Trailer hitch saves my car again!

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I have had two bumpers damaged from drivers that have a hitch sticking out and think there it when they are not.
In most Places up here its illegal to drive with a hitch and nothing attached.
 
I've seen trucks back up to a curb and leave their drawbar hanging over the curb. Can't say I'm a fan.

I have backed into the Jersey barriers at my house a couple of times; misjudged how much distance I had. Thankfully the receiver on my truck sits proud of the bumper!
 
I'm guessing this won't be a popular opinion, but it's really dangerous to drive around with a drawbar in while not towing anything. Yes, it may prevent your car from being damaged in an accident, but it can severely injure the other person for no good reason. Cars are designed to crash in a way that gives the greatest chance of everyone living, not minimizing damage to the vehicle. I find it hard to believe that people value their car more than another human life.
 
Originally Posted By: glock19
I'm guessing this won't be a popular opinion, but it's really dangerous to drive around with a drawbar in while not towing anything. Yes, it may prevent your car from being damaged in an accident, but it can severely injure the other person for no good reason. Cars are designed to crash in a way that gives the greatest chance of everyone living, not minimizing damage to the vehicle. I find it hard to believe that people value their car more than another human life.


I remember reading about this when I wanted to do the same thing. It can also injure the driver of the vehicle with the tow hitch, as the hit is not cushioned as much. A compromise I found was using something like weathertechs bumpstep. Protects a good amount for low speed stuff, but higher speed stuff it would cave in.
 
Originally Posted By: Nate1979
Why would he get dropped for a minor fender bender?


I don't know how insurance companies make decisions, but the presence of the bar/ball on his truck turned what should have been nearly nothing into a very expensive accident for his company (and a huge PITA for us, even though we did not have to pay anything).
I'd also guess that a guy with a huge truck who backs out abruptly without looking may have some other incidents on his record, too.

He did not try to leave, but also did not behave appropriately for a man who had just severely damaged another car through poor driving, IMHO, so I'm not a big fan.
 
Originally Posted By: glock19
I'm guessing this won't be a popular opinion, but it's really dangerous to drive around with a drawbar in while not towing anything. Yes, it may prevent your car from being damaged in an accident, but it can severely injure the other person for no good reason. Cars are designed to crash in a way that gives the greatest chance of everyone living, not minimizing damage to the vehicle. I find it hard to believe that people value their car more than another human life.


The danger is easy to avoid...don't run into the back of my car...
 
Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: glock19
I'm guessing this won't be a popular opinion, but it's really dangerous to drive around with a drawbar in while not towing anything. Yes, it may prevent your car from being damaged in an accident, but it can severely injure the other person for no good reason. Cars are designed to crash in a way that gives the greatest chance of everyone living, not minimizing damage to the vehicle. I find it hard to believe that people value their car more than another human life.


The danger is easy to avoid...don't run into the back of my car...


I like this idea, but in practice it could hurt you quite a bit also

"Today, roughly 40% of the vehicles on the highway have receiver hitches – and although they are necessary for towing – they reduce rear end collision damage and INCREASE the risk of whiplash by creating a stiff "crash pulse"."

http://alerts.nationalsafetycommission.com/2011/04/how-receiver-hitches-affect-rear-end.html
 
The backup device of my choice is the accordobumper. Upon impact, it plays Lady of Spain:
IMG_1206_zpsndgfimcc.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: grampi

The danger is easy to avoid...don't run into the back of my car...


As long as you don't back out without looking while I'm going past your parking spot!!!
11.gif
 
Originally Posted By: glock19
I'm guessing this won't be a popular opinion, but it's really dangerous to drive around with a drawbar in while not towing anything. Yes, it may prevent your car from being damaged in an accident, but it can severely injure the other person for no good reason. Cars are designed to crash in a way that gives the greatest chance of everyone living, not minimizing damage to the vehicle. I find it hard to believe that people value their car more than another human life.


I value my car and it's life more than the human life that endanger my, their, and everyone else on the rod's life when they do things in a car that assume the other driver has good reflexes. And there's never a cop in sight.

If concerned about smashing into the bar or ball in the hitch, install bumper guards. That makes you safer on your car as well, if they are welded to the frame.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted By: grampi

The danger is easy to avoid...don't run into the back of my car...


As long as you don't back out without looking while I'm going past your parking spot!!!
11.gif



FWIW, both times I was hit it was the other driver's fault...
 
Originally Posted By: grampi

FWIW, both times I was hit it was the other driver's fault...


Not commenting upon your driving skills...just pointing out that the hitch/bar/ball is a weapon of sorts on the vehicle of a poor driver as well a form of protection for a vehicle equipped with it. Our car probably would have just had some scraping when that pickup truck driver backed out without looking if the bar/ball had been removed instead of having part of the body torn off.
I don't really have any sympathy for people who hit vehicles that have towing equipment and have extra damage of their own as a result, believe me.
 
People are seriously concerned about others when they run into you?

Sorry, but it's not my concern or job to make sure my car is safe for others in case they run into me. Now if I have spikes and razor blades attached to my car, yeah, that's bad.

I would never remove a trailer hitch or something like that just so it might be safer for so,done else if they run into me.

When I had my truck, my trailer hitch stayed in 24/7 with a locking pin.
 
Originally Posted By: Spillips
I value my car and it's life more than the human life that endanger my, their, and everyone else on the rod's life when they do things in a car that assume the other driver has good reflexes. And there's never a cop in sight.


To each his own, but I'll never value an inanimate object over someone's life just because they made poor choices.

Originally Posted By: Spillips
If concerned about smashing into the bar or ball in the hitch, install bumper guards. That makes you safer on your car as well, if they are welded to the frame.


This is absolutely terrible advice. Cars are made with crumple zones to absorb some of the energy of the impact. By welding a bull bar to your frame you're negating a ton of the safety features built into your car.
 
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Originally Posted By: Spillips
Quote:
If concerned about smashing into the bar or ball in the hitch, install bumper guards. That makes you safer on your car as well, if they are welded to the frame.


This is absolutely terrible advice. Cars are made with crumple zones to absorb some of the energy of the impact. By welding a bull bar to your frame you're negating a ton of the safety features built into your car.


That's wrong.. youre enhancing them. Any energy that can be deflected away from the driver, in this case to under the car, is good. Might even save the grille and front end.. all depends on how hard hit.

Ever had a push bar or bull bar or bully bar or bumper guard - the proper ones, the frame-welded ones, not the dumb style ones that bolt on and don't offer any safety improvement - save a vehicle? Save a life? How about, for example, a drunk slamming into a tree? We can't account for all variables, but any layer of protection is good.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
People are seriously concerned about others when they run into you?

Sorry, but it's not my concern or job to make sure my car is safe for others in case they run into me. Now if I have spikes and razor blades attached to my car, yeah, that's bad.

I would never remove a trailer hitch or something like that just so it might be safer for so,done else if they run into me.

When I had my truck, my trailer hitch stayed in 24/7 with a locking pin.



I have a hitch on my Caddy, if I park somewhere unknown for contact I'll put it in. If I was driving a 2000 Camry I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Originally Posted By: glock19
Spillips said:
I value my car and it's life more than the human life that endanger my, their, and everyone else on the rod's life when they do things in a car that assume the other driver has good reflexes. And there's never a cop in sight.


To each his own, but I'll never value an inanimate object over someone's life just because they made poor choices.

I don't value my car more than someone else's life, but this is twice now just in the last few months that my trailer hitch has saved my vehicle from certain damage...damage I would've had to spend money on for repairs. I can't help it if other drivers are too distracted or whatever to not drive into the back of my vehicle, but I'm not going to do something to my vehicle that makes it more prone to damage just because other drivers can't seem to be enough in control of their own vehicles to not hit me...that's roughly the equivalent of saying we should wrap everything in soft padding that's along side the roads because some drivers may hit them...
 
Originally Posted By: glock19
I'm guessing this won't be a popular opinion, but it's really dangerous to drive around with a drawbar in while not towing anything. Yes, it may prevent your car from being damaged in an accident, but it can severely injure the other person for no good reason. Cars are designed to crash in a way that gives the greatest chance of everyone living, not minimizing damage to the vehicle. I find it hard to believe that people value their car more than another human life.
Have you ever sit down and though about your "opinion." There's no way any of this stuff you're talking about is possible simply by having the hitch in. If the hitch isn't in it's not like you're crashing into pillows. There's a 3' wide piece of heavy duty receiver mount along with frame rails.
 
For everyone that hates these hitches, Texas would give you a stroke. We leave out hitches in and sometimes we'll hang a winch on there too. On the front, 250 lb front end replacements bumpers , soild steel.
 
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