I have owned my utility trailer for about 20 years - and it looked as
used/old then as now. This is a light duty trailer - axle was from a
Honda 600 (cut in half and sleeved with a tube, I replaced the 10 inch
dia wheels w/ 13 inch RX7 wheels when it became harder to source 10
inch tires) - that I occasionaly load up to 1 ton. Twice the
trailer coupler became disconnected from the ball. Once about 8 years
ago while traversing some railroad tracks on a dirt road (possibly at
a bit too high of speed!), and once again recently. Both times the
trailer was empty. After each event I tightened the adjustment nut on
the coupler - the last event surprised me since after the first
unintentional disengagement I checked and adjusted the coupler so
that it just dropped over the ball. Now it is *very* difficult to get
the coupler over the ball. I do not know the brand of coupler -
probably about 30 years old, lever locking style.

My father has a trailer where there the coupler has a knob to draw up
the coupler tounge instead of a lever. I looked but I have not had
any luck in seeing any of these still available for purchase. While
this style requires more disipline on the part of the trailer user, I
feel that I could adjust the tounge for less clearance to the ball
than the lever locking style.

Since my coupler is for a 1 7/8 inch dia. ball, I figured I could
solve both the anoyance (sp) of switching balls and upgrade to a more
robust coupler. So my question is: who makes the best coupler?
Class 2 as a minimum - although all the links below are Class 3.
Brands that I have found include: Valley, Atwood, Fulton.
http://shop.easternmarine.com/index....categoryID=215
http://www.etrailer.com/pc-COUPLER~80071.htm
http://abctrailerparts.com/afcouplerjacks.html
Do you have either good or bad experince with any of these? Other
suggestions? Rather than buying something from Harbor Freight or
similar - I want to kill this (disengagement) problem - dead!