To improve a trailer device for motor vehicles, comprising a holding unit for a plvcrossmember mountable on a vehicle body on the rear-end side thereof and a ball neck receiving body having a ball neck receptacle, in which an insertion portion of a ball neck supporting a coupling ball is insertable and fixable therein, wherein the ball neck receiving body is arranged mounted on the holding unit so as to be pivotable at least between a working position, in which a ball neck is insertable by means of its insertion portion into the ball neck receptacle, and a rest position, it is proposed that the trailer device comprises a locking device which fixes the ball neck receiving body in the rest position in a locking state relative to the holding unit and has an unlocking state, in which the locking device allows the ball neck receiving body to pivot from the rest position in the direction towards the working position, and that an actuator is provided, by means of which the locking device is movable from the locking state into the unlocking state.

A vehicle connection system in accordance with present embodiments includes a first connection mechanism having a shaft with a first portion coupled to a second portion by a hinged joint. A locking element extends from the second portion. Guides extend on opposing sides of the second portion such that a channel is formed between the guides and the guides block movement of the second portion about the hinged joint outside of the channel. The guides are positioned between the locking element and the hinged joint along the shaft. A second connection mechanism is configured to couple with the first connection mechanism and includes a locking box configured to receive the locking element via an aperture in the locking box and configured such that rotation of the locking element while in the locking box via rotation of the shaft interlocks the locking element with the lock box.

A trailer device for an agricultural vehicle includes a frame part and a guide part longitudinally, displaceably mounted in the frame part. The guide part includes a coupling element provided on an end face. The frame part is pivoted by a lifting apparatus for raising and lowering the coupling element relative to a base frame for attaching to a load-bearing vehicle structure. The device includes at least one spring element arranged between the base frame and the frame part such that the spring element exerts a pretensioning force on the frame part for assisting the raising of the coupling element.

A coupler for use by a towing vehicle to tow a towed vehicle can have an auxiliary actuator, such as a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder, coupled to a coupler latching element or elements to move the latching elements to a closed position, such as automatically in response to the occurrence of a vehicle condition, such as the release of the emergency brake of a towing vehicle. The auxiliary actuator can be provided with or without a actuator used to move a clamp into engagement with a draw bar eye of the towed vehicle. The auxiliary actuator can operate to cause the closing of the latching element or elements when, for example, a vehicle operator inadvertently forgets to close the latch before driving off with a towed trailer.

A drawbar detection device configured to be mounted to a hitch receiver having a drawbar opening and a locking pin opening device includes a blocking member pivotally connected relative to the hitch receiver. The blocking member includes a blocking element that, in a first position, covers one of the draw bar opening and the locking pin opening and, in a second position uncovers the one of the drawbar opening and the locking pin opening. A sensor is operatively associated with the blocking member. The sensor detects whether the blocking element is in the one of the first position and the second position and, upon detecting the blocking element in the second position, the sensor signals a vehicle control system to disable a vehicle latch system.

A trailer coupling for a motor vehicle having may include a coupling element, which is mounted by a bearing so as to be movable between a usage position, in which for attachment of a trailer the coupling element projects rearwards in front of the rear of the motor vehicle, and a rest position, in which the coupling element is moved closer to the motor vehicle, wherein the bearing has a bearing base which is stationary relative to the motor vehicle and a bearing element which is movably mounted on the bearing base and supports the coupling element, wherein the trailer coupling has an electric drive motor by which the bearing element can be driven relative to the bearing base between the rest position and the usage position, and wherein the drive motor has a stator and an armature that is driven relative to the stator. It is provided that the bearing base and the bearing element form drive components, wherein the stator is arranged on one drive component forming a stator drive component, and the armature is arranged on the other drive component forming an armature drive component.

A method and system are described for controlled supplemental steering, by actuating a supplemental steering element, of a trailing implement connectable via a hitch to a pulling source, and wherein the trailing implement includes a pair of parallel wheels, a controller, a position sensing system that generates a hitch position history comprising a stored set of recent positions of the hitch point, and a steering angle actuator. The method carried out by the system includes maintaining a history of positions of the hitch, determining a target steering angle for the supplemental steering element, and actuating the steering angle actuator in accordance with the target steering angle. During the maintaining the history of positions of the hitch, the history of positions of the hitch is updated by performing a rotation operation and a translation operation on a set of coordinates of the history corresponding to previous hitch positions.

An industrial truck (21) with a jaw coupling (1) that includes a coupling body (22) and a coupling pin (4), a system including such an industrial truck and a trailer (40), and a method for coupling the trailer to the industrial truck. The industrial truck includes a control unit (28), at least one locking sensor (17) and a locking actuator (8). The locking sensor is configured to recognize whether a coupling eye (26) of a drawbar (18) of a trailer is located in a locking position within the coupling body. The control unit is configured to receive and evaluate signals from the locking sensor and, when the locking sensor recognizes that the coupling eye is located in or near the locking position, the control unit is configured to control the locking actuator so that it actuates the coupling pin such that the coupling pin is shoved through the coupling eye.

A trailer coupler assembly facilitates the automatic coupling and decoupling of a trailer. A trailer coupler assembly can include a main body with a frontward-facing opening for receiving a rearwardly oriented trailer ball. A locking assembly can be integrated with the main body and can allow the rearwardly oriented trailer ball to insert into the frontward-facing opening to automatically secure a trailer to a vehicle. A release assembly can interface with the locking assembly to enable the rearwardly oriented trailer ball to be decoupled from the main body.

A height adjustable hitch receiver is disclosed and described.