Sheared swing-away hitch bolt...

Well what a nice surprise!!

I got back from the lake last night, and when I pulled the pin to swing my hitch back, it drooped really bad. Found out that sometime on the road back the hinge bolt sheared off, and only the top half of the bolt and the pin was holding the trailer to the hitch....

Got back home just fine, but I'm missing today's run to fix it for tomorrow .....

Guess I'd better climb under the boat to make sure the broken piece didn't bounce up and ding sumpthin'

I had that happen to my old boat trailer a couple years back. Thankfully, I check stuff like that fairly often, but there are people who don't ever. Of course, it really never should have sheared.

I wonder if some trailer manufacturers are not using a high enough grade bolt. Or maybe the shoulder of the bolt is not the right length so some load is riding on the thread. From what I understand about proper bolt application, you don't want the load riding on the threaded portion of the bolt, only on the shoulder. The threads are not designed to take the full load like the shoulder is. It's a weak point and if it's gonna give, it's probably gonna give at the threads or the thread/shoulder junction.

I replaced mine with a Grade 8 bolt of the proper shoulder length (i.e. shoulder protrudes out) and used a washer so I could tighten the nut. Hard to find one that length and pretty expensive. Well, I don't think it's very expensive when your trailer/boat/life are on the line.

I will be checking my bolt before I head to the lake today, thanks for the reminder!!

Danny

Wow thats pretty crazy. Looks like I'll be checking mine when I get home.