Safety fastener for ball and socket hitch

A safety fastener for ball and socket hitches having a ball member with a spherical ball carried by a depending fastening bolt fastened on the tongue of a hitch beam of a towing vehicle, and a socket member having a hitch beam with a forward spherical portion movably carried over the spherical ball and operatively connected to a towed vehicle, comprising in combination:

• A base defining an elongate channel therethrough to receive the tongue of a towing vehicle hitch structure, said base defining cooperating holes extending vertically therethrough to receive the fastening bolt of the ball member to fasten the base about the hitch beam below the spherical ball;
• at least one vertical arm collar defining a vertical channel therethrough carried by the forward portion of at least one side of the base and defining a plurality of fastening holes extending diametrically therethrough to releasably receive a fastening pin therethrough;
• at least one elongate vertical arm slidably carried in the channel defined by the at least one vertical arm collar, said vertical arm defining a plurality of axially spaced fastening pin holes extending therethrough to cooperate with the fastening pin holes defined in the vertical arm collars to receive fastening pins therethrough to maintain the at least one vertical arm in vertically adjustable positions in the at least one vertical arm collar;
• and
• A horizontal fastening beam carried by the upper portion of the at least one vertical arm to extend spacedly therefrom for vertical positioning above the forward spherical portion of the hitch beam to maintain the hitch beam in interconnection with the associated ball element.