to Monster Mopar this weekend:

Last night I was getting ready to hook up to my enclosed trailer/car hauler for a 600+ mile trip to St Loius tomorrow. Trailer probably weighs 10,000 lbs and I'm using a weight distribution hitch and a sway bar.

Every now an then when coming to a stop or cresting a hill I have heard and felt a pop from stinger moving/shifting as there is some play in the size of the receiver and the stinger which is normal so I've typically just ignored it as I've checked it in the past and everything was fine.

About 2 years after I bought my 2004 Dodge 2500 4x4 Cummins I did notice that the bolts that secure the hitch to the frame cross bar were loose so I tightened them and put some lock nuts and double nutted some so they wouldn't come loosen again.

So last night I wiggled the stinger just to check it and it was loose so I figured the bolts had come loose again so i proceeded to tighten them and just about the time I thought I was done I noticed that it still seemed loose and looked under the hitch and saw that the mounting tabs had broken!!!! So I was about 10 miles from loosing the trailer!!!

My neighbor is going to weld and brace it back up and it will be stronger than it was but now im thinking I need to replace the whole receiver system with one that is one solid piece, frame to frame and the receiver.

Here is a picture of where it broke. Has anyone else experience this?

I do a lot of towing with mine, pretty much ever time it comes out of the garage it has a 10,000 lb trailer behind it but this was a very close call.