Device for Pulling a Trailer and/or Retaining a Load Carrying Unit

In order to improve a device for pulling a trailer and/or retaining a load carrying unit that is mountable at the rear end of a motor vehicle body and which comprises a supporting arm that is connected by a first end region to the motor vehicle body and is provided at a second end region with an element for attaching the trailer and/or for fixing the load carrying unit and furthermore which comprises sensors for capturing reversible deformations of the supporting arm caused by loads on the supporting arm in such a manner as to provided a device with which an allocation of captured elongations to individual applications of force is possible in as simple a way as possible, it is proposed that strain sensors which are affected by reversible deformations thereof be assigned to a supporting arm section of the supporting arm, and that, for capturing at least one selected bending strain, at least one strain sensor be arranged on one side and at least one strain sensor on an opposite side of a surface region of a neutral reference surface assigned to the selected bending load and that each of the strain sensors be arranged at a distance from this surface region.