bill321
Colorado
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I didn't really like the way the dealer set up my hitch. They didn't take the time to measure anything and basically did everything by eye. The trailer dipped down in the front quite a bit and the way the rear of my truck sagged....well it didn't look like I even had a WD hitch installed. So I went out and bought some BIG wrenches and tried to do some fine tuning myself. How does this look now?
I had to readjust the height of the ball on the shank and actually turn the shank up (dealer had it facing down). I also had to put in 7 washers (dealer put in 5).
Here are my measurements from the fender to the ground as I set it up:
Truck with no TT attached - Front Axle=36.5" Rear Axle=39.25"
Truck and TT but no WD - Front Axle=36.75" Rear Axle=37.75"
Truck and TT with WD applied - Front Axle=36.5" Rear Axle=38.25"
I think this is correct now...since I got my front axle to settle back down to its original height. The Trailer is now level too and is 17" from frame to ground at both the front and rear.
I also got my weights this weekend....but I don't think I did it correctly. Is this an accurate measurement of what the tongue weight actually is when everything is connected and I am towing down the road?
Let me know how I can improve this set up.
Thanks !
Moderator edit to re-size pictures to forum limit if 640px maximum.
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Bill321
2009 Jayco JayFlight G2 23FB
2008 Toyota Tundra 5.7V8 4x4 w/tow package
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downtheroad
Puget Sound
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Sure looks "dialed in" to me.
Great write up and post. I'm sure with all the detailed info you have provided you will get lots of expert feedback.
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MudChucker
Winnipeg Manitoba
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would be nice to have unloaded axle weights on the truck as well...but does look pretty good...
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old guy
Oregon (pronounced Or e gun)
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you do good work.
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TURK2500
USA
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bill321 wrote:I didn't really like the way the dealer set up my hitch.....snip
It still amazes me how many TV/TT's leave RV dealerships with the hitches not adjusted correctly, even in an unloaded condition.
The information that you provided suggests (assuming that your unloaded TV axle weights support this) that your WD Equal-i-zer hitch is doing a much better job than what the dealer had done. I'm sure once you "load-up" the TV/TT for the next trip you will confirm your adjustments, clearances, and weights (final visit to the scales).
Can't tell by the pics, but I would replace the standard cotter-key pin at the TV's receiver pin box with a "straight" (both ends) locking pin. The standard pins (with the bent end) will over time wollow out the clearance hole on the TV's reciever pin box.
I assume that the e-brake cable was re-connected.
Now you can go back to the RV dealership and train their techs how to do it correctly! 
Turk2500
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LarryJM
NoVa
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bill321 wrote:I didn't really like the way the dealer set up my hitch. They didn't take the time to measure anything and basically did everything by eye. The trailer dipped down in the front quite a bit and the way the rear of my truck sagged....well it didn't look like I even had a WD hitch installed. So I went out and bought some BIG wrenches and tried to do some fine tuning myself. How does this look now?
I had to readjust the height of the ball on the shank and actually turn the shank up (dealer had it facing down). I also had to put in 7 washers (dealer put in 5).
Here are my measurements from the fender to the ground as I set it up:
Truck with no TT attached - Front Axle=36.5" Rear Axle=39.25"
Truck and TT but no WD - Front Axle=36.75" Rear Axle=37.75"
Truck and TT with WD applied - Front Axle=36.5" Rear Axle=38.25"
I think this is correct now...since I got my front axle to settle back down to its original height. The Trailer is now level too and is 17" from frame to ground at both the front and rear.
I also got my weights this weekend....but I don't think I did it correctly. Is this an accurate measurement of what the tongue weight actually is when everything is connected and I am towing down the road?
Let me know how I can improve this set up.
Thanks !
While the first pic and your weights and measurements look good I just don't like what I see in the second pic. Why is that drawbar pointed upward and not level which I assume is from the receiver not coming off the vehicle in a level attitude. You have your hitch head tilted back, but the ball is still almost vertical which is not the ideal attiutde for the hitch head. The hitch head should normally be tilted back towards the trailer and then with the WD bars under proper tension they should be level with the frame. Yours have very little vertical spacing between the A-frame and the WD bars and look like they are not quite level, but go up from the "L" brackets to the ball, but the pic might be deceiving. You have a pretty light tongue wt. from the numbers I see, but I'm not sure how effective your WD bars as connected right now are.
How high do you have to raise the tongue once the tongue is locked onto the ball until you can get the WD bars to slide onto the brackets w/o using any sort of cheater bar. If it's less than 2 or 3 inches then I would say it's still not dialed in correctly.
IMHO that receiver "UP" attitude just means that the engineers have no idea of how a receiver and WD system should work. That system is fine for boat or utility type towing, but is ill designed from a real WD type system IMHO.\
ON EDIT On closer examination looking at the window lines in the background your hitch head is tilted very slightly in the right direction, but the draw bar vertical section is still way off vertically in the wrong direction (i.e. towards the TV). That draw bar vertical rise should be very close to parallel to the vertical window pane lines of the building in the background and it is way off in the wrong direction.
Larry
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colochoclab
Arvada, Colorado
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Pictures can be deceiving.
From the end result, your set-up looks good! As long as your spring bars are parallel to the TT frame. How many spacer washers are you using in the hitch head? (just curious!)
-Lab
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SoCalDesertRider
SanDiego, CA, USA
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The truck/trailer attitude look great!
Maybe there is too much flex in that stock reciever hitch, causing the ball mount to twist the reciever tube up too much when the spring bars are tightened.
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LIKE2BUILD
Mt. Zion, IL
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LarryJM wrote:While the first pic and your weights and measurements look good I just don't like what I see in the second pic. Why is that drawbar pointed upward and not level
My thoughts as well. It took 7 washers to get the proper weight transfer, but it looks like a lot of that force is being lost in receiver flex.
You might want to get an angle finder with magnetic base and place that on your WD shank and measure how much change occurs when you hook up the bars. That just looks like an awful lot of flex and would worry me a bit.
Aside from this, your weights look okay, but do seem a little biased to the front.
KJ
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Earl E
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Looks to me like you did great. Same thing happened to me on my former trailer--the dealer set-up had almost no weight transfer to the front truck axle. I took my time and redid it and got it almost perfect. Then I loaded up the trailer and over the next several months kept adding to the trailer and found out I had to do it all over again! So be prepared. Once you know how to do it, it doesn't take long but that tongue weight will go up at least 100# and maybe more. Once I got it all dialed in that Equal-i-zer was a sweet thing--never could figure out why people complained about pulling trailers--it pulled almost as well as my fiver.
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