Is my wdh set right?

[DAT-IT]

As a fellow 'Never towed something this big before' club member, I too, had the issue with the hitch not releasing from the ball.

These bigger trailers are different than the small rentals you probably used in the past. To disconnect the ball, you need to flip the trailer release lever up AND slide it back away from the truck. See photo.

If this was your issue, I hope you appreciate that it came from a fellow newbie and not your 14 year-old nephew.

Dave

 

[bow-man]

Thanks for the photo Dave. That had not been my issue, the lock was pulled back on each attempt. My issues were two-fold. First, the ball had not been greased. Secondly, the ball was pitched towards the truck instead of being vertical or slightly towards the camper.

 

[Jayhawk 29]

View attachment 1109161

View attachment 1109162

This is what the hitch looked like when I got to the dealer yesterday. Sorry for no after photos, will update when I go back to get the camper.

The ball angle is just not right.The ball will naturally be locked into the curve of the front end of the coupler on the trailer frame. I know you provided a picture of the truck receiver. But the hitch setup is just going off angle from the receiver. By some chance can you see if the dealer has a used hitch only laying around so that you can place it in your receiver and see if you get the same angle with a ball mounted in it. I have always used the Fastway E 2 hitch setup and they do have a slot in the top hole that connects to the upright shank that adjusts the ball angle, and will free up a lot of the hanging up thats natural sometimes given the landscape when attempting to unhook. I would also think that its a bear to get it on too. probably pausing before going down on the ball .

 

[Jayhawk 29]

This is the adjustment for the combination of the vertical ball alignment . The entire arrangement on the Blue Ox as it relates to the weight distribution bars does appear to compensate for the fixed bolt hole in your setup. Its adjustable and has an additional locking bolt on the lower part against the shank.

We use washers in the void on its own bolt like stud in this setup. This give me the benefit of adjusting the entire setup over three travel trailers that had different couplers and the frame height off of the ground.

This does alter the adjustment from the rigid receiver angle that your truck creates with it unloaded and up angle from level. So your receiver is not considered to be mounted crooked as much as your Blue Ox shank appears to be so rigid that it throws the ball angle out of proper vertical so that it releases easier than what you are experiencing now.

 

[bow-man]

Here are a couple of new photos after I picked up from dealer today.

There is no adjustment other than the height of the ball that can be made, other than the built in 'slop' in the bolt holes allowing for some forward pitch.

 

[Jayhawk 29]

It looks acceptable hooked up. It looks like they reversed the shank from the original photo? Is that correct? Do you have a picture of the complete WDH hooked up to the ball and truck?

 

[bow-man]

I did not think to grab a photo before I unhitched today. Correct, the shank was reversed from before. We're going out again this weekend, I'll try to remember to grab a photo before pulling out.

 

[Jayhawk 29]

Good luck, I hope it worked better this time around. This is typical when acquiring a new or a new to you rig. It takes some tweaking and shaking down to get things fitted for you and your comfort level on the highway.

 

[Willey]

First camper, first time towing anything large. 2016 Ram 1500 pulling Jay Flight 261BHS. Dealer sold us a BlueOx Sway Pro 10k. After I parked it this weekend, the camper looks to be nose down. I have appt at the dealer in the morning to have it looked at. I do have a difficult time decoupling, it nearly lifts the truck off the ground before letting go. I'm afraid this will burn up the power tongue jack, if not crushing the blocks under the jack. Thoughts? Am I being paranoid over this?

View attachment 1108792

The dealer told me to count 7 links and clip 8th in the saddle, that left a lot of wiggle stop i clipped in the 9th link on the way home. It rode much better.

That is an odd ball angle. number’s look Ok, lots of good advice here. My Jayco was only towed once and a devil to get uncoupled. Called the hitch manufacturer. He suggested aggressively cleaning any powder coat from the ball socket, and inside latch. I used some oil and course steel wool. Then a coating of hitch lube for both sides. I landed on the 3 in one spray, very convenient. Made a big difference for me. Clean and redo every year. Touchup when needed. Happy trails…

 

[Joy-JAY]

First camper, first time towing anything large. 2016 Ram 1500 pulling Jay Flight 261BHS. Dealer sold us a BlueOx Sway Pro 10k. After I parked it this weekend, the camper looks to be nose down. I have appt at the dealer in the morning to have it looked at. I do have a difficult time decoupling, it nearly lifts the truck off the ground before letting go. I'm afraid this will burn up the power tongue jack, if not crushing the blocks under the jack. Thoughts? Am I being paranoid over this?

View attachment 1108792

The dealer told me to count 7 links and clip 8th in the saddle, that left a lot of wiggle stop i clipped in the 9th link on the way home. It rode much better.

I had similar issues with my BlueOx Sway Pro. It took many months of frustration before Blue Ox sent a rep out to figure it out. Dealer installed a “standard” hitch instead of the correct “underslung” hitch that was needed for my Jayco. You may want to confirm that you got the right hitch for your trailer.

 

[bow-man]

I had similar issues with my BlueOx Sway Pro. It took many months of frustration before Blue Ox sent a rep out to figure it out. Dealer installed a “standard” hitch instead of the correct “underslung” hitch that was needed for my Jayco. You may want to confirm that you got the right hitch for your trailer.

I'll try and see what part numbers I can find on my hitch. Thanks for the info.

 

[Gary60]

No air suspension on my ride, just factory coils & shocks. At 92k miles, it may be time for replacement shocks...

put you some coil over shocks from monroe on the rear. i got mine from rock auto. you want the trailer a little lower in the front instead of level and it will pull better.

 

[Glamper64]

It looks like a more level/straight hook up now bow-man. Mind you it still looks like the ball is tilted in slightly which should be okay, how did it tow? It almost looks like the receiver (part bolted to truck) is not straight, comes out up on a angle up? The truck slightly down is okay but what happens when you load up? You may need to beef up the rear springs as I mentioned back @14. A picture of it hooked up and standing back say 6' would be good.

 

[bow-man]

I had similar issues with my BlueOx Sway Pro. It took many months of frustration before Blue Ox sent a rep out to figure it out. Dealer installed a “standard” hitch instead of the correct “underslung” hitch that was needed for my Jayco. You may want to confirm that you got the right hitch for your trailer.

Being new to TT, is this an underslung or overslung hitch? I have the BWX1000 wdh package.

 

[Jayhawk 29]

Take a quick look at the setup on Etrailer. The vertical angle on the ball and the coupler is shown to be more in line for easier removal from what you are describing and is shown on your setup.

https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Distribution-Hitch/Blue-Ox/BXW1000.html

 

[Onyrlef]

Thanks for the photo Dave. That had not been my issue, the lock was pulled back on each attempt. My issues were two-fold. First, the ball had not been greased. Secondly, the ball was pitched towards the truck instead of being vertical or slightly towards the camper.

I'm 70 years old and ain't ever put grease on a trailer ball in my life. That's defintely not what was causing your issue.

 

[Camper_bob]

Take a look at Blue Ox website:

Blue Ox Sway Pro

You can see in the images the difference between "standard" and "underslung". Note they put "Undrs" in the part numbers for that type of coupler. "Underslung" being the coupler mounted to the bottom of the trailer frame, and "standard" being the coupler mounted to the top.

The difference is the angle of the head and the arms (which unlike several other setups like the E2 and the Equal-i-zer, is NOT adjustable). This makes sense if you think about where the arms have to go to the cam chains in relation to where the hitch ball has to go to get into the coupler.

If you have an "undrs" hitch head, and have an "overslung" coupler, (or vice versa), you're going to have problems just like what OP is having, like binding and difficulty with proper adjustment.

I had to do quite a bit of research to figure all this out back in the day, and there's NO WAY I would trust any dealership to know or care about the difference. Not only are they trying to set up a WDH on an empty trailer (which is at best a good guess), but I've heard of tragically few that know how to do it right in the first place. Not only do you have specific setup instructions for different hitch types, but trucks have different specs too.

All of that said, OP's does look better with the bar inverted. Gotta verify the correct hitch for the coupler, and go get some weights to see how close they got to "correct".

ETA: Pro-tip on the Sway Pro; go down to Harbor Freight and get a breaker bar and appropriate sized socket for the cams. Mine came with a flat bar for the cams, and it was **** on my hands...

 

[bow-man]

Pro-tip on the Sway Pro; go down to Harbor Freight and get a breaker bar and appropriate sized socket for the cams. Mine came with a flat bar for the cams, and it was **** on my hands

My blue ox did come with a breaker bar style, not a flat iron bar.

With the shank inverted, ball tilted away from truck as much as it will go, and raised 1.5", the last decoupling was a much better experience.

 

[JFlightRisk]

My blue ox did come with a breaker bar style, not a flat iron bar.

With the shank inverted, ball tilted away from truck as much as it will go, and raised 1.5", the last decoupling was a much better experience.

Glad it's working better now. To answer your question, you do not have an underslung coupler. They are different looking like this one.

https://www.etrailer.com/A~Frame-Tr...OjI8QyrcD_tKxABA97OTSQXE6oGfqRBBoCtBYQAvD_BwE

 

[Joy-JAY]

Being new to TT, is this an underslung or overslung hitch? I have the BWX1000 wdh package.
View attachment 1111277

That looks like a “standard” hitch. NOT underslung. Point being….the Blue Ox may be for an underslung trailer.