GenY and Roadmaster Hitch Pin Weight Capacity Comparisons  

What is the actual strength of a hitch pin? The reason I ask is because we were towing our Wrangler behind our Motorhome as follows: A GenY 304 hitch attached to our motorhome secured with a Roadmaster locking hitch pin. Then a Roadmaster Nighthawk towbar connected to the GenY with one of the GenY supplied hitch pins supplied for that purpose. Unfortunately for us, the Roadmaster hitch pin either sheared or the locking mechanism failed and it worked loose. The result was the GenY and towbar separating from the Motorhome, bouncing off of the road and back onto the hood of the Wrangler embedding itself. When I tried stopping as slowwwwly as I could on a fairly level road, I could not stop slow enough to prevent the Wrangler from hitting the Motorhome causing more damage to the Jeep and to the Motorhome. The breakaway didnt pull out since I had the MH end attached to the GenY which stayed attached to the Jeep. The Jeep is in for repairs now and we are waiting to get home to NY to have the MH repaired. Roadmaster was great in sending me a replacement towbar which got damaged one arm wouldnt retract, as well as a new locking hitch pin, and safety cables even though I couldnt prove their hitch pin failed because I never went back to look for it. Stupid, I know. Although we realize it was a fluke accident, we are bit fearful of another pin breaking, though this time Im going to use the GenY hitch pins for both points of attachment and not the Roadmaster pin. Why not design hitch receivers that require TWO pins to attach so that one backs up the other? But back to my original question, how strong or weak are these pins and what are best practices?

asked by: Ray