Ever had your boat and trailer come free from your tow vehicle while in motion?

I did today. Pulled the boat last week so between last Sunday and Today some prankster or idiot or whatever pulled the key out of the draw bar pin and totally removed the draw bar pin. Hooked up the boat and made it down hill from my house with no problems but as soon as i made a turn to climb a hill the trailer separated from the vehicle. Thank God for safety cables. I thought, Greg, you're an idiot for not putting the pins in, but then thought, 'I haven't had that hitch out in over a year'. Called a close friend to come help me. He brought a pin with him to use. He told me someone had removed his pin also without taking out the draw bar. Fortunately he noticed the pin was gone while hooking up to a trailer recently. My boys know nothing about it. I told them if they ever find out one of the kids in the neighborhood have done this, I will need to tell them how damaging and deadly this could be. Fortunately the impact only minorly damaged my spare tire cradle and snapped the strap from the winch to the bow eyelet. Gonna pick up a lock for the draw bar pin tomorrow.

G.

Glad you didn't have too much damage and no one was hurt. Makes you want to go out and kick some prankster butt.

N2

That SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty scary stuff!! Glad it happened when it did so that it was minimal damage and no loss of life!

Glad everyone involved is fine. Something like that will give you a heart attack.

I have had a locking pin for a long time. Well worth the investment.

Glad everything was okay.Done that in the yard a long time ago.Put a padlock thru it.

That is an onery prank that could get someone killed hopefully you can find out who's doin it and put an end to it.

people just need to leave their hands off other peoples stuff, and if they do touch suffer the consequences

I put a locking pin in mine a couple of years ago. Idiots in MS were stealing the pins off people's hitches at the boat ramps. They wouldn't know it until they pulled the boat out of the water and the hitch would come loose

I'm picking up a locking pin today for sure.
I'm just happy it happend where it did and I had the presence of mind to keep the foot on the gas until I got the boat going up hill.
Hard to believe that it broke the winch strap.

Years ago I had a hitch stolen that just had a pin in it. Now I have a lock on it and always will. It's made by master lock and works as good now as when I bought it just a few drops of oil every now and then and it stays free to use. Locks about 9 years old.

Glad it wasn't more serious, Kit. Wow!

I went online and ordered a set of 12 Masterlocks that are keyed identically. We just put a lock on everything in sight. LOL We've had our hitches and boat trailers with locks on them for years now just for that same reason but now we only need one key for the whole lot! :)

What could have been = very serious!

I have had a locking pin for years Kit! Just make sure that you get a good one! And remember to also put some of that white spray grease inside of it! I am always switching out hitches for different trailers. I sometimes leave the RV hitch on my pickup for periods of time and if someone would steal it that would sure be alot of money out of my pocket.

Another thing I have on my pickup that I put on every one of them is a locking gas cap! LOL I even have a locking gas cap on my boat!

Sure glad things were not to bad for you! Just another case of some stupid kid not realizing what could have happened.

Picked up a Master Lock at O Reiley's over lunch.
Not so easy now for the @$$ monkeys to pull the pin out now them low life bunches of whatsomioiwerpsdf epse ;ljaf nerf herding jsodfjpwe as;soeiwn;a;
And you can quote me on that.

G.

I had a boat come unhooked once. I was going duck hunting, going through small sharp rolling hills. One spot in particular was rough. It was in a swag, just as you come out of the very bottom between hills and start back up. I was rolling about 45 or so, probably, hit that rough patch, and things came from together. Still don't know why. I can't believe that I would have just sat the coupler down on TOP of the ball, then latched it, without noticing. But whatever the case, I tightened my hitch that evening to the point of it being a pain to hook/unhook, and was really wearing my ball. But it never done it again. Weird. I did have chains, and only suffered a dinged tailgate, bent winch tower, ground down the little "stand" that this trailer had under the tongue, ground down the rv light plug. Loose trailer makes a lot of sparks at 3:00 in the morning. Rofl Rofl

We lock the latch down, too. We both suffer from CRS so it's hopefully going to keep us out of trouble as long as we can remember to lock it. <sigh>

quote " whatsomioiwerpsdf epse ;ljaf nerf herding jsodfjpwe as;soeiwn;a;" bunch of bull caca I say,,, glad your and the boat are ok

Threads like this are GREAT PSA's. I'd guess the most of us don't check pins, clips, etc. every time. Creatures of habit.

I have always used a locking draw bar pin and use a lock on the coupler as well. Never have trusted people to leave my stuff along while parked at the ramp. Better safe than sorry imo. Glad there was no serious damage, hope you find out did it and can scare the crappie out of them.

Duncan did it!