Tow Ball Weight Limit

[JimDogs]

So today I was cleaning my tow ball and torsion bar receivers in preparation of putting clean grease on when I noticed that the ball had a weight rating of 6000 Lbs. My trailer GVW is 9400 Lbs.! I never even thought to look at the ball specs when I upgraded from my hybrid trailer earlier this year! And the staff at the dealership where I bought the Cougar inspected my hitch setup and gave it a "Good to go" before we drove away. I am heading up to the Lake Tahoe area this weekend and I am glad that I decided to clean and grease those parts! The fellow at the hitch center showed me where some stress cracks have developed.

So the moral of the story is, Check your hitch ball weight rating if you haven't already!

[bsmith0404]

Surprised you were able to install it properly on a WDH. 6k pounders only have a 1" shank, 10k pounders have the 1 1/4". Most hitches take a 1 1/4" shank for that reason.

Good catch, glad you discovered it before something happened.

[JimDogs]

Yes, the shank was a 1" but the WDH had a sleeve to make up the difference. The new one is a much beefier 1 1/4 and I am considering myself very lucky that I caught that before it sheered off on the 6% grades that I will be hitting today!