Unable to unhitch

[Goose]

I had a problem unhitching the other day. I have a hyland hitch on a 50mm towball and 50mm square hayman reece style hitch. Normally no issues getting the hyland off the ball in the past, or getting the hitch out of the hitch receiver.

I reversed into my site which was fairly sandy, soft and uneven. I had to level up one of the camper wheels by reversing onto a small ramp. The camper was then level side to side and all was good, however i then couldn't get the hyland hitch to release from the towball. I jacked up until the jockey wheel was fully extended and i was easily lifting the rear of the car 2 inches or more above horizontal and the jockey full extended and somewhat sinking in soft ground. With the jockey wheel retracted the car was tilting downhill at the rear to the camper which was near level on all planes, if that makes sense.

I tried for a while going up and down with the jockey wheel and packing the ground under it, but it wouldn't release. So i pulled the pin from the hitch / hitch receiver (took some encouragement from a hammer but it got out in the end), expecting that i could just drive off and pull the hitch out of the receiver. Nope. I was able to pull the 1T camper along (very slowly, about 1 foot) with no pin holding the hitch in to hitch receiver. Tried again with the park brake applied on the camper. Nope again. The car couldn't/wouldn't pull move away from the camper.  It was like the hyland was glued to the ball and the hitch was glued to the receiver. I know this sounds dangerous and it was, but we were moving very slowly and nobody was at risk of the camper falling onto them. The jockey wheel was basically touching the sand too in anticipation of the hitch starting to slide out.

Running out of options i figured i would just put the camper into the position i wanted and just leave the car attached for the rest of the stay. I did this and tried one last time to unhitch and lo-and-behold, the hitch releases without issue. I was pretty much in the same spot too... i had gone forward about 1 foot, back 1 foot. 

Any thoughts on why or how to make it easier to unhitch in this situation? My thinking is the soft uneven ground mean the car was on a 2 different angles to the camper (front to back and side to side) but i thought with hitches like hyland they were designed to hitch and unhitch easily even when on obscure angles.

I later on noticed some besser bricks near by which may have been left there to help with unhitching as one of them under the jockey wheel initiially would have meant i was not overextending the jockey wheel.

[rags]

maybe the hitch wouldn't come out due to the hitch receiver anti rattle bolt being done up against hitch, can't help with the hyland  hitch problem though no experience there.

[Spada]

My guess is that it was a lateral or sideways load on the hitch. I'm assuming you had one wheel of the camper up on a ramp to get it level ? This can ad a fairly hefty sideways load onto a trailer hitch and make them hard to uncouple.

You mentioned moving forward and back about a foot, this would have been enough to reduce / remove the sideways load, which is why it unhitched easily after that.

I used to have the same problem, although mine is a Treg hitch. I worked out that when ever I ramp one of the wheels, I chock it, apply the trailer handbrake, and then ease my foot off the car brakes to let the trailer settle into position (it usually only moves back an inch or so).

This method seems to work for me in most instances.

[Beachman]

I’ve had the same problem with my Hyland hitch when setting up on uneven ground. Seeing I’ve been on a slope I just put it down to the weight of the trailer pulling/pushing against the towball.

To get around it I’ve just engaged the trailer handbrake, then moved the car about 1-2mm to centre the ball in the hitch and its unhooked easily.

[Traveller]

Like Spada, I have a Treg hitch and had it lock up one day, the pin would spin but no way was it going to come out. In the end I had to drop the tongue out of the tow bar (another complete story) and then battle away with the hitch. My problem was that we had driven and camped in far west NSW and Qld, travelling along dirt roads for a week or more without unhitching. We finally booked in to a caravan park for a fresh up and had to unhitch, and this was when the issue arose. What I believed happened was that very fine gravel had found its way down around the pin and effectively kept it from being able to be withdrawn. It kept all those in the park highly entertained though.

In the end I swivelled the hitch, tongue and all upside down, squirted in half a can of WD-40, let it soak in for a while, and then gave it a few love taps with the mash hammer. Once the pin was out I was amazed to see that the gravel 'seal' had been so good that the WD-40 hadn't reached a lot of the pin.

My ritual these days is that when we are traveling a lot on gravel without unhitching, every couple of days I pull the pin out while the trailer is still attached, just to make sure it is free (I tend to do this while checking wheel nuts). Oh, and for those of the persuasion that like a bit of hanky-panky down the beach, I would strongly recommend the use of a blanket.

[gronk]

I don't see how a blanket would help your hitch ??   








Oh, THAT hitch !!   

[Two Words]

I have two Hyland hitches,  one on my KK camper,  one on my 5m boat. I had the same problem on both trailers.
I believe that there is an extended height towball required for these hitches which puts the internal locking tongue at the correct height with correct drawbar clearance. To stop my towball socket rubbing on my drawbar, I used a 3mm thick hardened flat washer under the towball which fixed my problem,  however I believe this may be illegal.
I believe that Hyland offer the correct height 3.5t towball.

[Jeepers Creepers]

Try throwing a bucket of cold water over it.

It works on the 2 dogs up the street from me.