Esteemed listers,
To those of you who were expecting me at the national convention, I had a few cross country adventures which are worth repeating. I started out from my farm in NJ towing my 3/4 ton pioneer tool trailer behind my Chevy truck. I had the trailer loaded up pretty good with parts to sell. I estimate the horizontal weight on the hitch tongue at somewhere close to 300 pounds, a trifling amount for a five ton pintle and the military lunette. The rig towed beautifully, tracking precisely. In fact it always has! This particular pintle hook is the one often mentioned on this list, sold by many farm and family stores, by Northern Tool & Supply, etc. It is forged, mounts with 4- 5/8" grade 8 bolts, and is rated on the box and the forging at 5 tons. I also use an elevator plate, also purchased from the same source, which consists of a solid 2" bar welded to a rectangular plate, with adjustable range for the height of the pintle hook. My particular setup requires the hook to be bolted to the!
uppermost holes to get an even tow height behind my truck. Now to the point:
In Bedford PA, I was exiting for dinner and heard a loud metallic POP from the hitch. At first I thought the landing leg had dropped, as I was sure I heard something scrape the pavement. I swung into a parking lot, and inspected the hitch. All four bolts had pulled RIGHT THROUGH the nuts! The threads pulled cleanly, and at some point, the plate bent at one corner, indicating that the bolts parted at different times. The pintle hook itself was also bent, right at the point where it fillets out to join the forged baseplate. (it's about 3/4" thick there) My stock M116 safety chains had caught the whole mess before it got away. Good thing I had them fixed short. I always cross the chains to form a basket, in case of a failure like this. I was able to get the mess repaired, thanks to the night crew at Penn Detroit Diesel Allison Shop (thanks a million, guys!) at the Bedford exit, where they straightened the plate and replaced the bolts with slightly longer ones and longer nuts. !
After straightening things out, and pulling the bolts up tight, I was back on my way. My conclusion is that after towing this rig for two years and many thousands of miles, the five ton pintle hook is NOT sufficiently strong to pull an army 3/4 ton trailer. also suspect that I was sold soft nuts along with the grade 8 bolts, as the bolts showed no damage whatsoever.
If I had perhaps been in noisy traffic, and had missed that pop, or perhaps had just passed it off, as these hitches tend to be noisy anyway, a disaster of major proportions would have resulted. Imagine a 3/4 ton trailer full of parts getting loose on the interstate at 70mph?
I was back on the road with a renewed incentive to make some miles and get to the convention by setup time. I was just into Ohio, pulling a pretty fair mountain upgrade, when an unkown object flew from the deck of a truck in front of me, apparently puncturing my radiator tank and oil pan. I heard it depart from under my frame, but never suspected the damage. The engine heated up so suddenly that I was not prepared for what happened next. At the crest of the upgrade, the engine siezed at about the same time the oil light came on. A fire ensued, but I contained it with a portable extinguisher. After inspecting the damage, I had to be towed off the interstate. The engine was a total loss, and I was laid over until Saturday arranging a replacement engine and radiator.
I was thinking about all of you at the convention, while I was holed up in my motel room nursing my bruised feelings. I hope someone got some use from my empty table! I'm thankful that I was not injured, and that the good folks in St Clairesville, Ohio, treated me so kindly and got me back on my way. A special thanks to the folks at Jamie's Repair Shop, who stored my loaded trailer for free while replacing my engine, and to JR's Truck Parts, who went to much trouble to supply me with a new engine. These folks all gave up their weekend to help me get on the road again! I'll be seeing some of you at swap meets yet to come, and maybe we'll make the national next year!
Be careful out there!
regards,
Jack
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 02 2000 - 09:32:30 PDT