Um... you are unlatching the ball coupler (hitch) before raising it
right?

Are you parked on an incline so that the trailer is either "pushing" or
"pulling" against the tow vehicle while trying to do this?

Try parking the combination and blocking the trailers wheels.
Release the aprking brake and put the tow vehicle in neutral to ease any
tension on the hitch (ball and coupler).

Now set your parking brake and lock your transmission (either park or if
a standard tranny in [first] gear ).

Double-check your trailers wheels are chocked. <grin>
Now rlease the ball pin on the coupler and then crank up the front of
the trailer. If the latch snaps shuts before it raises fully you can
hold the release.  It SHOULD slide up nice and easy.

You need only raise the coupler barely above the ball height.
Your tow vehicle should not sag (or raise when unhitching) more than 2-3
inches.

     O                

It sounds like the tow vehicle is straining to carry the dead load for the
hitch weight. Replace shock or add assist spring may be a possible to cure
the problem.

Have you tried placing blocks of wood beneath the crank shaft? That would
give you more lift height distance. However, it may not allow you to lower
to the proper height for leveling. Give it a try though.

Halon

When setting the hitch on a trailer you swing down a latching cup witch
a latch on top.  The pivot shaft of this latching cup slides back and
forth. Attached to that pivot shaft is a clamping plate. The clamping
plate slides forward and up into the neck of the ball. This mechanism
tends to stick and thus not releasing the hitch. When releasing the
latching cup you have to hit it or kick it to make it slide back and
release the clamping plate.
The whole thing is hard to describe and sounds very complicated, it
actually is quite simple!

I hope this helps

Tom

Hi,
If the back of the car is coming up that much when you are
un-hitching then you either did not un-latch the hitch ball latch on
top of the hitch and you are pulling the rear of the tow vehicle up.
Or the rear of your tow vehicle is sagging to much and you need to
check the shocks and springs.  When the tow vehicle is hitched to the
trailer on level ground the trailer should be sitting level, not with
the hitch pointed down.  The back of the tow vehicle should be sitting
close to level, if it is down then the front is up and you could be
blinding on coming drivers at night.  The ideal situation is the tow
vehicle and trailer both sitting level when connected on level ground.
You may need stiffer shocks or springs to stop the back from sagging
so much.

If you are un-hitching on uneven ground with the tow vehicle lower
then the trailer then all you can do is crank the hitch up until it
clears the hitch ball.  The other option is finding a level place to
un-hitch :)

Take care and Happy Campin...
RichA
"We Get Too Soon Olde and Too Late Smart"

Still working on it maybe these links will help.
If your hitch looks like this,
http://www.title-3.com/images/HitchCoupler.jpg  it should be pretty easy
unless the spring and wedge inside has come apart or been damaged. Pop the
latch up on the top as shown and jack up the trailer. If the tow vehicle
raises more than a few inches, without the couler popping off, it may be a
damaged coupler.

If the coupler looks like this http://www.masterhitch.com/images/coupler.jpg 
it has a collar that wraps around the coupler (hard to see in the photo)
behind the ball socket. That collar slides toward the trailer to release a
locking arm that holds the coupler to the ball. If the side locking arm is
stuck, you may need to use a hammer to help it out. Just make sure the
collar is all the way back to release the arm before you help it with the
hammer.

go back to the first picture, and if that is what you have, you may be able
to loosen the nut on the bottom of the coupler enough to let it free up, or
ina pinch, take the ball off of the tow vehicle and you will have a coupler
lock until you get it fixed.
Good luck

Have you tried lubricating the inside mecanism of the hitch?.. it may
just not be releasing correctly when you try to un-hitch?

Mel

LK a écrit:

LK,

I read through all of the responses, and it does sound like the rear of
the car is being pulled up. Lots off possibilities as to why, but most
likely (IMHO) is the uneven ground. Since I don't much of any flat ground
on my property I run into this with my trailers.

I just back the trailer into its spot, jack the wheels (parking brake is
already set on the truck) and crank up the trailer jack 'til I see that
it's starting to pull up on the truck. Then I just step on the truck
bumper and give a little bounce and it always pops right off. Quick and
simple. Just make sure you chock the trailer wheels first so it doesn't
roll away when it comes free.

Good luck,
Craig

popups should be about the same as travel trailers... mine (and most that I've
seen) don't have a long enough shaft on the jack to raise it high enough, so you
put a 4x4" or something under the hitch jack "foot/base" before you start
raising the trailer..

I left the block at home once, and couldn't get the trailer off the trailer ball
at the storage yard.. grrrr...
I carry 2 or 3 of them in the truck bed now, along with a couple of 2x6" boards
for under wheel leveling..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Block both directions of trailer wheel travel before trying anything
else .

Last week we had a similar problem with a rental tow dolly.
We ended up literally using a 10 pound sledge against a 2x4 to free up
the hitch latch. That and PB Blaster penetrating oil did it.

In your case the glaring part is the lifting of the car- you may be
picking up the car with a closed latch!  One non obvious stunt to try
is -if you have a good air compressor - let most of the air out of the
car rear tires. Then repeat the unhitch attempt.

Oren Beck

www.campdownunder.com

"It never fails to fail when we need it to not fail at all"