Class V ball mount...bigger isn't always better.

[Da Nag]

Just spent half a day dealing with something that should have been a 5 minute job...maybe this little tale will save somebody grief one day.

I needed to pick up a new ball mount - I've been swapping a 2" and 2-5/16" ball back and forth on my mount a little too often. That, and my boat really needed another 1" or so of drop.

So, I find a nifty place online with good prices, and notice that a beefy, forged Class V ball mount and ball can be had for only about $15 more than the Class IV mount/ball. Either would work for the CD22, but the added capacity of the Class V might come in handy some day (Tomcat...drool.)

So, I order stuff up. Everything arrives, and the mount/ball are seriously beefy - the ball mount is one solid piece of 2" stock. I go to slide it in my receiver, and it won't quite go in far enough to to allow the hitch pin to slide through, even though there's plenty of depth in the receiver. I compared it to my other ball mount, and notice it was designed to go a few more inches into the reciever. Thinking that there's probably 8+ years of gunk built up in the back part of the receiver, I proceed to squirt solvents in there, hit the inside with a file, and wash out a bunch of dirt and rust.

Then when everything was clean, I lubed up the ball mount with some grease, and tried again - giving the mount a nice shove. It went in farther, but not far enough - and stuck in there like nobody's business. I beat on that sucker for an hour trying to loosen it. Finally, I took the ball off, put on a clevis from my winch kit, and strapped the beast to a beefy oak tree. After slowly taking up the slack, it took some serious power to get that sucker to pop - it was in there hard! I'm just really glad I don't have one of them Dodges...it would still be in there.

At this point, I accept that something isn't quite right, and do a little research. Turns out this is a well known issue amongst many RV'ers...these solid Class V ball mounts have a coating on them that significantly increases the dimensions from 2". It's not a powder coat or paint - it's more like a vinyl coating. Some receivers have enough slop in them to accept the larger size, but most don't.

After about 20 minutes on the grinder and wire wheel, the thing fit fine. The added capacity might come in handy some day, but had I know what a major PITA it was, I'd have stuck with a hollow Class IV ball mount...

[TyBoo]

[gljjr]

If you had that kind of trouble I would look closely at the weight limit of the hitch. I had no problem putting my class V reciever on my truck. Of course I also have a class V hitch on the truck too.

[SeaSpray]

Bill,
It is good to know these things. Too bad you had to go to so much trouble.

I learned the hard way that on my Johnson 90 the plastic water intake filers on the lower unit are held to the motor by screws that hold the two side together. How did I learn this? I got a clog from the insidiuos weeds in the delta. I wanted to remove the plastic filter to check for weed. I removed the screw from one side and it would not come off ( this would have been a clue to most people). I turned the motor to have better acces to the other side and removed that screw. Then I heard a plop, looked on the other side a saw the plastic filter sinking away in the current.

It has taken 2 weeks to get the replacement.

Steve

[Da Nag]