Tongue damage?

[kblast523]

Originally Posted by Glamper64

In my unprofessional opinion, I would have the ball angled down like you do but a little more, and just hook up the trailer ... You should have to raise the truck and trailer while hooked up via jack to install the bars. When set up properly after trial and error, your rig should be level/straight.

I have found the anti-rattle clamp you have installed absolutely useless when your WDH is properly installed.It can also skew your adjustments up or down. On straight drawbars they are fine. Is that a factory receiver on your rig? Interesting rear "bumper" too.

[Glamper64]

Nice pics btw
To keep it simple and not over think it too much measure from the ground to the top of where the balls goes in on the RV while it's level. Adjust your ball height on truck 3-4" above that measurement as a starting point...if the tailgate is in the way too bad, jimmy a strap/cable to hold it when towing You should have some weight in your truck when measuring. Hook up and see how it looks. Imo if you can set it up level with your truck and that small trailer shouldn't need a WDH.

[TWX]

Originally Posted by kblast523

I have found the anti-rattle clamp you have installed absolutely useless when your WDH is properly installed.It can also skew your adjustments up or down. On straight drawbars they are fine. Is that a factory receiver on your rig? Interesting rear "bumper" too.

I'm assuming that you were intending to reply to me.

The anti-rattle clamp is pretty minimal, and I installed it where it pulls down in the same direction as the drawbar would naturally sag towards due to gravity. I don't expect it to be doing much, just reducing how quickly the drawbar can shift around to reduce noise.

The hitch on the truck is custom, the factory hitch is lower and sticks out further. I built this in tandem with my tire and jerry can swingarm setup. The crosstube and receiver tube assembly was taken from a Ford Expedition which is much wider, then I built custom endplates to attach it to the truck frame. I took this approach because I am not confident in my welding skills for putting the receiver tube onto the crosstube, but cutting square holes in endplates and welding them on was something I was confident I could do without having it fail.

I took a piece of rectangular-crosssection heavy wall square tube and cut some L-plates out of it for mounting brackets:


I also cut the stock endplates off the sourced hitch:


Cut square holes for the cross tube:

I did go ahead and cut the excess off of the custom endplates, but don't have a picture of that.

Test fitting before welding, to make sure that it clears the swingarm mount for the spare and jerry cans:


This was the factory hitch stickout before I started modding:

Revised protrusion with the new hitch:



Another angle for the reduced stickout:



The reason I did all this is for offroading. The factory hitches are too low and stick out too far and are subject to scraping and even causing a truck to get hung-up. I also wanted the wider crosstube so that the ends that stick out past the plates could either be used as recovery points or would help protect the body if I came down off of something onto them. I have considered adding more material onto them to add even more protection to the quarter panels, but I probably won't do that until after installing rock sliders, and would attempt to stylistically match the rock sliders. I'd also have to modify the exhaust to make the tailpipe less vulnerable.

This truck basically has to do it all, it's my tow rig and my four-wheeling toy, plus the family-truckster and used for cargo from time to time. It seems to do a pretty good job all things considered.

[TWX]

Originally Posted by Glamper64

Nice pics btw
To keep it simple and not over think it too much measure from the ground to the top of where the balls goes in on the RV while it's level. Adjust your ball height on truck 3-4" above that measurement as a starting point...if the tailgate is in the way too bad, jimmy a strap/cable to hold it when towing You should have some weight in your truck when measuring. Hook up and see how it looks. Imo if you can set it up level with your truck and that small trailer shouldn't need a WDH.

I never drive with the tailgate down.

I just don't want anyone who lowers the tailgate to damage it on the tongue and/or hitch. I expect that family members or friends could lower the tailgate and that might result in a problem if they aren't expecting such interference.

[Glamper64]

@24, I didn't say drive with the tailgate open...rather a strap/cable to hold the tailgate from hitting the ball when you're hooking up/towing...close it when driving and remove strap when not towing so you can open it fully.
Again nice pics but not sure what you're doing or if it's safe
Anxious to see the pics on how it looks when you're hooked up

[TWX]

Originally Posted by Glamper64

@24, I didn't say drive with the tailgate open...rather a strap/cable to hold the tailgate from hitting the ball when you're hooking up/towing...close it when driving and remove strap when not towing so you can open it fully.
Again nice pics but not sure what you're doing or if it's safe
Anxious to see the pics on how it looks when you're hooked up

Ask and you shall receive!


In short, with the 18" Equal-i-zer drawbar I cannot jackknife the truck and trailer simply driving. The truck does not turn sharply enough to make the contents of the tongue contact the tire or the fuel can carrier. I could make contact in reverse (and I have once when I wasn't paying attention) but same could be said for any other bumper-hitched trailer. Fortunately the adjustable hook on the tongue for one of the weight distribution bars was what made contact, and what it hit was the pretty stout frame of the jerry can support structure. Bent the adjustable hook above the trailer frame.


Looking at these pictures I think I was making much ado about nothing, I suspect that the tongue was already slightly bent to begin with, and if I did anything myself it wasn't much. The trailer sitting up taller made it easier to see, that's all.


Basically I want to be able to drag this trailer in where mostly tent-trailers can go. I expect that I'm largely there if I'm careful in the process.

[Glamper64]

Nice pics again, looks good thanks. Now I see why you went thru all that work
It looks like a level/straight set up. One thing I don't like is your safety chains...they should be longer now and crossed under the hitch?
I still think your WDH is overkill for that small trailer and I would avoid any sharp hills that will put extra pressure on the tongue frame.

[TWX]

Originally Posted by Glamper64

Nice pics again, looks good thanks. Now I see why you went thru all that work
It looks like a level/straight set up. One thing I don't like is your safety chains...they should be longer now and crossed under the hitch?
I still think your WDH is overkill for that small trailer and I would avoid any sharp hills that will put extra pressure on the tongue frame.

These are before the new wheels and tires on the trailer to match the truck. I had forgotten about the work I'd done to level everything. Oversight on my part.

So in looking at my options for a slightly taller ball, I found only three balls that have 1-1/4" shanks that seem to meet the criteria. Best source for all three that I have found so far is etrailer:

• Equal-i-zer EQ91-00-6080 - $27.86
• Buyer's Products 337RB102000 - $33.90
• Brophy CB26C - $38.21

No one has good dimensional information on these tow balls, no heights from the mounting flange. Etrailer does have some pretty good pictures, albeit I had to dig into the website code to find the actual original photos in order to get at those images. I then took fresh pictures of my own setup with a tape measure for scale and produced some comparison photos.


When I annotated these images in the graphics program I established what a full circle of the towing ball would be, without respect to the flattened top. I don't expect manufacturers to be consistent about the flat top cut, and with the camera angles not being consistent from example to example, it was a more apples-to-apples comparison this way. I also established the true base by looking at the sides rather than the front, because again, with different camera angles, the base flange would show differently.

So this serves as the starting point.

The shortest candidate is the Equal-i-zer:

With the 1/2" spacer, it's 5/16" taller than the Husky.

The Brophy is next:

The Brophy comes in with the spacer as 9/16" taller than the Husky, or is nearly the same height on its own without the spacer as the Husky is with the spacer.

The Buyers Products is actually intended as a replacement on their heavy duty pintle hitch but seems a viable candidate with the same 1-1/4" shank

Without the spacer:
So without the spacer, with the ball mounted directly to the base, it's 5/16" above the Husky, which puts it at the same height as the Equal-i-zer with the spacer.

Buyer's Products with the spacer:
With the spacer the Buyers Products is 13/16" taller than the Husky.

I didn't get a picture of it, but when I measured the height of the lever on my trailer tongue, it's around 2" tall. So I'm already very close to contact with the lowered tailgate in the current setup. This is close enough that basically I'm on the fence about even doing this. If I do, the two candidates would be the Brophy with 9/16" extra height, or the Buyers Products which gives me a choice of 5/16" or 13/16" extra height depending on if the spacer is omitted or not.

I'm still mulling drilling new holes in the trailer front spring perch to place the front spring eye closer to the frame, and possibly finding some shorter rear shackles too. That would probably bring more bang for buck than the ball, and if I only did the front perches wouldn't cost anything to do, just drilling holes. So I might end up starting there actually. I need to measure the length of the springs linearly too, to see how much they could effectively elongate to when fully compressed, to determine if I can use shorter rear shackles or not, or if what's there is as short as they can go.

[Glamper64]

You might be over thinking/doing things TWX
Mind you, I would like to see those new longer safety chains in a photo sequence please

[TWX]

Originally Posted by Glamper64

You might be over thinking/doing things TWX
Mind you, I would like to see those new longer safety chains in a photo sequence please

I never do anything half-assed. it must be whole-assed!

The chain length has been on my mind. So far it hasn't caused problems but they are on the short side.

One of the reasons why I am looking to level it more while hitched up is so that if we're going cross-country and have to overnight in a rest-area or somewhere else where we can't unhook, the trailer will be sitting pretty close to level on a level parking spot. It's not that I really want to have to do this, but I'd rather have the option if it were to come down to it.

[TowPro]

they do sell shanks that have a hole drilled a little higher, but the longest I saw was 14"

[Jayhawk 29]

I added two galvanized shackles on each side on my truck hitch receiver to deal with the length of the chain. In my case it was because the hoop holes on the receiver on the Ford was too far under and a pain to hook and unhook from it. Just make sure they are rated accordingly.

https://e-rigging.com/collections/sh...ral%20Shackles