I leave mine out of the reciever unless needed. I keep them behind my back seat.

 

Yea I've started putting the draw bar in the truck. It might be a pain but it takes 30 seconds. I wonder about those receiver steps they sell and if they would ticket on those.

 

I'm with you on leaving it in. There is no such law where I live that I know of. If there was they would have to pull over about 99% of pickups because nobody takes it out.

I leave mine in mostly because I don't want to have to find a place to keep it when it's not in. I don't have a toolbox and I'm not buying one just to store the hitch. I tow a trailer fairly often and just don't want to remove it. It has a lock on it.

I also leave it just in case one of those cars wit ha low front end rear ends me. Hopefully the 4" drop will dig into their engine before they reach the rear axle.

I was rear-ended about 4 years ago when I had a 2005 Dakota. They slammed into me at about 40 mph while I was at a dead stop. Wrinkled both bed sides, dented the tailgate and push in both ends of the bumper. The receiver and hitch didn't budge. Punched a hole straight through the plastic and radiator of their CRV. Pushed it right into the engine block. CRV was totaled.

If somebody can't pay attention to their driving and slams into me I'm taking souvenirs.

 

Thats why I got this. Still havent decided if I'm going to keep it.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...s-head-on.html

Monster, have a look at the above link to further validate your thoughts on this. You are right.

 

Y'all can talk about dissipation of energy, and in principle you're right. But I'm still putting Ranch Hand legend full replacement bumpers on front and rear. I'm stock height and intend to remain so, and I do not relish having some hill country buck poke its way through all the various radiators and condensers behind my grill. I still want to make it home if something jumps out in front of me. And I was in a friend's '01 F350 with a full Ranch Hand legend rear when he got rear ended by a Nissan Frontier pulling a boat way too big for it and couldn't stop. Nissan was damaged and disabled, but you couldn't even tell the SD got hit. Yes, the SD was lifted and on 35's, but still.

Even though I'm stock height on the factory 33's, I plan to leave my stock hitch in rather that move to the bolt-on receiver from Ranch Hand. It's that much lower, higher rated, and it will hopefully help catch little cars that try to drive up under me some day.

You can say you'd gladly sacrifice your vehicle for everyone's safety, but if that were true you'd only ever drive your truck when you couldn't get away with a smaller vehicle. And after you were done sacrificing your truck to keep some doofus from breaking their nose on their airbag you'll need to sacrifice additional money from your pocket not just for a replacement truck but the jump in insurance that results from that collision now being on your record. Few share your selfless attitude. My friend that got rear ended had no issue on his insurance because he never had to file a claim, and because there was no damage the other guy's insurance wasn't interested in dragging him into it further.

 

EDIT: How did this double post? And why don't I have the option to delete this post?

 

Firekite,
I have gotten a few double posts and it seems to happen when the system
is being slow and when it does finally load there are two of them.

Sean

 

here in NJ we have nothing like that, so if i tow ever day or ever other i gotta remove my hitch? F that it stays where it belongs in my receiver so i can use my truck to tow. Freaking pencil pushes sitting in the state office coming up with MORE bull crap laws that cause us real working guys problems!

 

While I agree that lifted trucks in general are less safe and personally I wouldn't lift one - I fail to see how in this case his lift has any blame. Yes there was more damage b/c of it, but that's not the OP's fault. The SD had no fault in the accident, it was an inanimate object in this case so to me it's like blaming the proverbial telephone pole. Now had it been him not paying attention and his front bumper went throught the back glass of the honda I would agree w/ assigning some blame to the lift...but at the end of the day it still comes down to driver responsibility. This one was on the honda driver.

 

The get one of these:

SUPERBUMPER Hitch Step - Stops Rear End Collision Damage.

 

He must have looked down or something and hit. was he on his learners permit.
You are lucky our 89 F250 we bought and it was in a t bone collision I just recently got done replacing the right fender, door needed straightened, radiator support, weld the cab together and now I need to fix the bumper. That was a 25 mph collision luckly no damage to the front end but it might need an allignment.
Trav

I use to keep our hitch in the reciever but then they started disappering so I stopped and left them in the truck with a pin on both a 2 5/16s and 2 inch ball. But later on I want to get a locking hitch with all three of the ***** on it that are adjustable up and down then I don't have to worry about it but right now no money for things like that so we just use the old style hitchs. I need to get a 1 7/8s ball though. I might take it off my mom's expedition and put a 2 inch ball on there and then put the 1 7/8ths on a hitch.
Trav

 

I believe in Arizona it is illegal to do it but around where I am they don't pull you over very often for it. Also I know here in Arizona or at least I am pretty sure if you leave your tailgate down and there is no load then you can get in trouble for it I believe it is for safety reasons those cables can't hold very much weight sometimes ask me how I know.
Trav

 

Ill bite. How do you know. I've put upwards of 1000lbs on my tail gate. I have the dent to prove it.

But ford does rate them very low, around 300lbs if I recall and I know those cables like to attract sharp objects that wear at the sleeve and wires.

 

Our 93 F250 4x4 Super cab Which is I am pretty sure has the same tailgate straps was hauling a pallat of 8x8x16 blocks. I didn't think to tell the forklift guys to hold on and let us take the tailgate off and when they set the 90 blocks of 8x8x16 blocks on the tailgate to repossion the forklift the tailgate snapped the cables and the tailgate just fell. I had to get new tailgate straps for it but before then I took it off. I would show pics of it too but I didn't have a camera when we owned our 93 F250. So ya they aren't that good in my opinion. But like I said I am not sure if it is for sure or not illegal to have those to things down or out when not using a trailer or load I was told by other people but when we never got into trouble.
Trav