Can someone red pill me on how trailer hitches work? It kinda seems like a dumb design to me...

Can someone red pill me on how trailer hitches work? It kinda seems like a dumb design to me. You put the scooped end over a ball and then you basically hand tighten some bullshit plate on top and you're done? How is that secure? I know you have some meme safety chains but fuck I thought it would be more involved than that.

>red pill me
You dumbfucks want any reason to use this even if it makes literally no sense, kill you are self

This is not red pilling, it is simply trying not to shitpost.

Okay, so there is a safety chain and a locking guard that locks underneath the rounded ball on top of the conical bit. There needs to be an amount of play on there because the trailer needs to be able to pivot and turn.
There is no way a reasonably weighted trailer will break lose from that, but off course heavier trailers use a king pin like locking system.

>red pill me

fuck off, you can easily google it and discover why they're safe and why they haven't changed design since forever. you don't even know what red pill means you helpless retard

kys yourself

The trailer receiver slips over the ball. The latch on the reciever pushes in a piece that slides under the rounded part of the ball. For extra measure you put a retaining pin through the latch. With a correctly sized ball and reciever the ball cannot slip off due to the part pushed in from The latch. The safety chains are there in case the ball does jump off from the latch coming undone or due to wear on the mechanism. With proper safety percautions my family has been towing stuff for 50ish years and never seen a hitch come loose. If the ball is to small for the reciever it can jump off. If the latch is not properly secured it can come undone. Hence the need for a safety pin or bolt.

> meme chains

God damn

Huh, I've never seen one where you screw ontop of it to secure. Here they all just have handles to release from the ball

Its secure simply because, atleast here, the handle will need to be lifted for it to come lose, and they're usually spring loaded so that won't ever happen without someone actually pulling on it

The safety chains are not for keeping it on, but to engage the parking brake/emergency brake incase the trailer is to fall off

They do wear out over time tho, thats a little bit of the issue. I grease my ball and the inside of the trailer mount itself like once per year in attempt to minimize the wear, but last year I felt the need to replace the "head" of the coupling on our small box trailer, as there was a bit too much play for my liking

Sweet

Not everything is super complicated you dumbfuck.

A bit more on the chains; SOME are made strong enough so that they should be able to keep on pulling if it was to fall of, but I imagine that most people here can understand why that can quickly end in a much bigger disaster than what would happen if the trailer was to simply fall off, have its brakes engaged and then steer right into the ditch/onto the shoulder/onto the sidewalk and into a group of school children and elderly folks

They are kinda shit that's why real men use pintle hitches with equalizer bars.

Ok, So I just had this installed on my Transit 250 rape van. How do I go about attaching a trailer to this? The whole assembly kinda rattles around a bit, I don't know if that is normal. And there is some meme pin in the back. What do I do with that?

Attach trailer, Attach meme chains, plug in lights.

They're supposed to be a bit loose. You can use butter knives as shims (not in the UK of course kek)

What kind of mount does the trailer you're hooking up have?

...

Fuck me, that looks strange compared to what I'm used to

But, just looking at it I'm guessing that the square plate near the ball will have to be unscrewed before you put the head ontop of the ball, then screwing the plate tightly back on. Chain attaches to somewhere solid it won't come lose. If you can put it over the ball safely then t hat is the best spot

Electric cables go in the electric cable socket. We use 7-pin connectors for normal trailers here, but you amerifats might use something diferent

There will always be a little bit of play, as this is required for the trailer to be able to turn and maneuver safely

LOL wtf is that

Fucking euro's can't even get a trailer right lel. That thing looks chincy as fuck. No wonder "your cars can tow" when you're towing around glorified shopping carts.

I've never heard that in my life. Source?

My experience, and the results of a short google search, say the chains are to hold the trailer and only if the chains fail will the brakes activate.

I can see how it might be beneficial to have both sides lock up as soon as it leaves the ball, though. That would mean it doesn't dive into the back of your truck when you come to a stop.

But the chains are definitely supposed to hold the trailer onto you.

U-Haul somehow thought this was a good idea

>Can someone red pill me
can you faggots stop saying this? holy fuck it doesn't even make sense in this context

talk like a normal fucking person

The chains are there if the hitch fails. Trailers with electric brakes have a little cable that pulls a pin and applies the brakes if the hitch AND the chains fail.

Is a fifth wheel actually better?

And why is it even called that?

>Can someone red pill me on how trailer hitches work

the literal definition of lurk moar.

>kys yourself

not sure if bait...

>surge brakes
More like meme brakes.

I am kinda excited that I can tow shit now. I kinda want to test tow something. What should I tow? I got a 5000 lb limit.

U-haul with momentum activated brakes?

Well then congratulations, you're retarded

fifth wheel is better for really large trailers, as it moves a bunch of the weight over the rear axel, and is easier to handle driving compared to the ball hitch. It's called a fifth wheel because back in the horse and buggy days, there was a wagon design that placed a fifth wheel in the frame of the wagon for better pivoting.

>Muh autism tells me that trailer hitches are too simple to work and I can't comprehend them.