Receiver Hitch Must be Empty if No Trialer Attached?

[GWBourne]

thats a california, arizona, oregon, and washington law. lived in all of them. when i move i read up on all laws, little or small. thats one i didnt know about, so i make a point when moving to look it up.



here is why if it has not been stated already. i back into spots 90% of the time. no big deal till the guy with the receiver hitch backs in by a side walk and i rack my knee on the hitch. now the parking lot owner is responsible for the injury.



the larger reason: if i am driving my little ford escort and smash into the back of your hitch the car is not made to take 3k of force on a 2 inch impact area. this means a lot of force is placed in a small area pushing the engine into the firewall. you know where this goes from there. make the area a lot larger, say the entire front of the ride, and the forced is lessened per square inch. more visible destruction, less bodily injury in most cases.



Grant

 

[Thomas]

I believe in California it is the law...

thats a california, ... law...

If so, you should be able to read about it here: http://www.dmv. ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc.htm

I don't think you'll find anything.

 

[JPope]

I have a friend who is a former Coralville cop. He got back from some time off and checked with the guys he knows on the Coralville police force. He checked with them and none said they had heard of this, or anything even near it, so confirms what Todd T. said, it does not exist, at least in Coralville.



Though the store manager was trying to helpful, it seems as though it is one of those stories????????????????

 

[CRuth]

Hmmm, lived in CA all my life and never heard of that one. Just about everyone I know that has a receiver leaves it in. I have a camper on my truck and it makes a nice step up into the camper, though I have a nicer two step hitch I use on the longer trips. I have a locking pin on mine. Never worry about it getting stolen.

 

[Mundgyver]

Most police officers carry a little red book with all the traffic laws and such. You can also get one at the police station. If this thing about receiver hitches is a supposed law, then it will be in their book. I know they will show it to you if asked.



The reason I know this is because the Oregon Drivers guide sayw one thing and the little red book says another. When the two books were shown to the judge as being opposed to each other, he threw out the case for a supposed illegal U-turn.



I suspect that this hitch thing is a false hood. Can anyone produce this citing of a law in a valid government writing

 

[TowPro]

I got rear ended in a ford ranger with a hitch in the receiver. Yes it tore up the car that hit me, The receiver went through the radiator and AC condensor and actualy split the alunimum engine block. My damage did not look bad, but after putting it on a lift I discovered it also pushed down on the receiver pretty hard, and the frame is what gave! It actually pushed the frame up where the front of the receiver hitch bolted on. A year or so later my wife got rear ended in another ranger we owned (with no receiver in the hitch). yes I needed to replace the rear bumper but no frame damage.



I was just rear ended in a 98 Jetta on Oct 11. I was sitting still waiting for someone in front of me to turn and a lady hit me from behind at 45mph. It was like slow motion, I saw it coming. I had time to move down in the seat and lay back so my head and neck was protected by the seat head rest. Just before she hit me the car in front of me made the LT so I never hit it. The back of the jetta folded up pretty good and adsorbed the impact because of the crumple zones. If this jetta had a hitch with a receiver in it, it would have bypassed the crumple zones and the impact transmitted to my body would have been a lot greater and I might have been hurt. Without the hitch, I walked away.



I always remove my receiver when not in use.

 

[BMH95]

There are good arguments for not having the hitch in the reciever. While I am a strong believer in less goverment is better than more goverment, my understanding is the Airbag control circuits in many cars, especially early air bag equiped, have inputs from sensors in and around the bumpers.



A hitch distributes impact around these sensors thus decreasing air bag usefullness. This applies to hitter and hitee. Not sure of the circuitry for the airbags on the Ram.



Just my two cents but if it is true, I am sure some lawyer will be all over this if the hitters airbag does not deploy because of your hitch and there is a law against it.



Personally I leave mine out so it does not get ripped off and makes it easier to access the back of the bed. (weight distributing hitch)



To the defense of hitch in, I laughed like hell when I saw a lexus impaled on the hitch of a f350. The blond could not figure out why her car would not back up after the collision and thought her trans was bad! :-laf

Wouldn't the car hitting the hitch actually dissipate energy pre-bumper impact, therefore lowering speed / impact force of the car when the airbag got deployed?

 

[BMH95]

thats a california, arizona, oregon, and washington law. lived in all of them. when i move i read up on all laws, little or small. thats one i didnt know about, so i make a point when moving to look it up.



here is why if it has not been stated already. i back into spots 90% of the time. no big deal till the guy with the receiver hitch backs in by a side walk and i rack my knee on the hitch. now the parking lot owner is responsible for the injury.



the larger reason: if i am driving my little ford escort and smash into the back of your hitch the car is not made to take 3k of force on a 2 inch impact area. this means a lot of force is placed in a small area pushing the engine into the firewall. you know where this goes from there. make the area a lot larger, say the entire front of the ride, and the forced is lessened per square inch. more visible destruction, less bodily injury in most cases.



Grant

But in that case, wouldn't you run a higher risk of submarining the pickup and getting a nasty case of bumper in the face? I think I'd rather get stopped by the hitch than find myself under the truck.

 

[Todd T]

Pardon my brutal honesty here but, if someone is walking THAT close to my truck they hit their shins, head or shoulder on something sticking off of it (hitch, mirrors, tailgate) they deserve it. Period! including myself

 

[rivercat]

Not long ago the wifey took my truck to get some lunch at a nearby fast food joint. As shes walking out both arms full of food,purse. A mexican backs a old jap beater through my 8" drop hitch with 2-5/16 ball attached and leaves without his rear bumper chirping every gear to get out of there as fast as he can. She just laghed as well as other onlookers, pulled the gored bumper off the hitch and returns with the food and a big smile.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Pardon my brutal honesty here but, if someone is walking THAT close to my truck they hit their shins, head or shoulder on something sticking off of it (hitch, mirrors, tailgate) they deserve it. Period! including myself

AMEN brother! :-laf :-laf

 

[SnoKing]

I think some of you need to get a life. Put the SandW back in the gun locker and relax a bit. SNOKING

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

I think some of you need to get a life. Put the SandW back in the gun locker and relax a bit. SNOKING

Would that opinion be along the lines of "all you worriers about erosion of personal freedoms and overprotective government, go back to sleep, and slumber on - big brother is only interested in what's best for you... "



QUESTION:



How do you eat an Elephant?



ANSWER:



ONE bite at a time!

 

[CUMMINZ]

Some of you need to be ashamed of yourself. I can understand thinking a protruding hitch may save some of your truck skin but there are instances that a protruding hitch could be a real safety issue.



I. E. I have backed into a parking space to within 2 feet of the poor dude behind me. Its raining and dark and some poor sucker is dashing between the space between your vehicles. He is not looking down he is just heading for his car. He strikes his right leg on your truck skin protector falls and breaks his back. Now laugh!! A good lawyer and this man in the hospital might just own your new 2006 dually and skin protector.

 

[Dual EE]

Buddy of mine "had" a 1985 Chevy 1500 with 35" tires and a 4" drop hitch. He was rear ended in a intersection by a 70's Impala. The driver of the Impala must not of had insurance and took off. My buddy was dazed from the hit and was not able to follow. As he sat there he thought the truck felt funny. He got out to take a look and was amazed. The frame was bent up between the cab and the bed by about 6". The rear of the truck was not damaged. The Impala hit the 4" drop hitch hard enough to shorten his wheel base and give him a lift.



He now drives a 95 Dodge.

 

[mysteryman]

It is actually a good idea to take it out when not in use..... I have often seen severe frame damage result from rear end collisions when the hitch has been left in that may not have happedned other wise..... The greater the drop the greater the leaver... ... I don't give a dam about the knuckle head that hits my truck! but I sure care about my trucks being damaged!.

 

[Hohn]

This almost sounds like an urban legend.



That said, if it's true, it's angering.







Since when is the fault of the HITCH when you run into it?



Say a drunk driver drives his car into someone's living room-- it's CLEARLY the homeowner's fault for living there, correct??



If we apply this line of foolish reasoning to other circumstances, it's quite clear just FOOLISH this reasoning (or, lack of it to be more precise) is.



jmo

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

The assumption by some here. is that the hitch is rarely or only occasionally used, with LONG periods of non-use in between.



But I for one, have lived nearly all my life in farming and rural settings, where a truck is a WORK vehicle, and frequently used to hitch up a wide variety of devices on a regular, daily basis.



In that setting, the harassment and foolishness of REMOVING that hitch, in all kinds of weather, in rain, and thru accumulated mud, just to "protect" some careless idiot who skins a shin or rearends you at a stopsign, is just another case of Big Brother getting intrusive and over protective.



Pretty soon, these damn vehicles will all be government owned, and only LOANED or leased to us under strict conditions we make NO changes to them on fear of imprisonment!



WHO woulda thought, 50 years ago, that the day would come when cars we drive today essentially have the hoods sealed, since there are precious FEW things an owner can lawfully do under there without breaking some law or voiding a warranty!



Is today, with all these nifty new laws and regulations and controls REALLY a better place than back in the 50's?



Well, FEW of you were around back then, but for me, I'd take THOSE days over THESE in a heartbeat! You could walk city streets - both in the USA and most foreign cities - at night, and not fear for your life.



You could make as many changes to your personal transportation and many other possessions without fear for the cops - or the lawyers as you wished or could afford.



NO. it wasn't perfect, but the constant intrusion of today, deeper and ever deeper into our personal lives and actions were undreamed of a few short decades ago - and some, here, will insist it's a GOOD thing...

 

[OTRPU]

A thought that crossed my mind today. . . I'm not real pleased with what the world has become. Lots different than most of my life, and I thought less than it used to be. Then I thought I'm not happy about this, but if I continue in this line of thought. . . I'm just ensuring my unhappiness. Not alot of time left for me to try and change things for the better. Maybe my time is better spent working at being happy with what is. I could continue to complain about other's driving, but all I can really control is me. So that's what I choose to do. . . otherwise I'll die a very unhappy driver. Another thought occurred to me today, saw tons of American Flags everywhere. If the American Flag you're a wavin wasn't made in America. . . you're the problem. Just a thought.



Cheers,

Steve J

 

[BMH95]

A thought that crossed my mind today. . . I'm not real pleased with what the world has become. Lots different than most of my life, and I thought less than it used to be. Then I thought I'm not happy about this, but if I continue in this line of thought. . . I'm just ensuring my unhappiness. Not alot of time left for me to try and change things for the better. Maybe my time is better spent working at being happy with what is. I could continue to complain about other's driving, but all I can really control is me. So that's what I choose to do. . . otherwise I'll die a very unhappy driver. Another thought occurred to me today, saw tons of American Flags everywhere. If the American Flag you're a wavin wasn't made in America. . . you're the problem. Just a thought.



Cheers,

Steve J

Please see my sig for supporting documentation.