Problem with Reese Signature Hitch

[RogersM]

I have the 18K Reese Signature fiver hitch and basically love it. I do have a recurring problem however. Anyone familiar with them knows about the galvanized piece which is 'the flag'. It rotates out of the way when hitched to allow dropping of a pin thru holes to lock the bar in place. Anyway, the part of this piece which is on the inside of the cradle is supposed to be contacted by the king pin which pushes it forward thereby moving the 'flag' out of the way. Well this piece rotates on a rivet under the cradle. On mine the inside piece gets constantly bent down and eventually jams under the cradle preventing hook up or unhooking until I pry the sucker loose and forward again. So far tech serv. at Reese which is near impossible to reach has been of no help and seem to not know what the H... i'm talking about.



Has anyone else had this problem? BTW, yes... I did and do follow directions when hitching. It's a real PIA. Any solutions?



Thanks,

Mark

 

[Bertram65]

That happened to mine once, the reason mine did that was I hitched up with the trailer just a little too high, I had to bend it back, now I make sure the trailer is low enough where it forces the truck down a little as it slides onto the plate.

 

[RogersM]

Same here but once I bent it back... not easy... . it happened again even though I have the trailer right down on the cradle when I hitch up. When I unhitched about five hours later. . it was bent again. I'm tempted to just remove it as it is just a convenience thing to let you know the pin is all the way in w/o looking from behind the truck... but removing it would/could cause serious liability issues.

I email Reese about a week ago... no reply. Guess I'll try to call them again but last time it took 40 minute in voice mail hold before i got to talk to someone.

Mark