Does anyone know what the deal is with new trailer hitches?

[Cudapower]

Has anyone else noticed what a pain the new trailer hitches are to hook safety chains to? My 2013 Ram had nice large holes in plates on each side of the receiver. But the new hitches have a slot and a puny hole about the size of a silver dollar. The hooks hardly go in and the safety catches get blocked so you cant unhook them easily. I cant figure out what the odd holes are for. Obviously not hooks like everybody has. I looked at my brothers new Ford and it is worse yet. He had to add chain clevises just to be able to hook his hooks.

 

[SilverBullet85]

Has anyone else noticed what a pain the new trailer hitches are to hook safety chains to? My 2013 Ram had nice large holes in plates on each side of the receiver. But the new hitches have a slot and a puny hole about the size of a silver dollar. The hooks hardly go in and the safety catches get blocked so you cant unhook them easily. I cant figure out what the odd holes are for. Obviously not hooks like everybody has. I looked at my brothers new Ford and it is worse yet. He had to add chain clevises just to be able to hook his hooks.

I have next to no experience with towing other than my utility trailer for dump runs and carrying bicycles but even the little hooks on those safety chains need to be inserted at just the perfect angle or it's a pain so I can imagine some beefier hooks on a real trailer could be trouble.

 

[sandawilliams]

Has anyone else noticed what a pain the new trailer hitches are to hook safety chains to? My 2013 Ram had nice large holes in plates on each side of the receiver. But the new hitches have a slot and a puny hole about the size of a silver dollar. The hooks hardly go in and the safety catches get blocked so you cant unhook them easily. I cant figure out what the odd holes are for. Obviously not hooks like everybody has. I looked at my brothers new Ford and it is worse yet. He had to add chain clevises just to be able to hook his hooks.

My 2014 has the large 'eyes' for hooking the chains. I would think if you have the factory tow receiver it would also have the large ones.

 

[SYKRAMMAN]

Take the hooks off and use load rated threaded d rings. Actually, probably don’t even need to remove the hooks, just put a d ring on the link before the hooks. Just a thought.

 

[Tim7139]

Varies a lot by hitch manufacturer.