I've got three balls and none of them work

Been having a hell of a time here at Falling Downs. Trouble flared up when I tried to move the wood-splitter from behind the woodshed out to the laneway.

When me and Junior assembled the wood-splitter last year, we never had occasion to test out the hitch. We just man-handled her up the grade behind the shed and she's been sitting there ever since. So I was perplexed when I backed up the F-150 and I couldn't get the hitch down on the ball.

Well, we were only going a hundred yards or so, and none of it on the public roadways, so I just had Junior stand on the tongue while I towed the splitter around the garage and down the lane.

The reason we needed to be on the lane was because I'd dropped that almost-dead elm tree I was fretting about a couple weeks ago. Brought her down within a few degrees of where I'd intended. Missed the house by miles.

It was all good.

But we had a whack of trunk sections that needed splitting before they went in the basement. So we got the splitter moved and got the wood downstairs and everything was good, and my next job was getting more of the deadwood out of the back woodlot. I figured I'd hook up the trailer to the F-150 and fill both the truck and the trailer on a single trip!

So now I can't get the friggin' trailer hitch to drop on the ball! And reaching the back woodlot does require a brief passage along public roads, so having Junior stand on the tongue was a non-starter, mainly because his mom was home at the time.

Now, with the wood-splitter I'd just figured that the hitch was faulty. But this trailer I've towed around all over the place. How can the hitch suddenly be flawed?

A thorough investigation revealed the problem. The ball I had in the receiver was a 2". Both the wood-splitter and the trailer had 1 and 7/8"
couplers.

No wonder I couldn't get them to drop!

But I had a 1 and 7/8 on the tractor!

Unfortunately I haven't so much as moved the tractor in a month and a half, and in my absence a colony of wasps have built a nest just below the back window of the cab. That would be just above where I have to remove the ball that might work... 

I hear they go dormant in the cold weather. Maybe I'll revisit this conundrum in November.