[A/S] Hitch and Safety...

["Jim Clark" <jec1938@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One more suggestion for the safe hook up...we get used to the hitch 
and sometimes get a little careless about hooking up...

If you leave the tensioning of the bars to the last step in hook up 
you have a better chance of having your head, hands, arms etc out of 
the way of a break in some part of the spring bar lashup...The hitch 
is very reliable as devices go, but dangerous in the amount of damage 
it can do when something goes wrong...you can get everything else 
hooked with the bars loose...

I like the jack method because it eases the load on the bars and on 
both bars rather than one at a time....just stand away from the bars 
and reach out for the switch....or if you are cranking, stand as far 
back as you can....

If you like the lever one side up at a time method... use the longest 
pipe you can get on the chain mount without digging into the ground 
trying to get the end of the pipe on the mount with the chain on the 
hook....mine is a little under 3'... I got religion about this after 
using a cresent wrench with the hole in the handle on the chain mount 
and the head of the wrench in my hand...the nose of the truck was a 
little up and something slipped while I was lifting the spring 
bar...the wrench flew about 10' and the hand took 6 months to get 
back to normal....nothing broken but damn sore....I can't remember 
why I wasn't lifting it high enough with the jack....probably because 
the nose was up...

If you use the chain and bolts that come with the bars, a break in 
one of those parts is very rare....

And while I am recommending.. if you are around the midwest in the 
Fall, Door County Wisconsin is a great place to visit...

Jim