way, sneaked my truck into the shop yesterday to survey the damage. After pulling my broken front drive shaft I set my attention on the trailer hitch.
The class 4 hitch was toast. The square cross tube that supports the 2" receiver tube was twisted. The 4 mounting ears on the side plates were bent. The two back ones bent up and the two forward ones bent down.
Now my frame.
The very aft section were the hitch bolts on at the end of the rails is bent down and crack from the end of the rails to the mounting holes. The forward point were the hitch was attached is bent up. The whole rear section of frame is bent down a couple of degrees just behind the axle at that cross brace.
Going to talk to the frame shop next week to see what can be done.

thrashingcows

Man that sucks!! How was your travel trailer set up? Did you have equalizer bars? Was it tongue heavy?

Hope it can get fixed easily.

cougar

No equalizer hitch and tongue weight was well under capacity. It was just the road conditions. I've pulled many a heavier trailer without problems sense I've owned the truck. I was looking at what pulltillbroke built for sled pulling. Now that's a hitch!

thrashingcows

You got that right....Man that is a stout hitch!!

unixcowboy

Cougar,
You want bad roads try I-20 East of Vicksburg, Ms.

Only time I had a 5th wheel drag my truck around the road.
Between bouncing up and down and the ruts pulling side to side I was worn out trying to get 80 mi to the Mississippi River.....Only time I was afraid of tearing out a hitch - and that was at 55 mph.
Broke half my plates, 2 cups, and 3 glasses....At least I had the cabinet doors tied shut so all the pieces stayed in the cabinets

Billut

[QUOTE=unixcowboy;2804971]Cougar,
You want bad roads try I-20 East of Vicksburg, Ms.


No EDIT! I've driven that bit - going from B'ham to Dallas - a few times with a 30 ft gooseneck loaded with lumber and I thought that the truck was lifted by the trailer, the road was so bad!

unixcowboy

Maybe we should let Washington know WHERE to spend some of the hiway money they're spending.
Around here they're tearing up good road with a few good patch jobs to repave it all in one stretch so there wont be any tar strips.

cougar

The only thing they have done up here is grind a couple inches off the top and resurfaced. But that was only to give a better tourist impression to Anchorage. Our whole road system needs a major rework but fat chance of that ever happening. Whats his face in DC needs to drive our roads rather than saying we don't need any.

Billut

That would be Ray LaHood: I still can't come up with a good joke about under the hood, someone else will...