tow points

[michaeljr5]

Talked about this with my structural engineering buddy and he said the short (1") lever arm wouldn't be enough to worry about the bending forces. The pin wouls still fail in the double shear direction, though he also said even with 3/16 box tubbing chances are the pin would stay intact and the metal would tear.

In that case I would rather have the receiver shackle, since the pin would have to rip through both sides of the tubing the entire length of the receiver vs. just one end ripping enough to let the pin leave the receiver at an angle.

This is of course all in theory and the only practical reason I have seen for having the receiver shackle is to be able to pull or be pulled from the side, as that damages the strap if using just the hitch pin.

On a side note" "michaeljr5" Where did you get the shckle that actually goes through the hitch pin hole and swings in fron tof the receiver? That sound like a great solution and a smaller object to carry around in the truck.

It's out of this humongous D Ring shackle carrier that looks like it use to be on a tank or a Deuce and a half. Crazyforink gave it to me and it's been kicking around my garage for awhile. If I can get a picture of it, I'll post it. I never had any use for it till Ladydurango actually wanted to take the Durango off road. Now as far as hitches failing, I have a class three 5000 lb hitch on the Dodge, the tranny of the truck is rated to 7500 lbs and I did this on purpose. I want the hitch to fail before the tranny does. Now if I over work the hitch, the 5 bolts that hold it on should snap before the hitch does. :allrighty: