I went to my local lake today, only catching a few shad. I made it about a mile from the launch, on my way home, when the coupler on my trailer broke. Sure enough my trailer comes unhitched, slams the back of my fruck and then slams the ground. Thankfully this happened just after a sharp curve and that the safety chains did their job. No damage was done to my boat and only some cosmetic damage to the truck. The good thing to all of this is that there is a tractor supply 3 miles from the launch. I was able to carefully limp there and get a new coupler. Man I hope that never happens again!

I worry about that all the time.

 

how did it fail?

Some how the underjaw slipped up over the pin it is supposed to pivot on, allowing the ball to slip down out of the coupler. I don't know if the metal bent or just a freak incident.

I've only had this happen once.  Humps and bumps in the road taken at speed that I couldn't see coming up.   The truck just shook so bad in the rear that it popped off.  Chains held and I was able to hook it up and continue.

Pretty much what happened, but I could still lift my trailer off the ball with it latched.