The drive home from the trail was miserable. For 3 hours, I couldn’t stop thinking about the missing piece that held the bike and trailer together. Without it, there was no way we could continue our bike touring adventure as there would be no way to pull the trailer. When we got home, I looked through the trailer’s owner’s manual but it didn’t mention the piece. I then went online and tried the company’s website, but since they were out of business, it was long gone. I did however find some pages where people mentioned how much they loved their trailers, but nothing useful to me. I eventually stumbled upon a Facebook post that mentioned the name of the former owner of Cycletote and I was able to find her personal Facebook page and send her a message and a friend request, but to date (now months later) I have not heard back. After several hours of frustration and dead ends, I decided to call it a night.

The next morning, I tried a different idea, I tried describing the piece to Google to see what I might find. I ran into a bunch more dead ends but finally made a little progress when I tried “metal ball and socket joint hardware”. It wasn’t a victory, but I was in the right ballpark. Finally, after a few more hours of searching using this new tactic, then measuring trailer pieces I did have, taking a trip to Home Depot to clarify some things, and then a much more refined search, I finally came upon something that wasn’t exact, but looked like it might work. I decided to order two, just to be safe in case one disappeared again. Now that I knew what the piece was called, I felt kind of foolish for not having known it in the first place as the name was simply “Rod End: Female Studded, 52100 Steel Spherical, Right Hand, 3/8"-24 Thread Size, Carbon Steel”.

I’ll be sure to remember that for the next time I lose my metal ball and socket joint...

UPDATE - A savvy reader contacted me to let me know that he had a similar situation with his Cycletote trailer and he was able to get in touch with the company before they went out of business and they told him who their supplier was for the exact part and not just the “looked like it might work” one that I found. So thank you, Mike K. for setting me straight with the real Made in USA - 3/8" ID, 1" Max OD, 3,950 Lb Max Static Cap, Female Spherical Rod End with Stud - 35398247 - MSC Industrial Supply (mscdirect.com)