Re: [A/S] Equalizing Hitches (was: Dura-Torque)

["jimmartin93" <jimmartin93@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

His note reminded me of an incident I had earlier last year and would like
to pass it along to all who use the equalizer hitches for Airstreams, SOB's,
or anything else. It comes under the heading of SAFETY, and I'd like to
pass along my being dumb about something that may hopefully prevent
injury to person (s) or wallets. I have a 73 23' Safari purchased with a
Reese eqalizer already set up. While hitching up I failed to raise the hitch
up to its highest point before raising the bars up via the snap-over
brackets. My normal 18 inch pipe wasn't around so I grabbed about a
3 foot piece of  3/4 inch water pipe. The bracket came up pretty hard
but I was determined, although not that strong, and had good leverage.
The next thing I knew was that the nub or horn that the pipe slips over
broke off right at the base and sputtered down the pavement some 40
feet. Upon retrieving the 'horn' and holding it next to where it had been
a couple minutes earlier, it was evident that there was a dark area about
1/16 inch along the face of the horn, the rest of it was shinny crystallized
steel. Further inspection with a magnifying glass showed that there were
some nicks or stress risers where the dark area started. It appears, and
the other side is showing signs of this starting, that pipes used in the
past
had sharp corners and had, through several years of use, cut into the
'horn' and got the whole mess started. Again I blew it not having the
hitch in the proper position prior to raising the bars, BUT; this could
happen to anyone even with a raised hitch. My suggestion is that
whatever pipe is used to raise these bars should be chamfered with a
pipe reamer or some other tool to take the sharp edge off the inside
of the pipe, preventing damage to the horn. That should befollowed
with a close inspection of the snap-over bracket for damage and filing
out any nicks with a fine round file, or replacement.
I don't know what the arc of the projectile (horn) was but it sure
wouldn't have felt really that good to anyone standing around watching
the proceedings, or a passing vehicle for that matter. I was lucky and
want to pass this along to the group in the interest of safety, and saving
some 40 bucks for a new snap-over bracket.

Regards to all, Jim Martin  jimmartin@netzero.net
1973 23' Safari in McFarland, WI