what hitch is that and lock pins?

 

it is a bulletproof hitch i believe, same one i am running. One of the few that matched the trucks capabilities and was completely adjustable. Cant comment on the lock pins. Cj

 

it’s a bullet proof hitch and the locking pins came from them also

 

mine is in a little rougher shape than yours, they sure look purty when new! Still all in all it has been holding up great. Cj

 

mine is only a few months old lol. I do get a lot of compliments on it for some reason. Guess some folks never seen a real hitch

 

You bring up a interesting point. So I would assume that all of us using shackles, for "ease" of applying the chain hooks could easily be held civilly liable or criminally because we "altered" the truck?

 

I've got a 3/4" shackle on mine. I'm thinking the loops on the truck's hitch would let go before the shackle does.
I also use twist lock hooks on my safety chains.

 

I have no data to back up that a shackle would fail, just in my work we lift lots of things (both heavy and light) with motors and shackles every day and I know the riggers are super focused on the fact that a shackle should never see side load. Load path only from the bell to the pin, so when I was looking at the photos it made me wonder how the shackle would react if actually called upon since looking at the photos it appears that it would be side loaded.
I'm certainly not saying you shackle guys are wrong (or right), but after 35+ years of seeing shackles get used every day its 2nd nature to look at a shackle and consider the load path.
I have always just hooked my safety chains directly through the open holes in the truck hitch just because I did not want to add any intermediary piece.

 

That bulletproof hitch looks awesome. What I like about the B&W hitch though is that you can turn the ***** forward so they're not a knee knocker. I think the B&W is actually a few bucks cheaper as well.

 

The guys on here are towing better than 99% of the other people towing on the road. It troubles me to see the death trap rigs that people use. And apparently at night the only thing necessary to tow anything is a piece of rope.

On a horribly rough interstate in NY we saw an old couple towing a camping trailer with an SUV. There was an unavoidable hole in a one lane bottleneck before a bridge. The trailer flew up, came unhooked and followed them until they cleared the then one lane bridge then it spun out of control, crossed the median, came back, and was stopped by concrete barrier blocks. Only the trailer was damaged, thankfully.

Many years ago, my dad went about 3 states away to get an antique car. When he arrived home, I was looking at the car and noticed that the nut was missing on the trailer ball. My dad developed very temporary retroactive nervousness. Positive tongue pressure is important!

I have quite a bit of experience towing boat and equipment trailers, using tractors and winches and trucks with cables, shackles, and other rigging in tree farming/forestry work and my wildlife habitat improvement business, and being extremely safe. Usually I stay within about half of the working load, not the rated load. I inspect gear and don’t take foolish chances. I use a lot of redundancy to ensure safety. 90% of the time I work alone, so my safety protects me and everyone else in the vicinity.

 

Hammerlock coupling link Made of grade 100 alloy steel Painted finish 1/2" Trade size 15000 lbs Working load limit

 

I like the look of thse as it appears that it would allow the link to rotate and have any loads not pull sideways on it.

For the shackle users - Will the shackle fit the other way around with the Bell through the truck and the pin to the trailer?
Would that allow the shackle to rotate so that any load would pull in line from the bell - pin?

 

Yes if those come apart...........you won't be around to worry about it

 

You could run it with the pin on the truck side and the loop toward the trailer like this. It might be difficult to hook around the pin unless you have some massive hooks coming from the trailer.

 

This is what I use and they work great! I did not like the idea of Hammerlocks or D-rings banging around when not in use.