Trouble getting tailer ball into receiver
 

Hi,
I went to hook up my rig yesterday and had a problem I have never experienced. I could not get the trailer ball to fit into the receiver. I put a good coating of grease on the ball and tried again. Still no luck. Checked to see if anything was loose or odd looking under the receiver but all looked good. After about 6 tries I got the ball into the socket by starting the insertion with the ball at the front most part of the socket. Still really tight fit but was able to get it to settle in. I have pulled boat trailers for over 40 years and never experienced this problem.

Any suggestions as to what would cause this problem and a solution to prevent it happening the next time I use the trailer.

Thanks, everyone, for your advice.

Mine does the samething every now and then. I've noticed it's worse when I'm hooking up on a slight angle. Just be damn sure the ball is all the way inside the socket before you take off. My cousin had a tire changed on his boat trailer a while back and the guys at the tire shop didn't notice his ball wasn't all the way inside the socket. Good thing they hooked up his safety chains because the trailer disconnected about a mile down the road. I still tell him it's his fault though, he should have double check that!!

Stick your finger inside the receiver at the back when the trailer is jacked up sometimes the little metal part that locks it down just needs to be moved when it is jammed or something

If you have turned to sharp backing up the trailer, hitch may have a small kink in it which can cause the hitch to pinch on the ball or the latches inside the hitch not to operate corect

Does your trailer have brakes? Sometime if you back up your trailer the enersia(sp) brakes are stuck in the forward position and it won't let it go over ball

grease the inside of the trailer tongue, mine did it once and after the grease, never again...

Oil the latch on the trailer.

Make sure the latch goes all the way "down" to the trailer insuring that the hitch is opened all the way.

LUBE IT UP and GIVE IT SOME LOVE!

I knew this was headed south sooner or later:shaking: