[AndyA]

I've always hand tightened with about a 2ft wrench. I've never had a problem with this, but I got curious.

A little googling found the torque spec for a 1-1/4" grade 2 is 500 ft-lbs, and 1-1/4" grade 5 is upwards of 1000 ft-lbs.

Most of the hitch balls I've seen "appear" to be made of better stuff than grade 2. So I need at least 500 ft-lbs and maybe up to 1000 ft-lbs.

There's no way I'm pulling 500 ft-lbs with the 2ft long wrench. I use a 3/4" drive torque wrench to set the lug nuts on my 5 ton truck. These are 600 ft-lbs and it's not easy popping these with my entire weight on the end of the 3ft handle.

So basicly I've severely under-torqued every hitch ball I've ever installed. And yet.. I've never had one come loose. I've never even seen scuff marks where it may have moved around.

My recommendation is tighten the **** out of it by hand with a fairly long wrench, then inspect it regularly. If you're really paranoid, maybe you can cross drill it, use a castellated nut, and install a cotter pin.