Hitch Ball Mount Forward / Backward Looseness

[LeBill]

Towing my Elite I with the Anderson hitch, I've encountered a lot of forward / backward sliding of the square shank within the receiver mount on my truck. It has been a cause of annoyance at stops and starts as the entire hitch can be felt sliding. Upon investigation I found that the hitch pin I was using is slightly undersized, as were most of the other pins in my garage. To remedy this, I took my calipers to Tractor Supply and mesaured every hitch pin on the shelf. The BROK locking hitch pin was the winner, at about 0.8mm larger diameter than the one I previously used. I also installed some rubber 'donuts' around the exposed shank to take up the slack. together these two measures have almost totally eliminated to back and forth mothion of the Anderson ball mount

 

[LeBill]

Impresa Products

Impresa - 2 inch Hitch Receiver Silencer Pad for Adjustable Ball Mounts - 3 Pack

 

[topgun2]

Did you mean THESE things for your link?  Or These on Amazon?

Bill

Edited April 23, 2024 by topgun2

[jd1923]

5 hours ago, LeBill said:

... Upon investigation I found that the hitch pin I was using is slightly undersized, as were most of the other pins in my garage.

They make hitch pins in several sizes for tractor equipment, etc. Yet the standard 2" tow receiver always takes a 5/8" hitch pin or lock. You have the right one now.

Just 0.8mm smaller, which is very close to 1/32", I've never seen that size. There may be a 9/16", but the next standard size smaller is a 1/2" pin and that is 1/8" smaller, over 3mm. A smaller pin would certainly bang around a lot and is NOT safe at all. The 5/8" hitch pin or lock is all you really need.

[LeBill]

All of the hitch pins I measured were 5/8 nominal size. I found there was considerable + / - tolerance, not to mention the hole variances. My original hitch pin was an inexpensive locking one, probably made to loose tolerances, and was already showing wear (8000 miles). It remains to be seen how well the new hitch pin and rubber donuts hold up.

I used 5 of the donut pieces stacked on the Anderson square piece. It is so stacked that I need to apply pressure to compress the rubber donuts in order to fit the hitch pin in the hole.

[Geronimo John]

Sorry I'm a bit behind on this thread.

On my 2019 F-150, the 2" Anderson Receiver with 2 5/16" ball is slightly smaller than the Ford receiver.  The hitch pin/hole are right sized.  So the "Slack" I see when jacking my Ollie up to undo Anderson chains is actually a rotational arch with the hitch pin and hole acting as a swing point.  Not slop back and forth.  This arch is actually beneficial as when I see it swing those few degrees, I know it's time to stop lifting.

GJ