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Hitch

NATM Answers : Are You Trailer Safety Aware?

March 18, 2023 by Mechanic
NATM Trailer Safety Answers

What do you see wrong with the way the safety chains and other trailer safety equipment are set-up in the image?  That’s the question we asked in the previous article.  The image is a screenshot of a YouTube video by NATM, the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers.

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Categories Adventures, Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Chain, Hitch, Safety, Tire, Video Leave a comment

Adjustable Ball Mount – Practical Considerations

November 29, 2022September 22, 2022 by Mechanic
Adjustable Ball Mount Search

While studying adjustable ball mount styles I noticed nearly all have a stationary rack and a floating attachment.  Have you noticed that too?  It’s a pretty important detail when we look at which one to choose.

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Hitch, Safety, Towing, Trailer Leave a comment

Adjustable Hitch? Or, Adjustable Ball Mount?

September 26, 2022July 21, 2022 by Mechanic
Adjustable Hitch Options

Over the past few years the Adjustable Hitch and/or Adjustable Ball Mount have become quite popular.  They are great for adapting to a wide variety of tow vehicle heights and trailer tongue heights.  But, which should you use?  Does it make any difference?

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Categories Solutions! Tags Hitch, Safety, Strength, Tips, Tongue, Trailer Leave a comment

Trailer Hitch Class Ratings

October 3, 2022October 22, 2021 by Mechanic
Trailer Hitch and Drawbar Classes

As a convenient way to help with safety, trailer hitches, balls, and receivers have categories or load rating groups called classes.  Each trailer hitch class has ratings for how much it will carry.  A look at the ratings for each component

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Hitch, Safety, Strength, Tips, Tongue Leave a comment

Where and How to Attach Safety Chains

December 31, 2022January 6, 2021 by Mechanic
Attach Safety Chain With One Bolt

What are the best ways to attach safety chains on a trailer?  That’s a simple question without a single best answer.  Don’t you hate it when the answer starts with “It depends . . . “?  Unfortunately, it does depend on many other things

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Chain, Hitch, Safety, Trailer, Welding 6 Comments

Does Your Trailer Have Attitude?

October 4, 2022January 16, 2020 by Mechanic
Trailer With Attitude

When we think about airplanes flying, or boats sailing, it’s easy to imagine how they move.  An airplane rolls some as it banks into a turn.  A boat pitches up and down with the waves.  So, how do these factors — Pitch, Yaw and Roll — apply to trailers

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Categories Adventures Tags Best Practices, Hitch, Safety, Tongue, Trailer 2 Comments

Excellent Small Car Trailer Caught In The Wild

October 3, 2022October 2, 2019 by Mechanic
Small Trailer with Big Benefits

Caught on the streets, this small trailer provides big benefits.  It’s an excellent example of using a trailer instead of a truck, and this business owner understands efficiency.

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Categories Solutions! Tags Bolts, Customize, Deck-Over, Hitch, Solutions!, Tongue Leave a comment

Aligning Misaligned Holes

March 11, 2023October 29, 2018 by Mechanic
Aligning Misaligned Holes

Despite your best efforts, sometimes the holes you drill for a project will not quite align with those in the mating parts.  It is maddening, and often you feel dumb because it is messed up, but there are ways to fix

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Bolts, Drilling, Gantry Crane, Hitch, Tools Leave a comment

Convenient Trailer Tongue Hinge For Storage

December 31, 2022December 29, 2017 by Mechanic
Storage Tip With Trailer Tongue Hinge

Need to store your trailer in a smaller space?  Consider adding a trailer tongue hinge like these.  It’s helpful, for sure, but has some definite things to consider.

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Chain, Customize, Hitch, Safety, Tips, Tongue, Trailer 2 Comments

The Low-Down On Twisting Safety Chains

December 31, 2022October 25, 2017 by Mechanic
Twisting Trailer Safety Chains

Should you twist trailer safety chains to make them shorter?  Certainly twisting them reduces the length so they don’t drag the ground.  That part is good.  However, there are big issues with twisting safety chains?

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Chain, Force, Hitch, Safety, Trailer 10 Comments

Trailer Safety Chains?

December 31, 2022October 24, 2017 by Mechanic
Trailer Hitch Safety Chains

Do they accomplish the intended purpose?  Or are trailer safety chains just a legal pain in the rear?  Maybe the better question to ask, since we’re required to use them:  “How do we make the chains more effective?“

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Force, Hitch, Safety, Steel, Tips, Trailer 5 Comments

Updates On Trailer Design Articles

October 4, 2022June 26, 2017 by Mechanic
Good Trailer Design Article Updates

The most popular pages on Synthesis are the Trailer Design Article that now has a fresh revision.  May, 2017.  They include more content, more pictures, and a mobile friendly web design.

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Categories News Tags Axle, Hitch, Trailer Leave a comment

The Little Things Make All The Difference

June 25, 2021May 10, 2017 by Mechanic
Failure -- Trailer Hitch / Unhitch Crash

The trailer hitch and surrounding hardware are OH so important — with safety as the priority.  Here are examples illustrating one success and one horrific failure.

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Categories Mechanics Tips Tags Best Practices, Hitch, Safety, Tips, Trailer 2 Comments
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