Ball and coupler won't separate - newbie

[powerscol]

This may sound like a dumb question, but are your ball and coupler properly greased? If the coupler is not it will hang up like you had issue with. In the past I have used a split tennis ball to cover the greased ball to not hit it or get grease on me walking by.

Hope this helps

[GrandRN]

I would leave your parking brake on. Park is basically just a pin in your transmission - wouldn't want that to break over a hitch ball. Chock your trailer wheels, remove your weight distribution system, unlock the tongue lock. If the hitch ball is all the way forward the trailer probably isn't going to want to just raise off. Move the truck back a bit so the hitch ball is back in the coupler and raise the trailer again - it should just slide off at this point.

[hampal]

Yes I did remove the spring bars first. As to someone else's comment about having a 2nd person watching for lift on the back of the truck - we always get ligt especially after the spring bars are removed. The tongue weight of the trailer will lower the rear of the truck a bit and as soon as I start jacking the trailer up, the rear of the truck will go up as the weight is taken off of it. At some point though the trailer jack begins to lift the truck though. I wish there was a simple way to determine when I've hit that point so I can know to stop and move the truck if I have to.

I like the other suggestion about releasing the parking brake. That might give me enough play for the trailer to come off the ball. Next time I unhitch I'll try that and update the thread if it worked.

[Houndbb]

Yes I did remove the spring bars first. As to someone else's comment about having a 2nd person watching for lift on the back of the truck - we always get ligt especially after the spring bars are removed. The tongue weight of the trailer will lower the rear of the truck a bit and as soon as I start jacking the trailer up, the rear of the truck will go up as the weight is taken off of it. At some point though the trailer jack begins to lift the truck though. I wish there was a simple way to determine when I've hit that point so I can know to stop and move the truck if I have to.

I like the other suggestion about releasing the parking brake. That might give me enough play for the trailer to come off the ball. Next time I unhitch I'll try that and update the thread if it worked.

hampal,
I understand what you’re saying. The truck’s suspension has so much play that you can’t really tell if the jack is taking the ball along for the ride. But @GrandRN above is right- if you’re caught it’s at the front of the coupler. After a while, you will be able to see if it will clear or not-just takes experience. Likewise, you’ll begin to know how close you need to be for the coupler to slide a bit to catch the ball.

[hampal]

So then the maneuver to get the hitch off the ball when its stuck will always be to drift back a hair?

[KenBeccard]

I'd recommend grabbing a neighbor at the campground. Most folks are happy to help a newbie and they can recognize problems more readily when they are on site and watching.

As to the hitch not separating, I've had to more the truck 1/2" or so forward or backward to break the tension on the ball. Generally, just releasing the parking brake or putting the truck in gear will be enough. Make sure you have the chocks on both sides first though.

[josh20]

So then the maneuver to get the hitch off the ball when its stuck will always be to drift back a hair?

That's how I have do it on all my trailers, sometimes a pain. I do use grease and it helps. The USCG (boat stuff) recommends keeping those safety chains on until all is secure. BTW there can be problems with these hitches when hooking up as well, I almost lost my 5000# sailboat when I thought the 2 5/8" hitch was coupled. It looked like it was locked on the hitch, but was hung up and not down all the way. I felt the boat come off on a hill and start rolling back!!!! It looked like it was going away then thankfully the chains caught it. Anyway from that time forward, I always raise the tongue jack up and try to bounce the truck bumper to ensure it's locked. Fortunately that is required with my leveler hitch.

[Capkelly]

The older trailer hitches the top latches different than newer one
I had same problem on my coachman trailer. If you lift up and move ball locking latch towards the back of hitch you will be able to un hitch without an issue. Also grease your hitch ball.
Would have thought my sales man would have showed me this. NOT.

[Xlsmle]

One other thing i have done for years when it gets stuck is when the trailer jack is lifting the truck beyond what should be needed to decouple is get on the back bumper of your truck and jump on it. That always works for me when the above methods dont. Again make sure the ball is greased and move truck slightly back and forth, once chocked up first, to loosen the grip on the ball and then extend the jack.

[M&Lcamping]

I just brought our new 2500 RL home on Friday night and ran into a problem trying to unhitch in my yard.

FWIW I'm a newbie and have never towed a trailer anywhere near the size of this before. I'm using a blue ox sway-pro attached to my 2016 F-150. This is a standard ball and coupler setup with weight distribution bars to make the towing better.

I got the side-to-side leveling pretty close and tried to unhitch so I could do the front-to-back, but the ball and coupler would not separate. The latch on the coupler was definitely in the unlocked position but when I tried to raise the trailer off the ball, both the trailer and truck went up and the ball stayed inside the coupler. Are there any tricks to getting them to separate? Do the truck and trailer need to be in a perfect line? They were not. Maneuvering the trailer left the truck at maybe a 5 degree angle to the trailer.

I was eventually able to get them to separate but not very gracefully. I decided to try to move the truck forward a fraction of an inch so I put my foot on the brake and threw the truck in gear. At idling speed I released the brake and after the truck moved maybe half an inch I reapplied it. WHAM! The trailer rolled backwards right over the wheel chock on the high side, and off of the leveling blocks on the low side. The WHAM and jolt where probably the safety chains (which were still attached) stopping the trailer from going any further. (I had a popup years ago and learned to never unhook the chains until everything was level and stabilized.) FWIW the ground is pretty level there and I was totally surprised that the trailer rolled backwards.

There has to be an easier way to get the coupler off the ball. If not this is going to be a nerve-racking thing every time I try to unhitch. So what are your suggestions?

I really like these, never had a problem with unhitching as you would level first, insert and tighten these, then unhitch.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1