Lock Washers

[Hot Runr Guy]

Everyone has one of these, right? 1-1/2" 6-point impact socket, 3/4" drive breaker bar and 3' pipe.

HRG

[REW]

How many would you like?

A 3/4 inch impact wrench with 800 foot lbs of torque does a very nice job to tighten a nut on a hitch ball.

Take care

[grizz234]

I've towed my tandum flatbed trailer and boat trailer thousands of mile and never had a ball come loose, tighten it with a box end wrench no extended bar just give a kick with my boot. Maybe you aren't putting enough *** into it

[Rick!]

The thin internal tooth lock washer may work initially but as soon as it flattens out, which it will, its locking ability diminishes greatly. One of the biggest reasons the large lock washer works is that it increases the clamp length of the bolted joint. By increasing the clamp length it promotes a teeny bit more bolt stretch which is the mechanism that keeps a bolted joint together.

By the book, a 1" shank ball should be torqued to 700ft-lbf dry or 530ft-lbf lubed. A 1/2" air impact might get ya to 250ft lbf, maybe a bit more. An electric one could get up to 1000ft-lbf of torque. So, unless you have a cheater bar or an electric impact, or a 3/4" air impact, the ball isn't being torqued to specs.

Knowing that, I changed balls several times a year between boating and sledding and 4-wheeling and have only used a 15" crescent wrench with a pipe wrench to keep the ball from spinning. I just check the nut regularly. Which reminds me, I better check the nut on my trailer ball today.



YMMV

[last chance]

Originally Posted by grizz234

I've towed my tandum flatbed trailer and boat trailer thousands of mile and never had a ball come loose, tighten it with a box end wrench no extended bar just give a kick with my boot. Maybe you aren't putting enough *** into it

I use a large adjustable wrench nowadays but yrs ago I just used a large box end wrench and I've been installing balls for 45 yrs and only had the ball come loose when the lock washer failed by breaking in the middle of the washer. I've towed everything from a small sears 14' fiberglass boat to a 28'X10' twin 4.3 engines and a 32' pull behind camper and everything in between and never even had a loose nut except the one time the lock washer failed. if you get the nut relatively tight and use a good lock washer it's not coming loose unless the washer fails. I've installed many 1 7/8" and hundreds of 2" and a few 2 5/6" balls and only used a big wrench to tighten them down. I've towed flatbed trailers with up to 4 ATV's I've towed utility trailers and so many boats I've lost count. I've changed balls when I had trailers with 2 different sizes I've changed the ball when I changed the bar in my hitch so many times I wouldn't even venture to guess how many times.

[Johnboy]

Perhaps use a grade 8 standard lock washer ?

[last chance]

Originally Posted by Johnboy

Perhaps use a grade 8 standard lock washer ?

now that makes sense. but to have that one failure in 45 yrs is still 1 in who knows how many as most people go through life without a failure. me, I've used thousands of lock washers over my lifetime. I've used them on machinery at the places I've worked and I've usually worked where I had to work on the machinery and I worked on my cars and trucks all my life. not only have the 1 failure. and I've started working in factories when I was 14 and I've never even heard of a lock washer failure. but they could have had one and never knew it. it was just a fluke that my nut and broken washer coming off together. I would have thought the washer would have fallen off as soon as the nut came loose.

[Bill Krejca]

Electronics company for which I worked used split lock washers on all applications capable of using one. Internal/external tooth washers were not permissible on all military and non military gear. 'Jis sayin'.

Bill

[wh500special]

We build military equipment and much of it has toothed lock washers specified. There are standards for these things but many times it boils down to builder’s choice during the design phases.

I typically use the split washers but wouldn’t hesitate to use the toothed washers.

[last chance]

I believe either one will serve the purpose but if I changed balls often I would change the toothed washer often. but with the old split washer, I don't worry about it so much. if either one failed often somebody on here would have heard about it.