Hyland Hitches

[Rod and Mavis]

Greetings all.

Mavis and I have just attended a great get together with some fellow Kedroners.

As us blokes do we all were pointing out the pro's and cons of our rigs.

A very disturbing observation was made on two of the three vans in attendance that were fitted with Hyland hitches.

One hitch was bent off centre and had all of the security welds on the bolts that were the horizontal pivots for the coupling broken ( see picture).

The second van only had a couple of welds cracked.

These cracks would not necessarily lead to a failure of the hitch,because they are only there to stop the pivot bolts from winding out. The amount of weld left at the crack point would prevent the bolts from winding out!

To everyone that uses one of these hitches keep an eye on these welds and take action on any that you find faulty.

I note that both of the vans concerned were 19.1/2 footers and above, the smaller van which was much older did not exhibit any symptoms of fatigue at all.

Please guy's and gal's keep an eye on these hitches and anyone involved in other forums please pass this on.

[D and S Casey]

:confused: Hi Rod & Mavis Look I most certainly do not profess to know all about these hitches, but I have seen one snapped off & it appeared that the hitch had been wound up tight to off center causing one of the align bolts to snap, which is why I put a padlock through my hitch so as it cannot be wound off center, you can't rotate the hitch with a padlock in it. When your Van is unhitched, this area really needs to be protected from people interfering with. I hope this is of some help

[Rod and Mavis]

Greetings all

Great point David & Sharyn.

The pivots are bolts and not pins and can be wound up by rotating the ball receiver,thus the problem that you mentioned.

Thanks for the input,these little gems are never mentioned when you buy. :thumbsup: