Husky 1000 pound, round bar head.

Spring bar on the driver's side would fall out when chain tension was relieved. Found the small retaining pin would back itself out, because the spring tab retainer backed ITSELF out.

So today I bought a kit to rectify the situation. New retainer pin for the bar, new spring for the retainer pin, and now, a self tapping screw for the new spring.

Trouble is, the head broke off of the self tapping screw. Got the broken screw out using cheap titanium coated drill bits (broke one), but I had to slightly oversize the hole.

So tomorrow I get to bring home a tap and die set, tap the hole, and thread in a proper machine screw.

Two questions.

Blue loctite or dry?

Should I do the passenger side too? Because that side is still as tight as the day we got it.

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Pic for clarity, left side lower is the culprit. If that pin would stay in properly, the spring would keep the upper pin in place, thus keeping the spring bar in place when I remove the chains.

 

Funny - I remember the Husky hitches having an accentric at the hitch end of the bars, unless that's an older or a different version.

We had to insert the bars swung away at a wide angle from use, and swing them back toward the trailer frame to hook them on.

 

The husky hitch we had before this one was a 600 pound, had the fixed retainer in the head, and the eccentric on the bars.

Our current hitch bars also have the eccentric, but no fixed retainer.

 

I have a Husky 1K out in the shop somewhere with swing-out bars. Complete with trailer frame saddles I think (It better be, I was going to use it with the Ranger)

Have you noticed car hauler trailers have gone through the stratosphere lately? You can't even touch a used one now for what a new one used to cost

 

You mean the camper trailers with the garage in the back? Yeah, those have always been out of my range both financially and truck wise. We call those "toy haulers".

Or car haulers that are basically very fancy flat deck trailers? I've never looked at one close enough to guess at a price.

 

Friend of mine got a flat 20+ foot car hauler for his off-roaders about three years ago and it was around $1200.oo

That same thing would be over three "KAYS" now...

 

You could use GREEN on it, it would just mean applying 500 degrees with a heat gun if you ever wanted it back out.

 

Thanks Ken, I've got the hole threaded for 8/32, and the new machine screw in. I was mostly worried about the screw coming out, hadn't thought about weather, I'll do that tomorrow.

Uh, yeah, not happening.

Hehe.

 

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Here's the new piece on left, compared to the original one on the right. Gonna leave it in place.

I'll be buying a drill bit, tap and tap wrench to keep in my towing toolbox in case I need to fix that side too, but for now, it stays.

 

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Parts laid out in the top pic. You can see the size of self tapping screw, and the broken one next to it. Then the spring bar retainer, the spring clip, the original one next to it, and a new machine screw.

In the second pic I've put everything back in the bag, lots of spares. Maybe I'll put the drill bit and tap in there and staple it shut so they don't get lost in the bottom of my toolbox.

 

I remember those hitch heads now, that pin doesn't look anywhere near as sturdy as the swing-lockers

 

They're not. But that's how they come now.

I was thinking I could thread the upper hole for a bolt, and make it into a swing lock, that'll be for when everything else fails.

 

How wide is the groove it engages in the bar?

Both of those pins look like they have chisel ends for a reason. Partly to snap in place though, for convenience

 

The wedge serves exactly that function, like a door latch plunger into the door jamb...

Push the spring bar up into the head, the wedge moves over until the relief in the bar passes it.