Anyone with a 14+ Ram 2500 4x4, Equalizer Hitch, and recent model year Jayco?

[borninblue]

Finally made it out to the weigh scale today. I didn't realize it was one of the busiest in my area, and trucks were lined up. I had to move fast and I was not inside the vehicle when it was weighed both times (I could not just weigh the truck as the parking lot was packed and I had no where to drop trailer). Here are the numbers, which I really don't know what they tell me as I have to read up more on this:

With weight distribution engaged:

Steer Axle: 3780lbs
Drive Axle: 4460lbs
Trailer Axle: 6620lbs
Gross 14860lbs

Without weight distribution engaged and bars hanging:

Steer Axle: 3560lbs
Drive Axle: 4800lbs
Trailer Axle: 6500lbs
Gross 14860lbs

The trailer was loaded, and filled with water (80 gallons). I weigh 210lbs, and will have the wife 150lbs and two small children.

I would love to hear your input. I have 6 washers in the equalizer and have one more hole that I can drop down in shank if needed.

[olyelr]

You have to weight the truck (with no trailer) so you know the weight on the front axle. That is the end number you are shooting for with the WD hitch engaged.

[borninblue]

Got it, will be runnig back to the scale. Just got trailer unhooked.

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[borninblue]

Originally Posted by borninblue

Finally made it out to the weigh scale today. I didn't realize it was one of the busiest in my area, and trucks were lined up. I had to move fast and I was not inside the vehicle when it was weighed both times (I could not just weigh the truck as the parking lot was packed and I had no where to drop trailer). Here are the numbers, which I really don't know what they tell me as I have to read up more on this:

With weight distribution engaged:

Steer Axle: 3780lbs
Drive Axle: 4460lbs
Trailer Axle: 6620lbs
Gross 14860lbs

Without weight distribution engaged and bars hanging:

Steer Axle: 3560lbs
Drive Axle: 4800lbs
Trailer Axle: 6500lbs
Gross 14860lbs

The trailer was loaded, and filled with water (80 gallons). I weigh 210lbs, and will have the wife 150lbs and two small children.

I would love to hear your input. I have 6 washers in the equalizer and have one more hole that I can drop down in shank if needed.

Got the final weigh in with just the truck:

Steer axel: 3980

Drive axel: 3400

Gross weight: 7380

Any final helping dialing my WDH in with these numbers would be greatly appreciated!

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[olyelr]

Originally Posted by borninblue

Got the final weigh in with just the truck:

Steer axel: 3980

Drive axel: 3400

Gross weight: 7380

Any final helping dialing my WDH in with these numbers would be greatly appreciated!

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Looks like you could get another couple hundred pounds on the front axle to get back to unloaded weight. If you have room for more washers, I would add another.

What kind of vehicle do you have? That is a heavy rig! What are the weight ratings for the front and rear axles?

[jsallman1]

Originally Posted by borninblue

This is the current t setting on the bars.

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I think your one hole lower than the standard defaults with your type of tongue, check the manual out. I will grab some pictures of mine over the weekend for you to compare, also hope to put the 6th washer in this weekend and recheck the transfer to the front before we take a long trip in about 10 days. I am pretty sure my setup is at the default and 1 bolt higher on the brackets, but its in storage about 15 miles away right now.

I am wondering if your bars are slightly angled down and that may be causing it to scrape at an angle on the brackets and make more noise, raising the brackets 1 notch will increase the weight distribution and as was pointed out by Olyelr, put the extra couple of hundred of pounds on the front axle to get you closer to normal hopefully.

Do you have to hook up the truck to the ball, lock the ball on, then raise the back of the truck a ways with the jack to get the bars to slide on easily without the cheater bar? With the brackets in that position I am wondering if they nearly slide on without raising it much.

Originally Posted by olyelr

Looks like you could get another couple hundred pounds on the front axle to get back to unloaded weight. If you have room for more washers, I would add another.

What kind of vehicle do you have? That is a heavy rig! What are the weight ratings for the front and rear axles?

X2, agreed on the couple hundred pounds weight AND that these RAM 2500's are dang heavy. Mine came in at 7720lbs 2 adults and 2 kids, nearly as heavy as the trailer, much heavier than my old F150 SCREW. Wouldn't want one to run over your toe!

[Country_Mouse]

We are new to this. Only have had our first trailer for a year next month. We have a 3/4 ton Ford Excursion. Use an Equalizer and don't have any noise unless it's a sharper turn. I believe we are set up with 2 holes above and 2 below on the L-brackets. We have 4 washers in ours. Will snap a picture on Monday if it will help in any way.

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[borninblue]

Originally Posted by jsallman1

I think your one hole lower than the standard defaults with your type of tongue, check the manual out. I will grab some pictures of mine over the weekend for you to compare, also hope to put the 6th washer in this weekend and recheck the transfer to the front before we take a long trip in about 10 days. I am pretty sure my setup is at the default and 1 bolt higher on the brackets, but its in storage about 15 miles away right now.

I am wondering if your bars are slightly angled down and that may be causing it to scrape at an angle on the brackets and make more noise, raising the brackets 1 notch will increase the weight distribution and as was pointed out by Olyelr, put the extra couple of hundred of pounds on the front axle to get you closer to normal hopefully.

Do you have to hook up the truck to the ball, lock the ball on, then raise the back of the truck a ways with the jack to get the bars to slide on easily without the cheater bar? With the brackets in that position I am wondering if they nearly slide on without raising it much.



X2, agreed on the couple hundred pounds weight AND that these RAM 2500's are dang heavy. Mine came in at 7720lbs 2 adults and 2 kids, nearly as heavy as the trailer, much heavier than my old F150 SCREW. Wouldn't want one to run over your toe!

Thank you again for all your help. I was thinking the same thing about the bars, but I was unsure. That's what I thought about the noise as well. I know there will be some noise, but it should not be so loud, considering I have the equalizer jackets AND lubed up beyond belief. Post the pics when you can of the bracket position or let me know. I do have to raise up the truck a bit for the arms to go on, not too much though. One side I can basically lift up and place the bar on. The other side, sometimes I need the tool, but if I raise it up enough the assist tool is not needed at all.

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[borninblue]

Also forgot to mention I was looking at the brackets today and where the bars sit against the bracket all of the paint off the brackets is completely rubbed off. Probably from the bars scrapping against the brackets. Not sure if that is normal or not.

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[jsallman1]

Originally Posted by jsallman1

I think your one hole lower than the standard defaults with your type of tongue, check the manual out. I will grab some pictures of mine over the weekend for you to compare, also hope to put the 6th washer in this weekend and recheck the transfer to the front before we take a long trip in about 10 days. I am pretty sure my setup is at the default and 1 bolt higher on the brackets, but its in storage about 15 miles away right now.

Here are the pictures of my setup. I added the 6th washer today, didn't change anything else. With 5 washers, the wheel well distance measurement in the manual didn't return quite 50% back, with 6 it is a little over 50%. My cat scale measurements with 5 washers a few weeks ago also indicated i should be returning a little more to the front as well. I will probably get it to a scale to see how much closer the front axle is to the stock weight early next week.

If I were you, and given your tongue is a little lighter, I would move the brackets back to the default position as indicated in the install manual, and perhaps go back to 5 washers, and both measure the wheel wells as the manual tells and weigh if you can and see where you are at. If your still short, add the 6th. Moving those brackets up is going to make the bars a lot tighter and probably sit more parallel to the trailer frame.

I noticed marginally more "noise" today after adding the 6th, but nothing I am not used to. Going slow and tight turns, your going to hear it pop and creak. Driving at highway speeds and taking curves etc, your not gonna hear a thing. I don't have the little nylon silencers nor have I ever added any greese/lube to the bars since I got it last year.

[borninblue]

Originally Posted by jsallman1

Here are the pictures of my setup. I added the 6th washer today, didn't change anything else. With 5 washers, the wheel well distance measurement in the manual didn't return quite 50% back, with 6 it is a little over 50%. My cat scale measurements with 5 washers a few weeks ago also indicated i should be returning a little more to the front as well. I will probably get it to a scale to see how much closer the front axle is to the stock weight early next week.

If I were you, and given your tongue is a little lighter, I would move the brackets back to the default position as indicated in the install manual, and perhaps go back to 5 washers, and both measure the wheel wells as the manual tells and weigh if you can and see where you are at. If your still short, add the 6th. Moving those brackets up is going to make the bars a lot tighter and probably sit more parallel to the trailer frame.

I noticed marginally more "noise" today after adding the 6th, but nothing I am not used to. Going slow and tight turns, your going to hear it pop and creak. Driving at highway speeds and taking curves etc, your not gonna hear a thing. I don't have the little nylon silencers nor have I ever added any greese/lube to the bars since I got it last year.

Any issues with moving the brackets up and leaving the sixth washer in and get that setup weighed first? Would like to prevent the hassle of taking the hitch apart twice as I have a friend help me with the tools.

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[steelweels]

I spoke with a very helpful gentleman at Equal-i-zer the other day about my
setup.He said moving L bracket up 1 hole would be like adding 2 to 3 washers.

[jsallman1]

Originally Posted by steelweels

I spoke with a very helpful gentleman at Equal-i-zer the other day about my
setup.He said moving L bracket up 1 hole would be like adding 2 to 3 washers.

I would say thats probably pretty likely, 2 at least. I think the manual indicated to adjust those brackets for temporary adjusting only (IE your pulling with fully loaded water for a long distance) else to adjust with the washers in the head.

Borninblue, if you leave the 6th washer in, you might be a little over-adjusted, might be fine. If you wanted to just try adjusting the brackets back to defaults that might be fine, just do your measuring after.

Since with your old shank you were a little nose-up with that high RAM when originally configured, it makes some sense why they may have chosen to use those holes. My setup was originally setup with the same shank you had for an F150, which was significantly lower. I never even tried the old shank with the ram, only the newer one which gets the trailer tongue to the same height as it was previously. The height of those brackets is really dependent on if the trailer is level more than anything.

I think right now though since the bars are so low and you have lowered the head height from the road, they are probably a little angled down, perhaps making more noise than they should, and not "sprung" squarely on the brackets.

If you can Review the manual, recheck all your measurements with the trailer level, get all the pieces back to the default "level" position and start from there. As long as your coupler height is similar to mine (which I think we verified earlier in this post) assuming our trucks are equal heights, or the top of the ball is within 2" of the top of your coupler, I wouldn't see why you should have to take the head back apart unless you decide you have too many washers.

[olyelr]

Originally Posted by olyelr

If you lowered the hitch on the truck, you should lower the brackets on the trailer the same amount (assuming they were level before). If you didnt, it is essentially transferring much more weight to the front axle than it originally was before.

I just realized this is incorrect.

When you lower the hitch, the brackets on the trailer dont need to be changed at all. If the bars were on the same plane as the trailer frame to begin with then they still will be even if the hitch head is lowered.

[Country_Mouse]

Took a pic of ours today just in case you can find it helpful.



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[borninblue]

Originally Posted by jsallman1

I would say thats probably pretty likely, 2 at least. I think the manual indicated to adjust those brackets for temporary adjusting only (IE your pulling with fully loaded water for a long distance) else to adjust with the washers in the head.

Borninblue, if you leave the 6th washer in, you might be a little over-adjusted, might be fine. If you wanted to just try adjusting the brackets back to defaults that might be fine, just do your measuring after.

Since with your old shank you were a little nose-up with that high RAM when originally configured, it makes some sense why they may have chosen to use those holes. My setup was originally setup with the same shank you had for an F150, which was significantly lower. I never even tried the old shank with the ram, only the newer one which gets the trailer tongue to the same height as it was previously. The height of those brackets is really dependent on if the trailer is level more than anything.

I think right now though since the bars are so low and you have lowered the head height from the road, they are probably a little angled down, perhaps making more noise than they should, and not "sprung" squarely on the brackets.

If you can Review the manual, recheck all your measurements with the trailer level, get all the pieces back to the default "level" position and start from there. As long as your coupler height is similar to mine (which I think we verified earlier in this post) assuming our trucks are equal heights, or the top of the ball is within 2" of the top of your coupler, I wouldn't see why you should have to take the head back apart unless you decide you have too many washers.

I moved the brackets up one hole to the default position and torqued them to spec today. Did not have time to measure. I want to fill with load and load to normal capacity beforehand. I am going to try and take her to the CAT scale again tomorrow. I only need the one weigh with the WDH engaged since I did the two others previously correct?

Originally Posted by borninblue

Any issues with moving the brackets up and leaving the sixth washer in and get that setup weighed first? Would like to prevent the hassle of taking the hitch apart twice as I have a friend help me with the tools.

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[borninblue]

Originally Posted by jsallman1

Here are the pictures of my setup. I added the 6th washer today, didn't change anything else. With 5 washers, the wheel well distance measurement in the manual didn't return quite 50% back, with 6 it is a little over 50%. My cat scale measurements with 5 washers a few weeks ago also indicated i should be returning a little more to the front as well. I will probably get it to a scale to see how much closer the front axle is to the stock weight early next week.

If I were you, and given your tongue is a little lighter, I would move the brackets back to the default position as indicated in the install manual, and perhaps go back to 5 washers, and both measure the wheel wells as the manual tells and weigh if you can and see where you are at. If your still short, add the 6th. Moving those brackets up is going to make the bars a lot tighter and probably sit more parallel to the trailer frame.

I noticed marginally more "noise" today after adding the 6th, but nothing I am not used to. Going slow and tight turns, your going to hear it pop and creak. Driving at highway speeds and taking curves etc, your not gonna hear a thing. I don't have the little nylon silencers nor have I ever added any greese/lube to the bars since I got it last year.

Took the measurements today after moving brackets back to default position. I am about spot on in the front with where I was before prior to hooking up the trailer. I am about one inch lower in the rear from when I was hooked up. The arms are now not level, I don't know if that is a big deal or not? Any suggestions are am I about good now with being one inch lower in the rear? Take out a washer maybe or leave as is?

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[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by borninblue

Took the measurements today after moving brackets back to default position. I am about spot on in the front with where I was before prior to hooking up the trailer. I am about one inch lower in the rear from when I was hooked up. The arms are now not level, I don't know if that is a big deal or not? Any suggestions are am I about good now with being one inch lower in the rear? Take out a washer maybe or leave as is?

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If you were to go up or down a hole on your hangers, would your bars then be parallel with the trailer frame again? If so, you might try to do that. If you need the hangers to go up to get the bars parallel, remove washer, and vice versa. The problem is that as was mentioned before, one hole on the hangers is worth more than one washer, so you could end up chasing your tail. I've been there before, and I gave up on my bars being just right.

How far out of parallel are the bars? The primary reason you want them parallel to the frame is so that they sit flat against the hangers. This creates the maximum effective surface area and thus the max friction which is one of the ways the hitch fights sway. If they aren't exactly parallel, the weight distribution will still work, but the friction sway control may be slightly diminished.

On another note, I measured my truck again last night out of curiosity, and it looks like I'm only dealing with an inch or 1.25 rise/drop on my front fender, and I am not dealing with the softer rear suspension of the Power Wagon. With my current (underrated) hitch, I'm getting about half way back to unloaded. I'm hoping the new hitch will enable me to get all the way back to unloaded height. I'll put up a separate post when I get that all squared away (I'm looking at the Blue Ox Sway Pro).

[borninblue]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

If you were to go up or down a hole on your hangers, would your bars then be parallel with the trailer frame again? If so, you might try to do that. If you need the hangers to go up to get the bars parallel, remove washer, and vice versa. The problem is that as was mentioned before, one hole on the hangers is worth more than one washer, so you could end up chasing your tail. I've been there before, and I gave up on my bars being just right.

How far out of parallel are the bars? The primary reason you want them parallel to the frame is so that they sit flat against the hangers. This creates the maximum effective surface area and thus the max friction which is one of the ways the hitch fights sway. If they aren't exactly parallel, the weight distribution will still work, but the friction sway control may be slightly diminished.

On another note, I measured my truck again last night out of curiosity, and it looks like I'm only dealing with an inch or 1.25 rise/drop on my front fender, and I am not dealing with the softer rear suspension of the Power Wagon. With my current (underrated) hitch, I'm getting about half way back to unloaded. I'm hoping the new hitch will enable me to get all the way back to unloaded height. I'll put up a separate post when I get that all squared away (I'm looking at the Blue Ox Sway Pro).

I continue to chase my tail indeed. Called equalizer and they said you want the bars level. So I changed back to the position I was before, dropped the brackets another hole. The brackets are now back to level. So if I am understanding this correctly, and I need to transfer more weight to the front, adding another washer will do the opposite of what I need. I still have one more hole I can drop in the shank, but that seems too far to me. Raise it one maybe?

This picture shows how unlevel the bars were at the default Equalizer bracket setting. Although fender measurements were almost dead on (back was an inch low and front was almost exact).

Equalizer suggested sending in pics of the setup. I will be doing that tomorrow. Jsallman, I don't see how your bars can be level if you are at the default bracket setting and at the lowest hole on your shank? Unless our trailer heights are different. In any event I'll continue to chase my newbie tail!

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[jsallman1]

Originally Posted by borninblue

I continue to chase my tail indeed. Called equalizer and they said you want the bars level. So I changed back to the position I was before, dropped the brackets another hole. The brackets are now back to level. So if I am understanding this correctly, and I need to transfer more weight to the front, adding another washer will do the opposite of what I need. I still have one more hole I can drop in the shank, but that seems too far to me. Raise it one maybe?

Attachment 24726 This picture shows how unlevel the bars were at the default Equalizer bracket setting. Although fender measurements were almost dead on (back was an inch low and front was almost exact).

Equalizer suggested sending in pics of the setup. I will be doing that tomorrow. Jsallman, I don't see how your bars can be level if you are at the default bracket setting and at the lowest hole on your shank? Unless our trailer heights are different. In any event I'll continue to chase my newbie tail!

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Man, this must be frustrating. I will throw a level on this weekend and let you know and should hit a scale sunday to see what difference the 6th washer made on front axle weight. They look parallel and seem to sit on the brackets straight, but I havent put a level on it.

It also appears from an earlier picture and your last comment you may not be at the lowest shank position? I am. That would also make a difference, also a chance the trucks/trailer heights arent apples to apples either. Pictures and measurements to equalizer sounds loke a great idea if they are willing to help out.