oem hitch

yep. Dad's on his 05 didn't break the welds I bent it down. Pulling 2 NH3 tanks (23,000Lbs) the force of the tanks when i was breaking pushed the hitch down and bent it where the square tubing welds to the round tube. It literally twisted it. got a new one under warranty then took it off and got an aftermarket hitch.

I heard the same thing about hitches bending down. Guess you need to order one for the wiring harnes than get rid of it and get a good one ie. Ranch Hand.

Yep the Factory's suck! Waiting on mine to go to crap so I can get a new one!

i put a 24' bumper pull behind with 20+k pounds and pulled the oem hitch under out i should metion this was on my 00 1/2 silverado with the 5.3L gasser and no that was not on the road i was just pulling it around the yard....i am planning on installing a putman hitch on my 05 dually for this year

aggar said:

yep. Dad's on his 05 didn't break the welds I bent it down. Pulling 2 NH3 tanks (23,000Lbs) the force of the tanks when i was breaking pushed the hitch down and bent it where the square tubing welds to the round tube. It literally twisted it. got a new one under warranty then took it off and got an aftermarket hitch.

Click to expand...

is somebody thankful to be alive?

95% of my pulling is with a gooseneck but I do have a 5000 lb. travel trailer which I do not use a wd hitch with. I have seen pictures of these hitches coming apart but I believe most of them were pulling travel trailers with the wd hitch. My truck is an '07 3500 drw so I don't think I need a wd hitch for my camper. My question is-is it possible that the wd system amplifies the torque on these hitches causing them to fail? The oem hitch doesn't look all that strong but I would think gm would quit using them if they were all that bad by themselves. Just wondering if people improperly adjusting the wd hitch is causing most of the problem.

No one was hurt but I did think the tanks were goin through the cab. AS soon as i felt them go forward while i was breaking, I immediately hit the throttle and tugged them and the were hooked up. I dropped the tanks off and went to the dealership and Pointed to the hitch and said get me another one. The truck was only 5 months old. I'm just waiting for mine to break and get a new one or I may just go ahead and get one.

new hitch

I tow with a class 5 Putnam XDR hitch(16,000 bumper pull capacity)
DOT tried to give me grief because my owners manual says 12,000 maximum
and I told him to call the dealer because the 12,000 is for class 3.
I showed him the sticker on my Putnam that said 16,000 and I showed him the Putnam mounting instructions which also include torque specs for the bolts. I even invited him to crawl under my truck with a torque wrench and check the bolts . He declined my offer. I then showed him my 15 ton dump truck pintle hitch(and yes I invited him to check the torque on those bolts which he again declined my offer).
No, I don't work for or sell Putnam hitches.
I do haul heavy equipment full time and I woulda snapped about a dozen class 3's by now.:rockin :beer

I also have broken the oem hitch pulling amonia tanks and on my new truck i just went ahead and put a putnam xdr on JUST IN CASE.