Rear Ended - Damaged Receiver?

[mtofell]

Got rear ended at pretty low speed today - I'd be surprised if the guy was going 10mph by the time he hit me. My truck doesn't have a scratch. The entire impact was taken by my receiver. You can see the imprint on the front of the hood of the Honda.

My question is if I need to do the whole body shop inspection thing? I know it's free and they will pay, etc, etc but I just HATE dealing with BS like this. I need my truck for work every day and time is money. I've poured over every weld on my receiver and the frame, and nothing looks out of place at all. I was honestly shocked at how damaged his car was given the impact. It felt barely more firm than when I hookup my 5th wheel. The way things lined up my receiver just went right into the weakest part of his front end - gotta love 7500# vs. 3500#

 

[Punishher7]

It’s highly unlikely there is any damage at all to your truck but would you sleep better at night after having it inspected? I probably would but that’s just me. A minor fender bender and mine gets traded in cause “it’ll never be the same again”...[emoji16]


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[derag2]

The abuse that hitch takes pulling a trailer, it didnt even know anything hit it.

 

[dhay13]

Wife was rear ended in her Durango years ago the same way. Took it to the body shop and they weren't positive there was any damage to it but recommended getting it replaced just to be safe. When he mentioned the possibility of losing a trailer I agreed. Just peace of mind and I didn't have to pay for it anyway.

 

[Donelam304]

Got rear ended at pretty low speed today - I'd be surprised if the guy was going 10mph by the time he hit me. My truck doesn't have a scratch. The entire impact was taken by my receiver. You can see the imprint on the front of the hood of the Honda.

My question is if I need to do the whole body shop inspection thing? I know it's free and they will pay, etc, etc but I just HATE dealing with BS like this. I need my truck for work every day and time is money. I've poured over every weld on my receiver and the frame, and nothing looks out of place at all. I was honestly shocked at how damaged his car was given the impact. It felt barely more firm than when I hookup my 5th wheel. The way things lined up my receiver just went right into the weakest part of his front end - gotta love 7500# vs. 3500#


View attachment 170615

I had a similar incident. But I got read ended by another ¾ ton truck and it actually bent my receiver. Dropped it by 3". Because it bent it down. So ya may wanna make sure your ball height is still ok.

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[desync0]

I would slide a ball receiver in there and make sure everything's still straight, but if the guy that hit you will cough up the money I would replace it just to be safe it's cheap peace of mind.

Everything might still be straight and look fine what is the shear rating on the bolts? I wouldn't want to lose a trailer over a couple hundred dollars.

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[likes2build]

It would be a shame to find out later down the road that there was a problem caused by the collision and now the chance of recovery for damages is 0% due to "late notice". Do yourself a favor as the others suggested and just get it checked for safety and piece of mind.

 

[Nickx86]

Not relevant to newer 2 1/2” receivers and rams but my old 2004 f150 w factory 2” receiver, the drop down hitch got stuck on a curb and bent it, it was rated for 5000lbs, the hitch looked fine. A year later, I noticed the bottom plate on the receiver, the welds had failed on me. I would at least have someone look at it and have it recorded to insurance.

 

[buddy guy]

I would get it checked. could it have a fracture, even a hairline crack somewhere? I think it's possible.

 

[mtofell]

Thanks everyone..... I just took it to the body shop and they said everything is fine. The guy said the part of the Honda that hit me is about the weakest part of the car.

And I didn't go to the shop the insurance company tried to steer me to. I have a buddy in the car industry and he got me to a great independent shop.

 

[PaulTGarrett]

Had a rice burner hit my '98 RAM a few years ago, hitch took the impact. Also munged the bumper a bit. I took it to the body shop, Geico dude looks everything over and says it wasn't damaged, they won't "fix" it, only replace the bumper brackets and re-align the hitch. I got up under the truck, pointed out that the hitch had moved against the mounting bolts (you could see the scratches in the paint). Told the body guy to screw Geico, replace my bumper and hitch, I'll just sue them. Geico guy started to say something and then I looked at him and asked if saving a few hundred bucks on my trailer hitch was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in a lawsuit if one of my trailers broke loose because a weld or bolt failed.

I got a new bumper and trailer hitch.

You can't let insurance companies dictate to you what repairs you will and won't get on their dime. There are so many lawyers out there who would love to split a million-dollar settlement with you against Geico and their ilk...