Trailer Adventure

I had a little adventure picking up my MF 202 with a loader, which I bought last summer. I had driven it to my sons house in St. Johns. I borrowed my neighbors implement trailer, because it had it parked in the field I picked it up with my 3020 JD, I have a three point attachment with a receiver. I thought it took a 2&3/16 ball, but it would not let the ball in so I went home and got a 2 inch ball figuring my memory was faulty (not a non-normal situation). I then hooked it to my HD 2500 Silverado and headed out. When I got to my son's house I tryed to back the tractor onto the trailer to get the weight forward. When I got to the wooded portion of the trailer beaver tail it spun-out and I let it roll back down the ramps. The trailer came unhooked and the ramps folded up allowing the trailer to roll forward off the ramp supports. The trailer tongue hit the bumper dead on the license plate destroying the bumper sheet metal (it was pretty rusty and had been hit before on both ends). I hooked the trailer back up and drove the tractor on with no issues, chained it down to YT standards ( I should have inspected the hitch). When I started forward it popped off the ball, no damage this time it just dropped down on the safety chains. Now I focused on the ball and I got a 2&3/16 ball off the floor on the passenger side and tried it in the hitch and it fit perfectly. So I changed the ball and hitched up and went home with no issues (the 2500 has the 8.1 with the Allison trans and pulls smoothly). Evidently when I attempted initially to hitch to the 2 & 3/16 ball something in the hitch was frozen or rusted and came loose in the trip over(I had sprayed the hitch with oil). The 2500 now has a new bumper, which it needed anyway, I got lucky.

I've never heard of a 2 3/16 ball. All I've ever used are 2 5/16. Having said that, I had the same thing happen a few years ago. Borrowed neighbors trailer and was told it took a 2 ball. loaded the tractor and almost made it home when it came off the ball. Safety chains and the chains holding the tractor held and only tore out a post at a neighbors driveway. Hooked it back up, got it home and was unloading the tractor when it came off the ball again hitting my tailgate. Then I looked at the trailer and there plainly was stamped 2 5/16 ball. Sometimes it pays to look don't it. We all make mistakes but in both your and my situations nothing much was hurt except our pride LOL. Keith

I had a similar experience. I borrowed a trailer. The owner told me the wrong size ball it required. I took his word for it. Let trailer down on what I thought was the right sized ball, and took off. It could of easily been a disaster. But it didn't. And I learned a valuable lesson. Never take someones word for it, on size of ball. And more importantly, don't borrow something unless you have to

Standards Jim
Data

Back when my boys were quite young, I put them in an old pickup bed trailer for a ride across the bottom field. The trailer takes an 1 7/8 ball, and I had an 1 7/8 ball on the drawbar. Nevertheless, the hitch came off--I suspect a bump dislodged the clamp. The tongue came up, and the trailer stopped--I had been in 1st gear, so perhaps 2 mph. No injuries, but the younger one was crying. Not hurt, just mad as a wet hen. He still--some 15-16 years later--gets on me about that day.

At least you got home. A person learns quick, about tractors, and trailers. When I first started mowing. I was unloading my MF. Truck parking brakes on. As I was backing off, the trailer lifted the truck rear wheels up. Off went the truck, trailer, the tractor 1/2 off down the hill. I stopped when the truck hit a parked car. If I had kept backing off everything would have been fine. From that experience I now use wheel blocks unloading on a hill. I also use four chains. After my tractor rolled off my trailer at a stop sign one time. Stan

Never heard of a 2 3/19 ball. 1 7/8. 2, 2 5/16 but never a 2 3/16. And I do have a 1 3/4 but never found a hitch it did fit. Have no idea where I had gotten it.

Pulled a U-hall one time with an adjustable coupler. 17/8 had slack, 2 had slack but would not come unhitched, 2 5/16 was too big, would not go in the coupler. So i surmised that there must be another size, Canada maybe, that I knew nothing about. The thing bumped along behind with slack in the coupler.

Do not know about today but back in the late 70s U-Haul used a 2 1/8 inch ball.
Every ball and hitch they used was specifically made just for U-Haul. Even had their name stamped into the top of the ball.

I worked at a U-Haul dealer in high school and rented hundreds of those 2 1/8 balls. I was told that they used that odd and unique size to keep people from stealing them as they were no good for any other trailers.

The exact reason I hate ball hitches. We have regular draw pin tongues and no balls. Just drop a pin in and go. Don't seem to have them come out and if I use a pin in the bottom it is usually gone by the time I unhitch it. For road travel we use a bolt with a nut on it. Don't travel with trailers much just to the field and back wagons have pretty much gone away too.

(quoted from post at 13:12:15 01/12/22) Never heard of a 2 3/19 ball. 1 7/8. 2, 2 5/16 but never a 2 3/16. And I do have a 1 3/4 but never found a hitch it did fit. Have no idea where I had gotten it.

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I have never heard of a 2 3/19 ball either.

Maybe just maybe the OP made a typo, just like you did?

Soooooo, gross human negligence is why you hate ball hitches?

I had one come off trying to load a tractor on my trailer. It was because I didn't latch the coupler. Totally my fault.

Whenever I hitch up to go on the road I always raise the trailer back up with the jack after latching the coupler to make sure it is on the ball and latched properly.

Here is something that does not take long to check that may save you some misfortune.

I had a new to me boat trailer come off the hitch, fortunately I had the safety chains properly crossed so they kept the hitch from digging into the ground until I got it stopped.

Ball was the right size for the hitch.

Hooked it back up then figuring it may have been out of adjustment I grabbed a 3/4 wrench and snugged up the adjusting nut, all seemed good and it made it home.

Once home a closer inspection reveled that someone had assembled the hitch with the underjaw tab below the pivot pin.
Everything would feel tight when you would hook it up but without the tab being properly anchored the underjaw was able to move back when under load allowing the hitch to release from the ball.

I will probably never see this again but since that happened I have crawled under every trailer I have pulled and checked just to be sure.

Yes 2&5/16 my eyes are still foggy from the surgery (and of course the foggy brain from old age). It didn't help as I was trying to beat the weather. By the time my eyes un-fogged (it takes to about 10:00 am) I was running late. As it was I just beat the ice. When I took the trailer back I used the JD 3020 and when I pulled into the road and shifted into 7th gear it moved around. The tractor weights 10,000 pounds (actual scaled weight). I didn't shift to 8th. This made my trip a little longer and of course I had a couple people pass me. The first pickup swerved a little when he pull back in my lane, the 2nd truck cut in kind of sharp, he swerved a little lost control and went through the ditch into the neighbor's wheat field. He managed to spin around, drive down to a shallow part of the ditch and get back in the road,

My opinion is there never should of been a 1 7/8 ball, it should of been 2 inch for small trailers, 2 5/16 for medium, and 3 inch for large. There are lots of accidents because of 1 7/8 balls, it's too small a difference! Most people can tell the difference between 2 and 2 5/16, but the hitches should be identified or color coded regarding size. I made the mistake when I started building small trailers and used 1 7/8, then bigger trailers started going 2 inch. I should of only used 2 inch, but it wasn't so common 50 years ago.