Rob, This was a known issue in euro cranes for a long time. They were known to fail where US made bolts did not. Come to find out, the crane mfg were using bolts with cut threads which would break or strip out easily due to the lack of material grain flow. Basically all the grain structure of the bolt's outer layer was sheared when they cut the threads.

There are very few cap screws that are made in the U.S. the vast majority that can be bought commercially are imported from various countries, The country of origin isnt necessarily a predictor of the type of thread creation. As is the case with most items you can buy whatever quality you want or can afford. The majority of domestic fastener makers produce "specials" which are fasteners engineered to a specific application rather than the "hardware" common "nuts and bolts"
When I was in the game there was only one major manufacturer in the U.S. of socket screw products (commonly referred to as allen head bolts of which they are neither) , a company named SPS technologies in Jenkintown PA. Every other brand was imported. They were obviously more expensive but the quality was unquestionable.

We had an old trick for identification on foreign socket head cap screws. If you look at the screw from the side, the outer surface of the head should be straight and at 90 degrees to the under head bearing surface. Almost every foreign SHCS that I ever saw had a slight bulge in the outside of the head. Something you never saw on an SPS product due to their strict production and tolerance controls.

Nice history and detail familytruckster4. Would be interesting to get feedback from Reese on the failure and where they sourced the bolts. Too many overseas counterfeit or subpar products these days.

Jim

I totally geeked out on that post

Was the head size on that hex head cap screw 5/8" ? it looks to small to be a 5/8-11 thread.

You might also try a button head socket cap screw. They are available at most bigger hardware stores in the 1 or 2 quantity specialty bins. They are the same shear strength as the socket heads and sometimes fit/look a little better.

Original bolts were Grade 8 5/8-11 x 2.75 (See parts list in post 6)
Replacements are the same except 3" (1/4" longer)
Head size is 15/16". (I had to also buy a new socket for that . . . on the road . . . couldn't reach my tool box at home LOL)

The button head bolt idea is a good one. I have a fastener supplier who might have these.

Rob

At some point before I discovered the broken bushing bolt, if fractured . . . but I continued to tow the trailer. This was the first long distance tow with the new truck and I remember watching the trailer motion in the inside mirror and and thinking that it had more up and down motion than with the previous truck. I attributed this to the motion of the new truck. With the new bushing retaining bolts, that up/down motion of the trailer has returned to what it was with the previous truck.

So . . . why didn't this hitch come apart catastrophically when the bolt broke? The answer is that there is a finger of the cast head that drops into a slot in the carrier. (In the picture the head is the upper black part and the carrier is the lower blue part. ) At least I know that someone at Reese thought about what would happen if the bushing retaining bolt broke.

Rob