Straightening hitch safety chain ear

[Rubberdown]

My hitch safety chain loop is bent. My wife pointed it out to me again. I guess that means fix it.

If I remove it and heat it up and beat it nice and straight ( looks thick as hell, it may be hard) is it going to weaken the metal to a point where I ought to worry if god forbid I did actually loose a trailer? I don't really do a whole lot of metal fab so I'm not 100 percent on doing it.

Other scenario: anyone put on a ear bumper and want to sell me theirs?

 

[nevada]

My hitch safety chain loop is bent. My wife pointed it out to me again. I guess that means fix it.

If I remove it and heat it up and beat it nice and straight ( looks thick as hell, it may be hard) is it going to weaken the metal to a point where I ought to worry if god forbid I did actually loose a trailer? I don't really do a whole lot of metal fab so I'm not 100 percent on doing it.

Other scenario: anyone put on a ear bumper and want to sell me theirs?

can you get a pic of it?
how did it get bent?

 

[Rubberdown]

She's at work I can snap a picture tonight.

My wife has this annoying habit. She loans her car to her parents all the time. They do not give a flying rats butt about cars. Her dad took her car on the farm, and decided he wanted to pull down a dead rotting tree. I have no problem with that. But, he took a tow chain, hooked it on the ear, and pulled it down. Which bent the ear. There was a freaking hitch shackle in the bag o goodies but noooooo. F up my car. He also backed into a aeromotor windmill with it. Yay scratches. God forbid I tell my wife to tell him to take his own pre destroyed wrecked junker.

 

[Antman]

Don't heat it up.

You should be able to bend it back with a sledge hammer (BFH Method) if your careful, a little at a time. I would try that first and then spray some rustoleum on the scratches.

 

[Jesse1983]

Don't heat it up.

You should be able to bend it back with a sledge hammer (BFH Method) if your careful, a little at a time. I would try that first and then spray some rustoleum on the scratches.

you're

 

[Antman]

you're

Your my favorite MOD.:biggrin2:

 

[phillyd2]

Your my favorite MOD.:biggrin2:

Your rite! But I think he's also our only one.

 

[Rubberdown]

Ahhhhhhh grammar police! Yeah I will put my pry bar on it tonight and see if it moves. I'm scared of my 6 pound sledge... I hit my hand twice with it sat. trying to fix the door frame on his truck so the mirror would bolt up flushish after he ripped it off on a pole.

 

[1engineer]

Ahhhhhhh grammar police! Yeah I will put my pry bar on it tonight and see if it moves. I'm scared of my 6 pound sledge... I hit my hand twice with it sat. trying to fix the door frame on his truck so the mirror would bolt up flushish after he ripped it off on a pole.

If the loop is bent down you can simply use a jack to get it back into place. If the loop is pulled backwards then, as [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] suggested, a BFH is needed and 6 lb might not be enough.

 

[eddiebx]

If your wife can tell that it's bent, it must be really really bent. I suggest hitting her dad with the 6 lb hammer first to get it warmed up before striking your hitch with it. I've read that this would help with accuracy.

 

[Rubberdown]

Haha. He's a good dude. He just doesn't care about stuff.

 

[Youngerarlaw]

If your wife can tell that it's bent, it must be really really bent. I suggest hitting her dad with the 6 lb hammer first to get it warmed up before striking your hitch with it. I've read that this would help with accuracy.

That would also help with it not getting re-bent

 

[Rubberdown]

If the loop is bent down you can simply use a jack to get it back into place. If the loop is pulled backwards then, as [MENTION=65614]Antman[/MENTION] suggested, a BFH is needed and 6 lb might not be enough.

Yeah it's pulled to the rear. The bottom is about an inch back

 

[jrandom]

Yeah it's pulled to the rear. The bottom is about an inch back

LOL grab yourself a 4x6, 6x6, or similar chunk of cribbing a couple feet long, put a small v-notch in it, back up to a wall, grab chains and a bottle jack, chain the truck in place to said wall, put the base of the bottle jack against the cribbing and jack away It is just as safe as trying to smack it with a sledge!

 

[Rubberdown]

What the frig kinda wall do you have that you can chain your truck to it, and a bottle jack wouldn't just push through? I could do this with the storm drain in front of my house maybe. Not a bad idea

 

[jrandom]

What the frig kinda wall do you have that you can chain your truck to it, and a bottle jack wouldn't just push through? I could do this with the storm drain in front of my house maybe. Not a bad idea

Concrete parking garage or similar it is solid and has pillars you can wrap a chain around. I have straightened a few things out this way. Square steel tubing, small I-beams, and such. A little different but principal is the same.