Hey, here's the story....
I talked my friend into going to pick it up with me in his F250 Powerstroke (to save on fuel costs over my gas F250). Anyway, the cotter pin on my friend's hitch pin broke and the ball mount slid out of the receiver at 70MPH on the way home with me at the wheel. The boat was going back and forth about three feet either way, held on just by the safety chains!! I thought we were toast (I wrote off the boat at that point). Luckily, I didn't panic, and everything was okay when I finally got everything stopped. This is the first story I've heard of a trailer coming loose without a disaster. I think we were VERY lucky.
I always tell people not to buy those type of hitch pins, and now I have something to back it up, other than that someone can steal your ball mount... I used a 5/8 bolt I had in my toolbox to get us to the next town, and I bought my friend a locking pin like mine at the store there.
Lessons learned:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Use locking hitch pins
Cross your safety chains (which I normally do, but that got missed w/ three of us helping to hook up the boat - could have saved the ball mount)
<LI>Double check your connections and parts for wear and operation before you leave and at fuel stops
<LI>Don't panic if something bad happens
[/list]
I'll get some more pics soon. I just wanted to get this one up here so I could share the road trip saga!
Adios,
Greg
1986 Ambassador 350 (+.040, balanced, cam, intake, mild porting) ~300HP. Time to buy a GPS!