Receiver Pin Hole Elongating

[GCULP]

anyone have trouble with the pin hole in your receiver elongating or egg shaping, mine has developed some slop and I can feel the hitch move to and frow on acceleration and braking. I tow a light utility trailer weekly and 30' TT during the summer, weighs maximum 9000#.

 

[jmorse]

The hitch on my service truck did the same thing. I was going to fix it by welding new plates to the tube, but I got a new C&C and built a new hitch when I transfered the body over.



Jim

 

[Cummins724]

Yeah mine has done it too... . I was gonna plate it, but was told that if I got caught with plates welded on it... . its trouble. My hitch never enlongated until I got a pintle hitch... . now the weight shifts so bad that it looks like a egg.

 

[Hoefler]

It is caused by towing trailers with very little or no tongue weight. The trailer is rattling the shank as you go down the road. With proper tongue weight, the shank is firmly planted in the receiver and will not move. chances are the shank is egged as well. By welding plates on the receiver, you only temporarily patch the receive. The extra metal will require a longer pin, they don't make. Then you use a none recommended bolt, it will bend or break. The only real fix is to replace the receiver, shank and properly load the trailer.

 

[terrywerm]

Like Hoefler said, light tongue weights are the most likely culprit. I run into the same thing pulling farm wagons. Lots of weight on the wagon, but nothing on the tongue, and some of those wagons can buck quite a bit, depending on the road surface. Keeping my speed down helps, but does not resolve the problem.



I plated mine right off the get go and the hitch I use for pulling wagons has a solid shank, not a tube. Plating it before the problem started and using a solid shank spread the shock out over a larger area of the pin, resulting in less wear. As for the longer pin needed, that was easy: I use a farm wagon draw pin to hold the hitch into my receiver.

 

[HPetrat]

I had the same problem several years ago, and I agree that the low tongue weight is the main source of the grief.



I removed the 5/8" pin and re-bored the hitch and receiver for 3/4" pin and made a custom pin from 4140 heat treated and stress relieved bar stock.

The larger diameter gives more bearing surface to distribute the load shifts.



I also started to pay more attention to hitch loading and tongue weights.



HP

 

[Prairie Dog]

Mine did it too and it seams like it showed up after I pulled a few stumps out with it. :-laf

 

[JOdell]

I have used one of these cushioned ball mount for years. It works real good. No hard jerking when taking off. -Jason

 

[Rockcrawler]

While the low/minimal tongue weight may accelerate the issue, mine egged slightly without that issue (700-1200 lbs depending on trailer,/load, used equalizer brand hitch most of the time- verified with race scales). That said, I've got about 70 k towing miles on the hitch. my pin had a dog leg on one end which accelerated the issue and made it look worse on the outside than it actually is.



This is an easy fix with siomething called a weld washer. You can buy them or fab them, just a thicker washer- say 3/16 or 1/4" with a closer tolerance 5/8 hole. Weld one one each side and you have a better than factory product. This is a known acceptable practice done by top fab shops fabbing offroad and desert cars- it's not "Bad" for anything. Longer pins are readily available at farm shops etc. the normal pins we readily buy now are nothing magical- just low grade steel