Trailer hitch inadvertant disconnect

This is a fork of the Cobra trailer brake thread.

I encountered an unnerving situation a couple of weeks ago. I was backing
my Komet trailer into a new parking position near my house. This required
moving the trailer less than 15 feet slightly uphill. For such a short
move, I didn't think the .25" safety pin that keeps the hitch handle down
and locked was needed. I just attached the hitch to the ball and started
backing.

The lever popped up and the hitch jumped off the ball. The trailer rolled
forward into the back of my SUV doing damage to the rear bumper cover. The
hitch was tight on the ball and there is no detectable malfunction of the
hitch.

The damage is annoying but the real eye opener is that if the trailer surged
forward against the hitch as the towing vehicle braked, the same disconnect
would likely happen again if the safety pin were missing.

THE SAFETY PINS ARE REALLY NEEDED. Lesson learned.

Bill Daniels