Quote:
Originally Posted by TomsBeast
I would add that trailer hitches are rated for safe towing of the rated load (static), towing under very dynamic circumstances. Those dynamic loads can be almost double under harsh loading like a big pothole, according to one text on trailer design. You're spot on in that mounting the which plate on the crossbeam will improve things. Said another way, a hitch rated for 9000lb towing (with the trailer load cantilevered even further away on the ball mount), will tolerate higher loads without failing in your winch configuration.
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Hey this is great info!!!!
This explanation helps a lot, and certainly makes concerns about straight-pull ratings for a receiver hitch vs. a winch seem like distinctly different concerns.
Having towed, in the past, all sorts of "frisky," heavy trailers that didn't have trailer brakes....there was always the lurking concern about how much sudden load or "shock" the entire hitch assembly could withstand. I think from physics the correct term for a brief, ultra-high shocking force is the "impulse force"? (A force that can be briefly, almost instantaneously imparted, and which can be quite large for that brief moment when momentum is shifting rapidly.)
It makes complete sense that hitches would need to be expressly engineered to withstand those massive, occasional forces. Long and short, they've got to be damn robust to handle towing forces.....so the forces of a winch would logically fall very-safely-within their engineered load tolerances. Definitely feel like my earlier concerns are put largely to rest.
(Disclaimer: I'm not an engineer either.
But I do have several years of community-college-level engineering classes....which puts me officially in the category of "knows just enough to be dangerous," lol.....)