What could have caused this.

I towed my tt to dealer I bought it from for work on the water heater. I had to unhook it so they could use a tractor to take it to the garage. When the work was finished I was hooking things back up and noticed one of my Reese snap up brackets was all bent up. I showed the service manager and he took it back to try and straighten it. I knew that wasn't going to work. He came out with a replacement and we hooked it up and I was on my way.  He said sometimes backing up with the trunion bars hooked up could damage it. Uhh, ok. I towed it to a camp site tonight and the new one is loose and it's bent the same way.
I cannot figure out why this happened twice and on the same side. The pic of the bracket on my tailgate is the first one. The second is sitting on the tt frame.

Any ideas?

I can only guess that the trunnion bar is moving in an unusual manner. Maye the bar itself is bent, or the other end is binding or loose, altering the normal function?  Maybe a call to Reese customer service would get some ideas? I think maybe etrailer.com takes questions too.

I have heard it said you sould not back into a site with the bars latched.. I have seen many many people do it though, and when I used a friction anti-sway (Not load equalizing) I did it.. And reports of damage are still in the single digit range.

I'd guess defect or damage.. not sure which.. Damage from someone hitting it.. Possibly the dealer since you did NOT notice the damage when you unhooked.

He said it was lose when I unhooked it. Doesn't explain the second one getting bent and it went straight to a campsite from the dealer. No backing.

Do you have your bars adjusted properly? It almost looks like there is way too much tension on that bar. If you need the instructions on how to adjust them properly, let us know. It's real easy.

Rene T said:

Do you have your bars adjusted properly? It almost looks like there is way too much tension on that bar. If you need the instructions on how to adjust them properly, let us know. It's real easy.

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I put it all together myself and took it to the RV dealer I bought our tt through. They adjusted the hitch down a bit and tilted the ball some. Showed me how many links to use and off I went.

I would recheck what the dealer did. Something doesn't sound right. To adjust the bars correctly you must:

1) Do this in an area that's fairly level.
2) Unhook the trailer from the truck and move the truck just far enough to clear the trailer.
3) Check the trailer for being level. It doesn't have to be perfect but get it as close as you can.
Check the height of the ball in regards to the trailer. They should be about the same height. If not either raise or lower the ball accordingly.
4) Raise the trailer high enough so that you can back under the trailer.
5) With a tape measure take a measurement of the height between the ground and the top of the wheel well on the front and rear of the truck. Mark the spot on the truck and the ground where you took the measurement.
6) Subtract the two measurements you took. We'll call that the DELTA. Let's say the front measurement was 1" higher than the back measurement. Record that.
7) Now lower the trailer onto the ball.
8) Now take two more measurements in the same place you took the first two and subtract the difference. The object is to end up with the same DELTA as the first two dimensions in other words 1".
9) Now go back to the trailer and hook up each lift bar on the same link and raise the mechanism by putting tension on each bars equally.
10) Now take another set of readings and do the math. If you didn't get the same DELTA as the first set, raise it up another link. Keep doing this until you get the same delta let's say 1" which is just an example.
Once you get it, mark the links with paint or something similar so that you can always go back to the same links. Now they're properly adjusted.

What you actually did was transfer weight from the rear axle to the front axle of the truck so the truck is at the same attitude that is was when it did not have the weight of the trailer on the ball.

PS:I might add that the trailer should be loaded with all you camping stuff when doing this.