Rant: You don’t need a recovery hook on your mall crawler.

If youre so worried about it why not ask the guy about it? He might have a valid reason...an if not...its his truck and im sure he paid for it.

 

That's his radiator punch not a recovery hook!

 

Damn! Called OUT!

 

Weird attitude. Just because he works in the city doesn’t mean he doesn’t wheel other times. Then again in Texas if you’re dumb enough to walk inches behind a truck and don’t look for a hitch and shin it you’re probably going to get mockery, not sympathy.

 

Spray paint it florescent orange.

 

Thats the damn truth right there. 90% of the trucks here have a hitch on all the time. You learned very quickly back when receivers became popular to watch out for them. My 7 yr old even watches for them in parking lots.

 

Do you drive with that thing on there?

 

Clearly you haven't spent much time actually reading many of the posts on this forum, then. My post was meant to be quasi-sarcastic, but it has a degree of truth to it.

As for it being ignorant...If something solid (like another car) hits you from behind, your hitch acts like a lever on the frame (simple physics, because of how it's mounted). Anything extending out from the hitch (like, for instance, a recovery hook) makes that lever longer, increasing the forces on the frame and making it that much more likely to bend. You don't even have to be in an accident for it to happen; just overloading the hitch can do it.

Examples:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/frame-bent-at-hitch-mount.179140/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rear-ended-frame-bent.97410/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rear-ended-frame-bent-pic-included.115889/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rear-ended-frame-bent.97410/

Since a bent frame is generally used by insurance companies as a measure of a vehicle being 'totaled' keeping something in your hitch increases that likelihood if you're rear-ended.

Whatcha gonna do?
Called ignorant by somebody speaking from a position of ignorance...ironic.

 

Yeah I made that mistake a few times as a kid. Never since. Mine stays on because I’m dropping a boat 3x or more a week and the receiver is more convenient than it banging around in the bed.

 

Maybe in a minor crash that would have just dimpled your bumper. But in a more serious one, the hitch would still get hit first and transfer energy that would have been absorbed by the bumper crumpling directly to the frame instead.

 

well, that escalated quickly...

 

Living "close" the Seattle uber green nonsense - it make very little sense to have a hook on a trailer hitch for a DD.
That is more common in Renton, MV, Enumclaw, Quah, NB, Sammamish, etc.

The theory of a radiator punch is valid thought as even though it is illegal in WA to text & drive, there are Darwin's finest still at work.

Said hook can be thought of as a healthy reminder to pay attention while doing the most dangerous activity average humans do.
If that reminder is ignored, here's a new radiator and possibly a new engine for not paying attention.

 

Mine never comes off because I pull my boat a lot. I also live/work/drive/park in Seattle every day. Most people only smack their shin on a hitch once in their life, so they'll figure it out...

 

not like i haven't thought about it, but won't this stain my shirt?

 

Hook a big fish on it

 

Stop making sense with your words and what not, no one cares about how physics works in the real world. And your examples are clearly elaborate hoaxes that you fabricated.

 

Wut.

 

/Sarcasm

 

I know, I was Oz-T-ing you.

 

Maybe the owner of the truck does it to annoy people , may perhaps be prius deterrent.