Why would you put a hitch ball-mount in backwards?
Everyone who's owned a truck has walked into a ball mount in a dark car park. Once. Then they remember it for the next eleven years.
Applies to
- Process
- Towing setup and storage
- Materials
- Receiver hitches with a removable ball-mount / drawbar
- Setup
- The ball-mount, hitch pin and clip
- Two uses
- Tucking it in when not towing · getting the ball height you need
Why it matters
A ball-mount left hanging out is a shin-cracker and the first thing to touch a kerb when you reverse.
Most ball-mounts are drop mounts. Flipped, the same part gives you the same amount of rise — so one mount covers two trailer heights instead of you buying a second one.
What good looks like
- Pin and clip fully engaged in the reversed position
- When towing: the trailer sits level with the ball at the right height
- When stowed: nothing protruding at shin height
How to apply it
- Pull the pin and remove the ball-mount.
- Rotate it — end for end to tuck it in, or vertically to swap the drop for a rise.
- Reinsert and pin it, with the clip through the pin.
- Before towing, check the trailer sits level and the mount is oriented the way its rating assumes.
Exceptions & tradeoffs
Only tow with the ball-mount in an orientation the manufacturer rates. The flipped-in tuck is for stowing; the vertical flip for rise is a normal rated use, the horizontal tuck is not.
Ratings drop as the ball moves further from the receiver. Check the sticker, not your memory of the sticker.
Common mistakes
- Towing with the mount in the tucked-away stow positionThat's a storage position, not a towing one — flip it back and pin it properly
- Leaving the pin in without the clipClip goes in. Pins walk out over corrugations
Reversing the ball-mount in the receiver to tuck it in and to convert a drop into a rise — Trailer Hitch In Backwards?! Nooo Waaay! ↗ at 0:42–0:59.
Summarized and independently edited by Start Here. The creator captions this one "my grandpa taught me this trick." The rating caution and the towing-orientation warning are our editorial notes.