I was cleaning on the truck today and the old Tow Champ hitch I have I noticed the decals are pretty much not legible and I cant find the paperwork nor remember what the specs are on it.

If anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it, I have been contemplating purchasing a 2" 5ton Pintle Hook for use with a tow strap but want to know exactly what this hitch receiver is rated at.

The only decal that I can read a little bit about it says the following, and this is how it is listed on the decal.

10,000 1,000
5,000 500
TC106 8-25-97

I know it was purchased and installed in 97, and I cant find my receipts from then as I have bought many auto parts since 97. The model is TC106 and I did a search for it and Reece comes up as being the manfacturer of Tow Champ but their website has no listing for TC106 nor the Tow Champ model/brand.

So I am curious what the raiting is on this hitch since I cant remember. I want to say its a class V and I recently bought a replacement class V hitch lock. But is it rated at 10,000 lbs gross trailer weight with 1,000 lbs tongue weight or is it 5,000 lbs gross trailer weight with 500 lbs tongue weight?

I know we pulled a large tandem axle trailer with the truck and this hitch when we used to do roofing an we had the trailer loaded down to the tops of the 8ft tall sides.

 

The 2 ratings are for weight distrubting (10K/1K) and weight carrying (5K/.5K).

 

So this is more like a class IV than a class V like I thought.

Looks like I might have to be upgrading the system. I doubt I will be pulling trailers anymore but if I did it would be a trailer with a car on it. Main use for the hitch now would be for attaching a tow strap to a pintle hook hitch to pull another vehicle that is either broke down or is stuck off road. I doubt 5,000 lb rating would be enough for pulling a stuck vehicle.

Unless I am too tired and not thinking about this clearly. But I just realized that the weight ratings is for a trailer hooked to it. Having a 5 ton rated pintle hook attached being used as a hook up point for a tow strap would throw the weight ratings out the window. Means that the 5,000 lb weight carrying wouldnt apply as there is no weight being supplied to the tongue only weight being applied laterally.

If someone can verify this for me I would greatly appreciate it.

 

If you're pulling out a stuck vehicle you are not trying to navigate distances safely on public roads.
I would not worry about ratings in that case.

 

Class IV will handle anything these trucks can safely handle.