Should A Receiver Hitch Flex?

[petrel]

Just installed a new Putnam Class V XDR receiver hitch on my F350. While my son was hitching up my boat, I thought I saw the receiver flex as it took up the tongue weight. We jacked the trailer up again and measured the distance from the bumper to the top of the receiver, then put the weight back onto the hitch. It deflected exactly 1/8" with the load of the trailer on it. The hitch was installed per the instructions, and torqued to specifications with locktite on all of the bolts.

Is that flexing normal, and I've just never noticed, or do I have an issue with my new hitch? I haven't measured my tongue weight, because I haven't had any towing issues or inordinate loading of my truck's rear suspension. Will call Putnam tomorrow, but wanted to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

[cracker]

To be honest I would contact a local hitch on welding shop and have them examine it... While I know they engineer items to flex like bridges , I would feel more comfortable letting someone with experience building thise things look at it... I have never noticed any of mine moving but 1/8 of inch would be hard to detect for most probably,, Good Luck post back what you find out I am interested in the outcome...

[HOTSPOT]

That does not sound right to me. Of all of the tow vehicles I have owned, I have never seen a hitch flex like you describe.

[petrel]

Putnam is in receivership. The receiver gave me the cell phone number for Rex Putnam and I left him a message asking him if the hitch had been recalled or if some had been defective. I missed his return call, but he left a message acknowledging one recall of mobile home hitches, but noting that their time tested design was sound and if used as rated there should be no problems. Called the dealer who sold it to me and they indicated that some flexing was not out of the question, but if the hitch showed any signs of fatigue at the flanges or welds they would send me another one. I took it for a test run and it towed fine and an inspection revealed no fatigue so far. I will keep a very close eye on it for this weekend and probably replace it next week. Thanks for your thoughts on the matter.

[PatrickG]

I had a class 3 hitch and it flexed a little bit when I put a heavier tongue load on it. I pulled my tractor down the road and when I had to slam on brakes the hitch bent like a pretzel. Now I only use class 5 and make sure I keep the tongue weight to a minimum. F250's and 350's can handle more tongue weight than the hitch can. From my experience a trailer hitch should not flex at all.

[SCORPIO]

Are you overloading the hitch tongue weight rating? I have that same hitch on the same truck and I didn't notice any flexing the one time I towed with it. That is a VERY stout hitch.

[petrel]

The perplexing thing about this arrangement is that I had removed an old rusty class IV hitch to upgrade to the XDR. The old hitch never flexed, or at least I never noticed it, even when I loaded my tractor too far forward on my utility trailer and brought the rear suspension down onto the overload springs!

Towed the trailer 400 miles round trip this weekend with no obvious ill effects, but I still don't consider the matter closed. I will try to get the tongue weight measured this week. Thanks for your input!

[PatrickG]

I noticed on another site you said you used four bolts on your hitch. My 2004 F250 is using six bolts on the hitch. Is there no way to attach the hitch with six bolts?

[petrel]

I think my post was misleading. I was able to re-use four out of the six previous holes and had to drill two new ones. Thanks.

[PatrickG]

It seems strange you had to drill new holes. I would have gotten another hitch before cutting holes in the frame of the truck. I would take it to a hitch installer and get a professional opinion on what to do.