Stupid Newbie Trailer Question

[Marshytaco]

So, Alan and I went to pick up a trailer last night. the guy I bought it from had a little trouble taking it off of his ball but it finally came off and went onto mine, no problems. So, I drive the thing home about 150 miles with no problems. But, when I got home and backed it down my driveway (that took me a while since I'm new at the whole trailer thing) and I was facing up hill with the trailer (if you've ever been over to my folk's house I was parking it in the corner of the driveway around back where one of the Hondas usually is), I cannot get the trailer off of my hitch ball. I have zero trailer experience, but this doesn't seem to make sense. I even tried high lifting the trailer off of the ball and that didn't work, my truck's back two wheels were about off of the ground. Yes, I did unlatch the trailer at the ball on the safety latch sort of thing but it wouldn't come off of the ball.
Well, I'm going to look at it when I'm not exhausted (it was about midnight when I was trying to do this last night) and with hopefully a little bit of light out. But, I wanted to know if anyone with trailer experience could give me some pointers? It doesn't seem that it would be that tough to do, but I sure can't get it off of their.
BTW, the trailer, empty and on my aftermarket bumper, is entirely too high and the front two wheels of the trailer don't touch the ground with it on level ground, so I'm thinking that the thing is in some sort of bind at the hitch but I would have thought that a high lift would have broken it free.
I think that with a stock trailer hitch that I will have a much better angle and then putting the weight of my trail rig (one day, I know) will get it close to level.
Any help is appreciated!
Marshall

[ATLRoach]

Try Hilifting the trailer's neck and jump on the rear bumper to get them to disconnect.

[Marshytaco]

Yeah, I tried that but the weight of the truck was pretty much being held by the trailer on the jack...maybe I need some heavy friends to come over and really jump on it! I'm going home to try to figure it out soon, I'll let you all know what happens, but any more suggestions would be great.
Thanks guys!

[ATLRoach]

Hey Buddy my fat butt can jump on it and I'll be in the area possibly this afternoon.

[mnntaco]

Sounds like your latching lever is not working. Look underneth and see if you can see it where it touches the ball and see if it moves with the lever. If its at a too steep of an angle from trailer to truck then its just binding up on you. Sounds to me like the lever is broke though.

Anyway let us know what it was.

If it is in a bind the bouncing method that Kyle described should do the trick.

[STOMPER]

Spray the crap out of it with PB BLASTER or wd40. Also check and see what size ball its suppose to have and what size ball you have on. But yea it could also be in a bind since it angled up you may need to jack the back of the trailer up to get it off. Your also going to need a drop hitch it sounds like.

[link817]

LOL, what a great story w/ a horrible finish. That sucks you trailer is stuck on there. I would invest in a 6 to 8 inch drop hitch if i was you when you get it off.

[Blitanicle99]

That suckers obviously in a good bind because of the angle of the latch around the ball and it potentially locked up real tight on the trip back. Jam a flathead and see if you cant move the latch. Or better yet, remove the ball from the bumper, that would be the easiest way. And also if the ball is at the same angle it is when you take it off and when it was on the trailer its definatly jammed. Big flat head screw driver and a BFH (big Fing hammer) should get it off. My dads done this before and after a few minutes of getting the screwdriver lined up the BFH did the trick in 2 hits.

[crawlrunner]

OK here is what I know w/many years of trailer experience. The latch mechanism is subject to jamming into the locked position when the hitch is in a bind or has pressure on it ... from inclines & such. Try getting somewhere flat & take the bind/pressure off the hitch or chock the trailer wheels & move the truck a bit to release pressure then try again.

Having a little party on the river this weekend if anybody's interested.

Goodluck

[GOT COPE?]

Try Hilifting the trailer's neck and jump on the rear bumper to get them to disconnect. x2 Be careful can be nasty when it finally lets go.

[Marshytaco]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! When I went over there yesterday with some daylight we found what the culprit was. It was basically in a bind so that the release mechanism would not fully release. After we got it on flat ground it seemed to be just fine and I didn't even need the high lift, this time.
Thanks again everyone! Now, I just need to get my 82 running so that I can drag it somewhere.
BTW, I have a 5 1/4 inch drop on it and I think that will do once I put a stock Taco receiver on it as that will drop the receiver about 3 inches or so, so it should work out, but I'm sure something else will come up once I get the weight of my other truck on it....oh well!
Marshall

[Marshytaco]

OK here is what I know w/many years of trailer experience. The latch mechanism is subject to jamming into the locked position when the hitch is in a bind or has pressure on it ... from inclines & such. Try getting somewhere flat & take the bind/pressure off the hitch or chock the trailer wheels & move the truck a bit to release pressure then try again.

Having a little party on the river this weekend if anybody's interested.

Goodluck


That was exactly what we did and that seemed to releive the pressure.

Man, you are tempting me to come up there, this weekend, I just have too much fun when I do go up there!

Ed, PM me your phone number, please. I'm going to talk to the old lady and see if she wants to come check it out.

[ATLRoach]

Yeah you need gears in your taco if want to tow that thing....4:56s is what you need.

[Marshytaco]

Yeah, I know I should, but I won't, I'm too cheap. I'm going to get some smaller tires to put on it when I'm towing, I think it should be okay, just not great in first gear. I like the stock gears with the 33s right now and I wouldn't want to change that since most of the time I won't be towing. But, I'll just have to see how it does and go from there....

[Wiskey_33]

Marshall,
you can just trade trucks with me when your towing...or just let me have yours...that sounds about good to me.
Chris.

[Marshytaco]

We'll have to work out the details over a few beers and a ton of blasters!

[Wiskey_33]

Cetainly.....hahah...I've come to the conclusion that any business discussion/deal should include blasters, and/or Jager shots...