Hitch buckled - Could have been disaster

Last week a friend was taking her two horses to a show, and just as she was about to pull onto the road she felt something that seemed to her like one of her horses had fallen down. She quickly got out to check and glanced at her ball hitch as she passed it. It had buckled in half! It was a 6 year old Draw Tite hitch. The first 4 years she owned it, it was only put on the truck when she was infrequently hauling. The last 2 years it has stayed on. If she had been on the highway when it broke it would have been a tragedy. Has anyone had a similar experience? It seems like 6 years is not a long life for a hitch.

is the hitch attached to her bumper or attached to the frame?? My trailer has a safety brake. if it jumps off the ball the brake pin will come out of a box mounted on the front of the trailer frame, and the trailer brakes will engage. i would never use a trailer without it. things can rust in 6 years, if it wasnt put on by a professional i could see something happening to it.

my friends mum didnt check the hitch well enough & it came off when she was on the highway, thankfully it was okay though & no one got badly hurt

no issues with a hitch ... but on a highway one of our tyres sheared off- completely all of the bolts had snapped and the whole tire disappeared never to be seen again. we had 3 on and two came off a bit groggy but they were ok *thank god!*

Do you mean the hitch on the truck or the coupler on the trailer. If it's the trailer end, I would suspect the welding at the trailer factory caused the problem.

A friend tells me the couplers used by most trailer builders are no the best and sometimes not welded correctly, as I guessed earlier. Bulldog is suppose to make a good one and my friend says you can get one from these guys.

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our trailer has chains to atach. if the hitch comes off the chains keep it with us.

eh, dont tell me these things! im travelling for the first time with my horse on tuesday!

I think she is refering to the under bumper hitch, bolted on the frame. Although I don't know why some one would put it on and off the vehicle.
But I have seen some under bumper hitches that had rust holes in them.

There are different weight ratings for different classes of hitches. My bet is the hitch was not properly rated as they last many yrs. Buckling would be from too much weight.